Cai Yanjun Professor Jan Rieman English 1101-119 September 16, 2012 Literacy Memoir Assignment I remember that

the first time I could completely understand a whole piece is the moment I listened to the tape telling stories. Thanks to these stories, I started to comprehend paragraphs, which helped me learn to express my feelings in a more completed way. Later, I learned PINYIN in class and started to spell Chinese character by PINYIN. Till now I still remember that I struggled to pronounce gourd in Chinese by spelling. Although I knew how to speak it out naturally, I could not spell it as a whole like g-u-a to gua. This experience gave me a deep impression of being good at PINYIN is the cornerstone to be a Mandarin Chinese speaker. I found out books with PINYIN
Comment [i1]: How did the tape stories help you begin to understand paragraphs? Comment [i2]: I have never heard of PINYIN, what is it?

corresponding to each character to expand my volume of recognized Chinese characters.

Meanwhile, since my books were related to natural science and the animals, I accumulated knowledge in the domain of natural world and developed interest in this field, which I benefit a lot from the law of nature. Sometimes I would share my reading

experience with my parents and they encouraged me to log down my own thoughts about these pieces of stories. I was gradually led to the world of writing by logging down my daily life.
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At that time, the Chinese famous literary work: Pilgrimage to the West, was published by cartoon books. With lively and vivid pictures and some simple dialogues, the series of

52 books adapt the piece of work presenting a popular literature, which children could be readily receptive to. It was the first time that the books gave me exposure to the literary world, through which I was initially conscious of the way people performed their writing through brilliant structure and the splendid threads of a story.

Gradually, I got accustomed to the activity of writing and set forth to keeping diary, which is the best format to reflect on myself thinking logically and expressly. During

my diary time, I just kept writing without pause to relief myself. I would take risks occasionally to explore some genre to adequately deliver my sentiment.

As I was in Middle School, our Chinese teachers introduced the narration to us.

Every

semester in the middle school, we not only read plenty of narrative articles to practice our comprehension on narration, but also practice completing narrative related to various of themes. In the meantime, I was hooked on the fairy tales written by Zheng Yuanjie, the In his short story, the plot was simple and the conversation However, it was the mirror of some

tales magnate in China.

between two characters was uncomplicated.

negative phenomena in the contemporary community, which led me to deep thinking. From his full-length novel, the descriptive statement was detailed, which was required element to attract readers. I learned a lot of skills applying to my narrative writing, such
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as dedicated description, dialogue or some make-up stories to reflect on my thoughts. Through the interaction with the stories by Zheng, it has sharpened my understanding on the principle of who, when, where, what and how to make adequate arrangements for my articles.

Argumentative writing never seen before appeared at the spot of High School.

During

the whole page of argumentative writing, I am required to establish my own point of view concerning certain event or a saying by famous people, as well as convince other people my perspective by argument that carries convictions. thinking, but also the explicit expression. confuse the readers. It is not only the excellent logical

Stringing together ornate phrases could

Hence, I expand my readings to all sorts of materials, which could Step by step, I learned

provide me a border thinking when comprehend a certain case.

how to form my standpoint and explain my position differ from the common view, which can make myself conspicuous.

Required reading exists side by side.

I made good use of them as chances to know It

about other countries cultural background through these famous literary masterpieces. is amazing that the characters existed hundreds of years ago is interlinked with peoples personalities today. From their tales, I could find the reflections on current life, which

instructed me how to extricate myself from a difficult position as well as how to overcome in straitened circumstances. On the other hand, the textbook reading
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experience is totally different from the leisure reading above.

When reading the

textbook, I have to be absorbed in the subject, and constantly looked upon on knowledge I gained as the basis to interpret new knowledge. Deepening my comprehension on specific definition is crucial, which could be the shortcut to further study. Every time I

reread some definitions I omitted or misunderstood, I got a better insight into the chapter. The habit I gradually forming in high school was taken into my university study, in which courses required solid foundations for further research.

When it comes to my learning experience on English reading and writing, it is dissimilar to my Chinese learning. Due to the limitation of atmosphere, our English learning is
Comment [i3]: What is the limitation of atmosphere?

mainly focus on the reading and writing but neglect the importance of listening and speaking. The English examinations lay emphasis on reading several passages with
Comment [i4]: Do you remember the first time you were told to read a passage and simply answer questions based on your comprehension of a passage? Comment [i5]: This is a very good point to make, and I agree. In school, I often find myself

multiple choices based on the comprehension. Through this form, we developed the habited of reading for answers without having a conversation with the author. missed plenty of good pieces for the limited-time reading task. We

And the writing section

reading for answers, not to understand the passage.

requires some arguments concerning social issues, which we just followed the format and used some phrases and sentence pattern to complete our composition without creative thinking. Although I was tired of this way of learning English, it did help me

accumulate words and instruct me how to write a simple essay at least.

The time I enjoyed most studying English was the travel to University of Queensland,
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Australia. In the daytime, I had English classes introducing culture and talking to the undergraduate in UQ from all over the world. At night, I had dinners with my

home-stay family with chat. They were curious about my hometown in China and the Chinese culture, so that it was a good chance for me to practice my oral English. Sometimes it could be embarrassing that I forgot the words, but they were patient to guide me using another expression. Whats more, I completed my presentation with the

help of my host, who introduced me several significant festivals or some local specific holidays in Australia. I gradually adapted to communicating with others using English, as well as came into contact with many new ideas.
Comment [i6]: What were some of your new ideas?

As for some special reading experience in English, the instruction of installing DVD occurred to my mind. It is one of the most exciting things I have done ever, for I could

understand the guidance instructed in English, and I temper myself through the assembling. Verbal expression in the instruction is totally different from the piece of So

works, since its objective is to make people understood and follow the steps easily. the whole process is like a class advising my procedure.

However, it could be frustrated

and upset reading this kind of expression filled up whole pages, for readers could not catch the authors emotional activities either his logical thinking. From my perspective,
Comment [i7]: You did a very good job here, keeping my attention. I think the whole memoir is

I will pay more attention to writing in a lively style in order to keep touch with my readers.

fascinating because I was able to really understand the difference between the important of literacy in Chinese and English. I never realized there was such a large difference in the value of literacy itself.