8/10/2019 Literacy Narrative Assignment
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Jack 1
Jack Roberts
Malcolm Campbell
UWRT-1101
7 October 2014m
A Lesson Learned
Haben Sie jemals in Deutsch gesprochen? Ive spoken many times in
German. Its taken years to
understand the very conjugation and pronunciation of a complex
new language. As a requirement of
high school I had to sign up for a foreign language class. I
dreaded learning to speak in Spanish, so I took
my only other option, as my brother did when he was in school.
Still I dreaded the idea of trying to learn
a completely new language or bits and pieces of it at least. It
was nerve racking; what if I said something
wrong and sounded stupid? What if I couldnt understand it and I
never passed the class? These were all
thoughts that ran through my head when entering the class on the
first day of school. I was surprised to
find how quickly this would change.
Class began as any other first day, rather awkward but more or
less, like being in hell at
8 am; like being in hell at any other time would be a pleasure.
I knew just a few of the kids in the
classroom, but not many. Due to a last minute schedule change, I
was put in a class full of kids in
intermediate and advanced German. Oh no, these kids are way
ahead of me, Ill never be able to catch
up to their abilities and pass this course, I thought to myself.
Rather this opportunity was a blessing in
disguise. After what felt like an hour, the bell finally rang to
begin class. A man who Id very frequently
heard about among my peers stepped into the room and politely
but directly said, Ladies, gentleman,
and others. Take your seat, as he would come to do every single
day for the rest of the year.
8/10/2019 Literacy Narrative Assignment
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Jack 2
The man was a legend in my eyes, before Id even considered
taking the course. My
older brother had been with him for the four years hed been in
high school. I heard countless stories of
things hed say in class, and lectures hed give while feeding the
students Wursts(German Sausages). I
was excited to see what all the talk was about, but knew it
wasnt going to be easy learning this new
language. He didnt waste any time starting the lesson on the
conjugation of Deutsch verbs. Oh hell,
here we go, I already dont understand what in the world this man
is saying. He looked to me about
twenty minutes in to his lesson and told me hed spend time with
me individually, seeing as I was the
only beginner German in the class. I thought it was nice that
this man was going to spend time to tailor a
lesson based around me.
When he finished his lesson with the other students in the
class, he called me to the
front and jumped right into it. By the end of the day I knew six
words in German, Ich sprechen sie einen
bisschen deutsch. (I can speak a little German). I was proud to
come home and tell my parents of my
newly found vocabulary. It made me feel as though I could learn
anything. It was a small start to what
would become a difficult but fun class that I enjoyed almost as
much as the lunch period that followed.
Learning was a difficult experience as it was in any of my other
subjects. As Albert
Einstein said Any fool can know. The point is to understand. I
heardwhat my teacher was telling me,
but I didnt understand it, and I never asked him for help. That
was where I went wrong. I could hear
what my teacher was saying, and I could reiterate it but I was
nowhere near being able to comprehend
what was being said. My grade started to gradually progress down
a steep and slippery slope. When it
came time for the first exam, I was stuck; I failed it
miserably.
After my first exam in the course, I sought help, and my peers
were more than willing to
assist me with whatever I needed. When I didnt understand how to
conjugate verbs, theyd sit with me
throughout the entire period and practice repeating the verbs
and their meanings. We did this every
