Literacy Autobiography

Odai Aalloh

Literacy Autobiography

            I was born and raised in Medina, Saudi Arabia. Going to school was like torturing to me like any other kid, but in some ways I liked school so much because of my friends. Also some of my classes were interesting to me and I enjoyed every minutes of them. One of the classes that I really like was English. English is a very interesting language for me and I was very passionate about learning more. Learning a second language was a dream to me. Hearing all the American actors and actresses talking in English was like “what is that language?” I want to understand what they are saying. So I started to learn words in English.    

I started learning writing and reading when I was in the 6^th grade. I liked learning English so much when I was in elementary school. I practiced reading a lot by myself at home, so I don’t have any problems with reading. Reading was enjoyable for me even if I don’t understand the words. With writing I had a big problem which was how to get ideas to write about. The only topic that we wrote about in school was a background about ourselves. It was too easy for me only because I memorized all the words that my sister wrote for me so I can pass the exam. My problem in writing was that I couldn’t come up with my own words.     

I took my self into another level when I went to middle school. I had more knowledge than my classmates. That made me wanted to explode all the knowledge that I have in my class. By then I was obsessed with learning English. Watching English movies was like a snack for me. One more thing was very helpful for me which was talking with my best friend in English. My friend’s name is Abdul Majed and he speaks English very fluently, so I was very happy to speak English with my best friend.

When I went to high school, I was one of the best students in the English class. I had a quite good knowledge about English. English was one of my favorite classes of all time. I was the reading skill was in a good shape at that time. I read my English text book more than once, because I enjoy reading a lot. Speaking in English became one of my pleasure and enjoyable things in my life. Therefore, Going to America and use my English to study there was like a dream to me.    

As I said I’m obsessed with the American movies. Therefore, my biggest dream is to be a famous actor in Hollywood. I love acting Horror and sad scenes. I started acting in Egypt for one year. I was obsessed to the point where I go to the mirror and practice one of my favorite scenes from a movie that I like by myself, I even wrote a small horror script just for fun. Also I tried to write short stories that talk about me in a horror and scary way.

After I graduate from high school, I decided to go and finish my bachelor in United States. My first visit to United States was like a dream coming true. I was so excited, frustrated, happy, and sad at the same time. I had many questions about how my life is going to look like in United States. In order to get into college I had to get a high score in TOFEL exam, and my score was not good enough to get me to the University. My writing skill was even poor, that is why my lowest score in TOFEL exam was in the writing.

Therefore, I went to study at the American Language Institute first. When I came to United States I realized that my knowledge about English is nothing compare to what I was used to in my country. It was difficult for me catch up with Americans cause they speak too fast and most of the words they are using are slangs. Also the vocabularies that I had were not enough to make me survive in college life. Therefore, I wanted to work hard on my English and develop myself more.   

American Language Institute was a very helpful step for me to put my feet in the beginning of my road to University life. In American Language Institute they gave me more confidence to talk in English and help me develop my writing, speaking, reading, and listening. I had a great teachers and professors that taught me what I need to survive in college.

In the American Language Institute I had different classes every two days, two of them were writing and reading. The writing class was very interesting to me. It was in the fall semester 2013 taught by Dr. Mariah Huston. In the class we had to make a research paper and write a book. I did not know my capability in writing and I always doubted myself when comes to writing in English, but after I took Dr. Huston’s class, she made it easier than it seems to be. She also gave me confidence to write in English and help me a lot. Writing a book was one of my biggest achievements in the fall semester 2013. The book was inspired by my personal experience with demons. I was very happy and satisfied with what I did in that class.

There were other classes in the American Language Institute that teach writing different kind of essays. One of them was to write an essay after observing a movie, and the other class was to write a research paper based on your major.