My journey with literacy was influenced by the type of household I grew up in. I grew up in an Ecuadorian household with my parents and my grandparents along with my brother. My mother would speak to me both in Spanish and English. My grandparents as well only spoke to me in Spanish. The way I spoke didn’t really matter until I went to the doctor around the age of 4 or 5 and they did a test to see if I knew a certain amount of words. I was unable to do the test because of the fact I spoke in two different languages. My doctor ended up telling my mother that she had to choose one language to speak to me in so I would be able to develop the language fluently.

My mother chose to speak English to me. However, I was still confused because my grandparents would speak to me in Spanish. After all, that was their only form of communication. I would often hear my parents speak to my grandparents in Spanish as well so I never really stuck to speaking in one language like the doctor said.  Once I entered pre-k, when I’d speak to my teacher, they wouldn’t necessarily understand what I would say because I spoke in both Spanish and English. It came to a point where I was put into ESL. During this time, I learned a lot of vocabulary words. Such as foods, colors, numbers, animals, and body parts. There were a few Hispanics in my class that I was able to communicate with so I didn’t feel completely left out. As time progressed, I felt more comfortable speaking only in English in class and I was able to communicate more with my teachers. I sometimes would slip up and speak in Spanish but being in ESL really helped me. I am thankful I was put into ESL but I didn’t like the feeling I got when I left class to go to ESL. I remember always being pulled out of classes during random classes and my friends would be confused as to why I left. Everyone would stare at me when I’d leave or make a face. It made me feel dumb and weird for always having to leave class. I often wished my parents could have just spoken to me in English so I wouldn’t have to be in ESL. I used to think it was stupid so I never really progressed with the language. It wasn’t until really 1st grade I grasped the language.  I started to speak only English at school and to my parents. However, I started to speak in Spanglish to my grandparents because I wouldn’t speak it as much as I used to. There was slowly a disconnect between my grandparents because I wouldn’t speak in Spanish anymore and I forgot how to. I only really started to speak Spanish more fluently again when I got my second job in high school. I worked in a fast-food restaurant where most of my coworkers spoke in Spanish. I told my boss in my interview that I’m not really fluent in Spanish and I only knew the basics. The first few weeks I worked there everyone assumed I didn’t know what they were saying so they would talk about me in Spanish. I pretended like I didn’t understand and my manager eventually found out I understood what they were saying. Once he found this out, he only spoke to me in Spanish and told all my coworkers I understood it. I was forced into speaking and learning it more and more. I honestly got better and learned new words during the weeks where I would work back to back. My manager made me feel more comfortable speaking in Spanish, and I started to speak Spanish more at home. It made my grandmother more happy seeing me speak Spanish. The power I feel with being able to speak more than one language is incredible.