“The factors that made my English what it is today (personal essay)”;
After walking, the most important thing we learn as a child is speaking. We use language to communicate to one another. Language connects us as human beings. Language is a means of communication, it is arbitrary and is a system of systems. It is arbitrary in the sense that there is no inherent relation between the words of a language and their meanings or the ideas conveyed by them.
The Persian language and its variations are predominantly spoken in Iran and Turkey. As a child, I was brought up speaking Persian as this was my parents first language. However, my dad traveled a lot, so he essentially knew a lot of languages, and he knew how valuable it was for a person to know other languages. Due to my father's English upbringing, he thought it be best to sign me up for my first English lesson at the young age of five. At nine years old, my dad made me go to a bilingual school. We were taught all subjects in Persian in the mornings, and taught the very same studies in English in the afternoon. Most of my classmates were the daughters and sons of diplomats and embassy workers. Once I finished middle school, my family soon realized that there weren't any other schools in my city that taught English as a regular curriculum so my family got me a private tutor. My tutor was a British lady who had married a Persian chap and had moved to Iran after her marriage. As a young kid she taught me proper English and so she was my first encounter with someone whose first language was English. She made me watch English TV shows and movies such as Monty Python, Fawlty towers, Oliver Twist, Blackadder and also English books such as David Copperfield, and The Count of Monte Cristo. Her ambition was for us to discuss and talk about them in our study sessions to further my understanding of the English language. She just had one rule: no speaking Farsi during class time, so I always tried to obey that rule. Therefore, as a result of all that shenanigans I was taught English the British way (the right way) thus I sometimes use words like “chap”, “shenanigan” or “autumn”.
As I grew older I started to watch and read more serious movies and books. I remember it like it was yesterday, as I turned twelve, my tutor told me: “Parsa; I have a special book here, that is from one of my favorite authors. I want to read some of it for you”. The book in question was Casino Royale a book that had later inspired a movie by the same name. As she started reading this book, I remember I had only one question in my mind who is this mystery writer she is talking about. And why does she like him or her so much. The book’s story concerned a British secret agent called James Bond, gambling at a casino in Royale les Eaux a fictional city in northern France, in hopes of bankrupting Le Chiffre the treasurer of a French union and a member of the Russian secret service. As she read this book to me, I instantly fell in love with the way this writer wrote, the whole idea of a man with infinite contradictions, a drink was never good enough, women were never satisfying enough, a man that discovered the motto: the wold is not enough. His style of writing was amazing, but who was he. This mystery man was Ian Fleming. I remember her telling me about Ian and how he used to live and why he started writing. According to her Ian was Bonds alter ego, she said what ever you read in this book actually happened to Ian. The dark hair, the high cheek bones, the same hight, the same build, bond is Ian she said. She said before he started writing this book he was very depressed, Bond gave Ian a chance to see things through a new set of eyes. Bond was his solution, his therapy, of depression and self doubt and the all the other miseries which inflicted him, Bond always beat his demons. And so Ian managed to beat his demons too by writing this novel. I was highly intrigued by this man. I was so intrigued in fact that I went out and bought my first copy of a bond movie the next day. And finished watching all of the bond movies in two weeks, after that my mom got me a copy of his novel from “Russia with love” for my birth day. He was my hero. And to this day still I thank her for introducing me to Ian. I believe she is my biggest Sponsor. I owe her everything since the way I write, read, speak, and think is because of her. She showed me how to be a good writer and introduced me to Ian.
I believe the first controlling agent or sponsor in my writing is my first real English tutor. Her teachings and books touched me deeply, I still remember all her teachings I think the main event that led me to believe this was when I was trying to write my essay on the SAT’s as I was writing my essay I was writing them with her voice, I guess I felt like I wanted to make her proud of me. The second agent or sponsor in my writing is Ian Fleming or to be more specific his novel “from Russia with love”. He accomplished more than create a fictional character named James Bond. He was the creative spark that ignited an industry of films, songs, and spy culture that has spread around the globe. The night before his assassination, President Kennedy was reading a James Bond novel. So was Lee Harvey Oswald.
One positive effect that my tour had in my life is that now when ever I talk to people on the streets or at school is that they never realize that I was not born here as I have no accent nor do I get lost for words. Even when I talk to Persians in English they always ask me how I managed to learn English so good. On the other hand, the negative effect my English tutor and my love of English books had on me and my writing is that I can not stop using words like “bin”, “rubbish” or “petrol” including other words. Which manage to always confuse Americans as they are g=are foreign to these kind of words.
According to the Bronwyn T. Williams “Heroes, Rebels, and Victims” Essay, there are three types of writers based on the characteristics of how they write their essays. Heroes are literacy winners, students that identify themselves as heroes, they often have been told for most of their life that they were good writers. Whether from parents or teachers or friends they received lots of encouragement, and when they write about themselves and their experience with writing they talk about how good they are at it, when I think of heroes I think of Ian. Rebels also will talk about their writing in this way but they will basically say that no one else usually seem to credit them. So the main difference between a rebel and a hero is the way they are perceived by others, in terms of their confidence, they are about the same. For instance, James Bond is a rebel, as he is loyal to the British government but that loyalty is sometimes expressed in the means thats not expected. Rebels tend to ignore critics how ever unlike the rebels, victims though take it to heart, victims are often seemed as helpless or insecure about their abilities and potential as writers. Often times writers would identify themselves in three ways not so much that they would call themselves a hero or a victim or a rebel but they were features of these qualities that would show up in their writings. I believe at the start of my writing I identified myself as a hero, as everyone loved my writings and complimented my English, choice of words, and grammar but as I grew I became a more of a rebel as I my soon found myself in a different surrounding from before, now I was surrounded with English speaking students people who most of them spoke English as their first language. At first it was relatively hard for me to adapt since because of my accent my teachers always thought I was American, and so they expected me to write like a English speaking person too. Which put immense amount of pressure on me, as they read my essays and took mistakes from me as if I was born here.
So to sum up, when I started writing I was a hero, everyone complimented me for my writing and choice of words, grammar, and coherence but as the years past by I soon became a rebel as my teachers rarely complimented me and realized my potential in writing. My English teacher was my biggest sponsor made my English what it is today. She introduced me to a lot of amazing movies and books and the most important of all, her passion sparked a love for books and literacy in me, her deep love of Ian Fleming made me love him as well. Ian Fleming is a another sponsor that helps me in my literacy practices.