Earliest Memories of Reading, Writing, and Speaking English

    I was able to understand some simple English words through television as a kid, and my English-speaking cousins who would come down for Christmas and New Years or Summer vacation. I started to learn how to read and write in English at Seventh Day Adventist in Chuuk, Micronesia, where I finished kindergarten to 4th grade. I remember one of the policies was not to speak any other language besides English. Knowing this, my parents started to encourage us to speak English even at home to practice and to be able to stay on track in school especially with everything being in English. This helped me a lot as I was able to keep up and do well with my schoolwork. After watching the movie Matilda, I wanted to have superpowers like her, so I started reading books. I remember it was so hard to focus at first, especially when it comes to books without pictures. The first English book that I still remember reading as a kid was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by JK Rowling. That book was how I got into reading.


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