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Born
In the year 1978, I was born as a premature child to parents who never had a chance to attend school. -
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First year
Since I was a premature baby, the first three months of my life were spent as a baby in the womb. Infants usually start cooing by the first month; for me, my mom said that I started cooing after three months. As my mom remembers, my literacy increased dramatically during the first year compared to premature babies. She said my first words were "papa" and "mama" at around 9 months. My mom can't read, but she used to sing for us, and my dad can barely read the holy Quran. -
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Toddler stage
I was raised in a big family; I had two older brothers, and we lived with extended family members. Back at that time, my parents did not have that culture of reading books; except for the Quran, the only literacy I was exposed to was speech. I learned to talk by listening to people talking to me and around me. We did not even have a television. I spoke in one language, and I listened to my parents talk in another one that I understood perfectly. I spoke later in that language. -
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Preschool
When I was young, kids in my country started school at 6 years old; some, like me, could attend Quran classes at mosques a year earlier, where we learned the Arabic alphabet and recited the small Surat of the Quran. At this age, I was already exposed to two different dialects of two languages, "Berber" and "Arabic." I mostly spoke in Arabic. -
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1st grade to 3rd grade
In 1984, I attended school as a first grader. I started learning academic Arabic, and I remember that I could tell the alphabet and recite a few Quranic Surats. By the end of the third grade, I remember that I could read fluently with the supplementary diacritic "Tashkil". -
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4th to 6th grade
In 4th grade, I started learning French, a language that is totally different from Arabic. I struggled at the beginning with writing because Arabic is written from right to left while French is written from left to right. By the end of 6th grade, I could read and write French. During my elementary education, except for school books, I wasn't really reading a lot because my parents couldn't afford books. During this time, I learned to read and write Arabic without supplementary didactics. -
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Middle school
During the 8th grade, I started learning English. It was not as hard as French because I already knew how to write the alphabet. I enjoyed reading and writing in English. I think it was the best school experience I have had in my life. During this time, I started reading news papers that my uncles leave for us when they visit. Again, I did not have any other books except school books, but I remember that I was reading my older brothers school books too. -
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High School
During the three years of high school, I started expanding my literacy in the three languages by reading books that I used to borrow from friends or the library of the school. In addition to that, I was reading newspapers (mostly in French) and magazines. I was interested in sports and solving the hidden word games that were in the newspapers. This way, I learned a lot of synonyms and opposites. -
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University
During this period, I was finishing my studies in French and some English, especially the last year of my engineering degree, when I had to refer to English books to do the project of the final studies. During the first year, switching from Arabic to French was not as difficult as it was for my friends. perhaps because I built a good literacy "baggage" in the past few years. I enriched my literacy in both languages.