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Author Topic: I Failed ESL  (Read 3047 times)

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bulbasaur

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I Failed ESL
« on: May 14, 2015, 01:44:34 AM »
Growing up, competing academically was one of the most important things that kids did, and the parents supported it.  Who didn't want to be recognized as "the smartest?"  As a result, I remember my failures much more than my successes. 

In elementary school, there was this one class with Ms. X (I won't say her name in case some of you actually know her).  Her class was awesome.  Kids were always raving how great she was.  They had so much fun.  They were given candy and toys for their participation.  It was undeniable that she was the best teacher at the school.  She only taught kids in the 2nd grade or higher. 

When I finally made it to the 2nd grade, I was determined to make it into her class.  A semester went by, but I was never asked to join Ms. X's class.  I was feeling down.  Maybe I wasn't good enough.  However, at the start of the second semester, I was finally asked to take a test to see if I qualified for Ms. X's class.  Finally, it was my time to shine!  I took the test with another Hmong girl across from me.  I thought the test was easy and finished early, but I didn't want to brag.  I asked her what she thought, and she thought it was a little hard.  She had pretty good grades in class, so if she thought it was hard and I thought it was easy, I was in.  YES!

Weeks go by...  The Hmong girl made it, but I didn't.  I felt like crap.  I thought the test was easy.  I didn't check my answers.  I must have royally fukked up.  I missed my opportunity.  But as luck would have it, they asked me again!  I was so excited.  They must have asked me again because I was at the top of my 2nd grade class.  The teachers were giving me a second chance because of my hard work in the classroom. 

On my second attempt on the entrance test, I took my time.  I checked my work.  This time, I felt even better about the test. 

Weeks go by...  I hear nothing of it.  That would be the last time I would ever be asked to take the test.  The test made me felt like crap for years.  I got bested.  Or worse, I simply failed. 

The experience is a big part of me.  I sometimes retell the story to others as a motivational story of not giving up and continuing to try your best.  That's what I took from it.  Then one day in college, I was telling the story again.  But this time, I was asked, "So who was this Hmong girl?  And who was in the class?"  As I was listing the people in the class, I realized...the y were all Hmong or Hispanics!  Ms. X's class was ESL.  I failed to get into ESL. 


« Last Edit: May 14, 2015, 01:49:05 AM by bulbasaur »

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Offline VillainousHero

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Re: I Failed ESL
« Reply #1 on: May 14, 2015, 04:39:40 AM »
I was put into ESL to help the other Hmong kids.  Lol first time I saw other Hmong kids.  Didn't even knew they existed. Well I was supposed to help translate.  So I told the teachers what ma cow and copy meant.  Yeah it was pretty much a literal translation of penis hurt and bent pussy since I didn't know any better.   Oh and I didn't even know American swear words.  Well truth of the matter was just that they wanted to get me away from the other kids since I basically was getting into fights everyday.  Afterwards the other Hmong kids hated me just the same.  I didn't understand their accented English and they didn't care to correct my mispronounced Hmong.  I was so socially dumb, I never realized it was always me fighting off a bunch of others.  Plus it doesn't help to be smaller than everybody else and to be reading only thick reference materials like a total nerd.  Teachers have always left me alone, I had no clue.  Eventually they quit asking me to go to ESL.  Well they gave me a choice to keep participating or not.  I just figured that I it was pointless for me just to repeat words I already know how so I said exactly what a kid would say, "It was dumb."

I still remember the reading writing tests and math tests, yeah they stuck me in first grade then demoted me to kindergarten after they figured out my real age.  Plus they didn't know how to handle why I got into a fight on my second day at school.  Well maybe I should not have done such a good job at coloring and shouldn't have bragged about knowing multiplication .  Kindergarten was amazing, all play and no homework.  Honestly I didn't know why English was supposed to be my second language.  I didn't even know how I got a first language.  It's not like I read or write Hmong in the first place.

It wasn't until second grade that I finally understood what ESL classes really meant.  All the Hmong kids had to start in ESL until you can test out. Well my poor habits had already been formed from Kindergarten, and I have become careless with test taking.  I was doing what the other kids were doing, staring at their test papers.  Yes English has become a second language.  I can't remember how they dropped me from ESL classes.  Somehow I just didn't go anymore.  Well I do remember that one time one of the ESL kid got the highest math test score.  So yeah, there was a high score competition among the kids now.  The Hmong kids were always best in math.



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The real villain is looking at you.  The last hero was just not true.  If everything works out in the end.  It's because all things make amends.

Darksyde

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Re: I Failed ESL
« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2015, 08:37:18 AM »
Haha.  Don't feel so bad Sweet Tears; I was in ESL until 4th grade.  When I first came to school, I hardly knew how to speak English.  And of course; I assumed everybody spoke Hmong like me.  Up to this day, I still have trouble speaking proper English.  The neighborhood I grew up, spoke ebonics-English so I have to really focus in order to speak proper English.



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Offline VillainousHero

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Re: I Failed ESL
« Reply #3 on: May 14, 2015, 08:40:18 AM »
Going to church, yexus and Jesus.  Yahweh and no way, yah way... ;D curds and whey.  :2funny:



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The real villain is looking at you.  The last hero was just not true.  If everything works out in the end.  It's because all things make amends.

Darksyde

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Re: I Failed ESL
« Reply #4 on: May 14, 2015, 09:26:50 AM »
Yeah.  I grew up in good old Frogtown-Saint Paul, MN (where all the FOBs grew up).  Haha.  I have no regrets.  ESL was at least kind of fun.



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Darksyde

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Re: I Failed ESL
« Reply #5 on: May 14, 2015, 09:52:34 AM »
The neighborhood seems a little bit better than what I remember it to be.  It was definitely a lot more ghetto when I grew up there.  I will be in town next weekend so maybe I will drive around to see how the old neighborhood is doing.



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Offline VillainousHero

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Re: I Failed ESL
« Reply #6 on: May 16, 2015, 12:37:50 AM »
Remember the frogs on the fences... LOL



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The real villain is looking at you.  The last hero was just not true.  If everything works out in the end.  It's because all things make amends.

minorcharacter

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Re: I Failed ESL
« Reply #7 on: May 18, 2015, 09:48:34 AM »
Lol.  You're just trying to be modest now, I'm sure the truth is that you performed too well and ESL wouldn't take you.  ELL, English Language Learning-I believe that's what it's now called, is simply for those who primarily speak other languages.  In elementary years it's to help those who do not speak English as a primary language get up to speed.  In college it's almost a whole different story.  Yeah, you can coast through with a good grade but you might still be sitting at the bottom of your class.  I took an ELL writing comp. class in college and my English was no match for any of the transfer students.  They've been taught pure and grammatically correct English compared to those of us who were born here and have been filtered through different slang and lingo.



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Offline VillainousHero

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Re: I Failed ESL
« Reply #8 on: May 18, 2015, 02:16:25 PM »
Minorcharacter, you were born here in the States!  I did not figure that.   :D



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The real villain is looking at you.  The last hero was just not true.  If everything works out in the end.  It's because all things make amends.

minorcharacter

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Re: I Failed ESL
« Reply #9 on: May 18, 2015, 02:19:37 PM »
I'm part of generation 1.5; born in a refugee camp in Thailand and came here when I was three years old.  It's my one claim to being cultured.  O0



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zena

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Re: I Failed ESL
« Reply #10 on: June 03, 2015, 03:39:04 PM »
It's good you failed ESL.

In high school, some of my friends were in ESL and I was a bit jello 'cause their teacher was always way nicer than my teachers.



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bulbasaur

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Re: I Failed ESL
« Reply #11 on: September 01, 2015, 07:58:46 AM »
Are Hmong kids today (that is 2nd and 3rd generation) still in ESL?  Their Hmong can't possibly be better than their English.  Some kids today probably don't even speak Hmong. 



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Offline SummerBerry

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Re: I Failed ESL
« Reply #12 on: September 01, 2015, 01:42:59 PM »
Are Hmong kids today (that is 2nd and 3rd generation) still in ESL?  Their Hmong can't possibly be better than their English.  Some kids today probably don't even speak Hmong.

Depend what you put down on the home language survey.  They should never had one in the first place because to get your child out of ELD you will need to write down English in every question they asked.  If you put down Hmong in one question your child will automatic be place in ELD that entire school year until they take a test at the end of school year to get out otherwise they can continued to have ELD until 2/3rd grade.  That what I learned from my child K teacher about that home language survey form.  I would rather have a teacher see that the child need ELD and make the recommendation to the parents and school based on what they see that the child is not speaking English or understanding what is taught in the classroom.  ELD is not that bad because it help with their reading skills.  Reading is important.  i dont judge talking or speaking skills just because one is very fluent does not mean they are bright. 



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bulbasaur

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Re: I Failed ESL
« Reply #13 on: September 02, 2015, 07:08:23 PM »
Isn't that a bit discriminatory?   They are assuming that you (the kid that is) aren't proficient simply because you are bilingual.  No test.  No performance review.  I understand where the school is coming from, but it just seems shady.  Personally, if it happened to me, I would have felt it was a waste of my time (even more so if I were a 2nd or 3rd generation kid).  Besides, how hard is it to give a test and/or a performance review anyways?  I apparently took two ESL tests.  :D

Depend what you put down on the home language survey.  They should never had one in the first place because to get your child out of ELD you will need to write down English in every question they asked.  If you put down Hmong in one question your child will automatic be place in ELD that entire school year until they take a test at the end of school year to get out otherwise they can continued to have ELD until 2/3rd grade.  That what I learned from my child K teacher about that home language survey form.  I would rather have a teacher see that the child need ELD and make the recommendation to the parents and school based on what they see that the child is not speaking English or understanding what is taught in the classroom.  ELD is not that bad because it help with their reading skills.  Reading is important.  i dont judge talking or speaking skills just because one is very fluent does not mean they are bright.



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Offline SummerBerry

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Re: I Failed ESL
« Reply #14 on: September 04, 2015, 12:08:44 PM »
Isn't that a bit discriminatory?   They are assuming that you (the kid that is) aren't proficient simply because you are bilingual.  No test.  No performance review.  I understand where the school is coming from, but it just seems shady.  Personally, if it happened to me, I would have felt it was a waste of my time (even more so if I were a 2nd or 3rd generation kid).  Besides, how hard is it to give a test and/or a performance review anyways?  I apparently took two ESL tests.  :D

True feel a little discrimination when you think about it because it will put all the Meskas and Dub kids out of ELD but the Asian and Mev into ELD just because of how we answer those questions on the home language survey.  I feel stupid when I have to write down English when it should really be Hmong.  It just a simple 5-6 questions on the survey.  I don't know about other state or school home language survey but I'll tried to find the one we have here and post up the question.   



 



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