Sometimes when we read, we come upon something that an author has written and we say either to ourselves or out loud, “Oh, that’s me” or “Oh yeah, I get that”. In short, we relate to something that the author wrote; we see ourselves in the author’s words. What part of Liao’s “Defining My Identity Through Language: What I Learned about Literacy Narratives” (pp. 61-68) stood out to you the most? In other words, struck a chord with you? Please explain why it struck a chord. Also, did Liao’s writing give you any ideas on what you might like to focus on for your literacy narrative? If so, please share. Your overall response should be at least 4 sentences.
11 thoughts on “Blog Post #2: What Stood Out and Why?”
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When Liao said “First, I went to the internet. (Let’s be honest: we all start there.)” When I read this I thought the same because when I’m starting research I usually will search for it on Google before I begin to dig deeper. And like Liao, I knew a literary narrative was “a story about how we form our identities through language. Liao’s section “2. A literacy narrative can document a journey from confusion to fluency” Pg.63, gave me some good ideas for my narrative and my narrative might be about a time where I was confused.
In Liao’s piece, it taught me the meaning of literacy narratives and how everyone has different experiences that help them become the person they are today. What stood out to me was that Liao found out in college that being half-Asian and half-Russian Jewish had a label, “hapa”. It stood out to me that Liao may have felt confused about her cultural identity since she is mixed. In her narrative, she discussed her experience in her Grandfather’s Taiwanese hometown in Silai and how it was a challenge for her since she didn’t know much Chinese. In this piece, I’ve learned that Literacy narratives are stories that conclude with a change. It can include your culture, experience, or identity.
Liao mentioning how Amy Tan would translate English for her mom reminds me how I use translate for my little sister when she was younger. Due to my parent’s divorce, my dad would speak to her in English and my mom would speak to her in Spanish. This confusion led to her speaking both at the same time. It became difficult for anyone to understand her, except for me. Reading Liao’s writing made the concept of literacy narrative easier to grasp because there were examples. I now understand that although it’s a story about my sister is also about how I was able to translate for her and advance in my knowledge of both languages.
The part in Liao’s writing that struck a chord with me was when she said, “In this essay, I struggled to attach a label to my own biracial ethnic identity, while simultaneously being fascinated and validated by its existence.” This part stood out to me because I have felt this way many different times in my life. Being Puerto Rican, German and Italian has often made me feel like I don’t belong enough to one culture. I have always felt distant from these ethnicities as I am often told I only look white or that I’m not Puerto Rican enough because I don’t speak Spanish. However, I also feel validated by the existence of these identities because I feel proud to say that I belong to multiple ethnicities. Liao’s writing inspired me to possibly write about not fitting into any of my cultural identities because of how others view me. I may also write about not feeling connected to any of my cultures because of my lack of knowledge about all three of them.
The part in Liao’s writing that struck a chord with me was when she said, “Language here played a huge role in defining where I thought I did or didn’t belong.” I relate to what she says because although my parents come from an Arab background, I don’t feel as connected because I am not very comfortable speaking Arabic, as I am speaking English. Mostly, because I am not surrounded by people who speak Arabic. When I hear family speaking Arabic, I feel somewhat distant because my Arabic is more limited than theirs. However, I would rather embrace my Egyptian side, and be more connected with my culture and language. I have gotten some ideas to write my literacy narrative about how my culture and language have influenced me in America.
The part that stood out to me the most was when Liao said that he wasn’t aware that he was writing literacy narratives his entire life and kept searching to find the meaning of literacy narrative. As a student I can relate to this because I may know how to do certain things but might hesitate to do them because of being unaware of certain terminologies. Another part which stood out the most was when Liao mentions about the “broken language.” I can very much relate to this because I’m a son of an immigrant whose english tend to be really “broken” depending upon his mood. Thus, I’ve to take over the conversation and help my dad out. For my literacy narrative, I might focus on my culture or on my stuttering.
In Liao writing it taught me about how can you write a successful literacy narrative. Liao states “Literacy narrative are stories which Something changes”. the reason why this stuck out is because sometimes when I write my drafts sometimes the story doesn’t change it just gets longer. And Liao thought me that if the narrative stories don’t change than it’s not really a literacy narrative.
As I read Liao’s piece “Defining My Identity Through Language: What I Learned about Literacy Narratives”, what stood out to me the most was when he/she said ” I was confronted with a burning question: ‘What on earth is a literacy narrative?” and “…the stakes felt very high on this scenario, since I was about to teach a genre of writing I had never attempted to write”. When I read this in the introduction, it automatically struck out to me because I entered this class on the first day with the same exact question while reading the syllabus. I have not really heard of a literacy narrative and had trouble trying to understand what it was and what exactly I would need to write for this specific assignment. As I was faced with being introduced to the assignment of writing a literacy narrative, I already thought about the amount of writer’s block I will soon experience trying to write my first draft for this assignment. After the second class of English 2100 and reading Kim Liao’s piece I have been able to understand what exactly a literacy narrative is and brainstorm what I might possibly write in my literacy narrative. Liao mentions how a literacy narrative can be able to define one’s cultural identity so I may write in my literacy narrative about struggling to express my identity of being both Dominican and American.
As i read the piece about Liao and his understanding about what a Literacy Narrative is, the part that i found the most beneficial is when he was telling us that how “Literacy Narrative can be stories about how we form identities through language”. This was really important because, whenever their are class assignments about a particular topic i would first always encounter the fact whether or not i should use my knowlege of my cultural background and apply it in my writing as it shows to my audience how i feel about something because or my background. Secondly, i liked how he described that language taught him where he belonged and where he didn’t through a simple writing. Hence, to begin a Literacy Narrative language is essential.
In Laio’s piece on “I didn’t know what a literacy narrative was until I taught Eng 2100.” I came across a part of the text which made me feel like I can relate to the most in terms of cultural identity, which stated “In this essay, I struggled to attach a label to my own biracial ethnic identity, while simultaneously being fascinated and validated by its existence.” I can relate to this statement because as i grew up, I was always battling which culture I belonged with. Growing up as a Dominican and Puerto Rican with white skin and curly hair, without knowing how to speak Spanish. Gave most people the conception that i was generally European. Well in most cases that may be true because back then the Europeans did come to our mother land and procreated humans with European and African decent. The point I’m coming across is that i was seen at times as “white” and although that may not be true, it also created a sense of isolation towards my feelings because i did not know what group i belonged to. Furthermore, Liao’s writing motivates me to work more on my cultural identity when it comes to literacy narrative because it breaks the stigma of what people see you as and makes people aware of what i am and what i am proud of being.
In Liao’s piece what struck a chord is when she was talking about her struggle to identify with her being bi-racial.This struck a chord because I could relate to being confused and struggling growing up bi-racial.Reading about what Liao went through gave me some ideas on what I would like to write about for my Literacy narrative.I would like to write about my culture and how that affected me growing up.