Konnor Drewen
1/8/011
Interview – Joachim Hipalito
Q: What was it like to learn how to speak English?
A: It was very hard. It was hard to learn the different things like two, to, and too because they all sound the same but they mean different things.
Q: What did you have trouble with the most while learning English?
A: Well, I came to America when I was seven so it was all hard to adjust to speaking English but the hardest was when I first started school in America and I had English tests. I would never get a good grade because I could not figure out the different parts of speech.
Q: In what ways have you benefited from learning English?
A: Well, since I have learned English I have able to live here. Other than that I can’t think of any other great benefit. Actually, it did help with fitting in at school. If I didn’t know English that well I might have gotten made fun of.
Q: Do you still speak your primary language at home or with family and friends?
A: Yes and no. I speak Filipino at home with my parents but I don’t have friends from the Philippines that are in America so I speak English to all of my friends.
Q: Why do you still speak Filipino at home with your parents?
A: Well, my parents do speak English and speak it very well but speaking Filipino at home just comes naturally. Also when I visit my grand-parents in the Philippines and since they never lived in America they never had to learn English. So I guess I still speak Filipino at home because if I don’t my parents are afraid I might forget how to speak the language but I don’t think that would happen I think once you learn a language especially if it is your first language you most likely won’t forget it.
Q: How did you come to go to school in the United States?
A: Well, my parents wanted to move from the Philippines to America so when I got here my parents enrolled me into a school near where I lived and then a catholic middle school.
Q: What are some of the differences between an American school and a school in your home country?
A: There are not too many differences really. I think that school is just school no matter where you go. The only real difference is that in the Philippines the school days were a little longer at the school I went to but that could have just been my school.
Q: How long did it take for you to be able to speak English fluently?
A: I started to learn English in first grade when I came to America but I did not learn it completely in school I had a special tutor to help me lessen my accent and to learn English fluently it probably took four years.
Q: Do you still have trouble with parts of the English language?
A: No, not so much anymore. I have no problem with speaking the language but if someone gave me a test on the parts of speech I would probably fail it.
Q: Do you think that English is harder to learn then other languages?
A: Oh, yes! It is much harder. There are so many different things you have to learn and after that there are words that sound the same as others but mean something completely different. Then there are words in a sentence that have to go in a certain order like you can’t say me and a name you have to say a name and I. It is really confusing. I am learning Spanish right now and is half as hard as English.
Q: Was there ever a point in time when you were learning English that you just wanted to give up because it was too hard?
A: Yes, definitely. Sometimes I would just get so angry because I could not pronounce a word or could not say a sentence or a group of words correctly. Sometimes I would say them in the wrong order and I just didn’t want to do it anymore. But in the beginning when I really didn’t know it well the kids in class would make fun of me but I think that was just because they were young and they had not heard different accents before and they were not use to hearing one.
No comments:
Post a Comment