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First Grade Unit on China
This was my first time learning about a different culture and language. While my knowledge of the Chinese people and their culture was superficial, it struck me as being fascinating. I remember wanting to visit China even at that early age. -
Discovered the origin of my name "Kali"
As a fifth grader, I discovered my name in a book about Hinduism. Apparently "Kali" is the hindu goddess of death and destruction. I thought this was the coolest thing ever so I began to read more books about the hindu faith and other religions. This discovery planned a seed that lead to my life long interest of different religions, mythology and ancient history. From this point until the start of my college career, I couldn't stop reading and learning about different cultures. -
Became the teacher's pet in 6th grade History class
My obsession with mythology and ancient history had it's perks. Due to my interest and personal knowledge of the 6th grade curriculum that focused on ancient civilizations such as Egypt and Greece, I became the star pupil. This favoritism from Ms. Albright helped to support my self efficacy in school ("I am really good at this") while knowing the subject matter helped me make friends in different cliques by allowing others to copy off my work. -
Foreign language electives and disappointments
Finally the time came where I was able to pick my own elective courses, two of which were foreign languages: German and Spanish. A few weeks after signing up for these classes during 7th grade forecasting, a school bond failed to get enough votes in my town. This resulted in cutting foreign language in the middle school making me and all my classmates wait another 2 years before we would get the option to learn a foreign language. I really resented my town for that. -
Enroll in Spanish 1 Course
I take my first language class as a 9th grader. While I was happy to finally start learning a foreign language, I grew bored with the over reliance on worksheets and repetitions. -
Enroll in German course alongside Spanish 2
I enrolled in German 1 alongside with Spanish 2 during my sophomore year of high school. Overall the class was more interesting and I felt that the material was more relevant focusing on function more than grammatical form. -
German Exchange Trip
Participated in a month long trip to Germany. It was during this trip I learned about the large gap between success in the classroom and success in a foreign country when speaking and learning a foreign language. I often was too focused on grammatically accuracy to fully participate in a conversation. -
My love of Indian culture is expressed at my Senior Prom
As stated in my cultural biography, I grew frustrated with my "lack" of culture as I grew more interested in different cultures. My desire to "obtain" culture was often expressed in superficial ways such as adapting Asian fashion. This can be seen through this picture where I wore a sari to my Senior Prom. Don't get me wrong, I love saris and honestly think I look good but at this point in time I didn't understand the system of power in culture only the differences. -
Enrolled in intensive German course and conversation classes in college
My desire to improve my German language ability led me to enroll in these classes as a freshman. Here I became aware of my lack of grammatical knowledge of German (based on my Highschool teacher's preference of function over form) resulting in my first (and only) C grade ever. In addition, I felt very intimidated by my other classmates who either lived in Germany or had German speaking parents. I grew discouraged and stopped studying German after this. -
Moved to South Korea to teach English
After graduation, I accepted a job in South Korea teaching English to Korean children in public schools. I had a week long training where I was introduced to basic phrases and the Korean alphabet before starting work. While I had English speaking colleagues, this was the first time I was placed in a situation without any formal language training. My experiences as a non Korean speaking expat would help shape my empathy towards ELLs as a teacher. -
Got horribly lost while taking the bus in South Korea
It is not surprising that I would have an experience like this soon after arriving in the country. I took the wrong bus and ended up outside of the city. Unable to communicate with the driver I began to walk aimlessly for over an hour before being picked up by an older Korean couple who took pity on me. It was after this experience I took learning Korean seriously and began my self-study with my first phrase "Where am I?" -
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Awareness of White Cultural Privileges
It was my experience in South Korea along with my travelling to various countries in Asia where I began to notice the innate privileges my complexion and background awarded me. In Asia I was often told by children and adults how cute and beautiful I was but this was in stark contrast to my fellow expats who were darker in complexion who were told they were dirty or ugly by their students. This is just one of the many examples that I experienced and began to acknowledge. -
The effect of my language learning experiences on my teaching.
My experiences as an English language learner has taught me:
1. How difficult learning a language is
2. The struggles immigrants go through navigating life in a foreign country.
3. To be empathetic, supportive and understanding of my students
4. Race and socioeconomic status plays a large role in success of ELLs
