Name: Omeisha Daley

Date: 09/13/20

Professor Velez

English 110 

Cover Letter 

So the intended audience for this narrative was anyone that might be an immigrant, have an accent, or people that speak in a certain dialect. This narrative is directed towards these specific people because I want to help to uplift them and let them know that it’s okay to be different and talk a certain way and there’s nothing to be ashamed of. Another audience that this narrative targets is anyone who discriminates or ridicules anyone that doesn’t talk like them or anyone that has their own mother tongue. This narrative is intended for these people because they should know that looking down on anyone that doesn’t talk in a certain way that you’re used to is immoral and shouldn’t happen because the differences between us humans are what makes us as a people. Also I made sure to use certain language in this narrative to help people to see the self confliction that can be caused due to the ridicule of accents and get people to empathize with me. I’ve gained some meaningful insights from doing this assignment such as the fact that everyone’s literacy and language experiences are different and these experiences are what helps them to become who they are, and these experiences are the very reasons for how they develop into a person. I’ve also learned that my language and literacy experiences at a young age has helped to shape my mind into what it is today and without them I wouldn’t be half as literate as I am now. I’m really grateful for this specific L&L experience that I’ve endured because it helped to humble me and think on the bright side of things even though I was treated poorly, which helped me to become confident in my ethnicity and have pride in my accent that I carry around. I think the terms exigence and audience have impacted my learning and writing experiences because when you have a certain audience in mind when writing it can help you decide what type of language to use and which devices to use in your writing so that you can appeal to the audience. And exigence is an important term when learning and writing because it can help the audience or reader to know why the narrative was written and what are the intentions of the author even writing the narrative in the first place; which will help the reader to read the text in another perspective. I think that once a reader knows why a text is being written it can help them to really get a feel for the text and even connect to it in most cases. I think that the exigence in my narrative is very straightforward; which allows for readers to get the bigger picture of the narrative and even connect to the exigence of the narrative. Additionally, this assignment helped me to achieve a Course Learning Outcome such as “Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing” because a lot of drafting, revising, collaborating, revising, and editing was done in order for this narrative to be even close to perfect. And without these strategies our narratives wouldn’t be as well put together and strong as they are now. I feel like any time you’re doing any form of writing you should always aim to implement these strategies because they can really help a writer to put forth their best work. I personally really liked writing this narrative because it gave my peers insight into who I am and what I’ve experienced that has allowed me to become the person I am today. Honestly, L&L experiences should be talked about more often in schools because it’s a great way for students to really express themselves through words. The collaboration process of this assignment was really helpful for me because it let me know what could be running through a reader’s mind when they read my narrative. And based off of the feedback I was given I accomplished my goal of getting people to feel what I was feeling and making them feel as if they were there with me when my traumatic experience happened. I really took pride in making sure that I was really descriptive when describing my experience and made sure to appeal to the reader’s senses as well. I cannot say this enough but I’m really grateful for my L&L experience because it helped to groom me into the person I am today and encouraged me to advocate for people that might have gone through what I did or something similar to it. And now I try to uplift people from different cultures and embrace the differences between us like how the kids of my 5th grade class didn’t. I look back at them kids and laugh and thank them for their ridicule because little did they know that their ridicule and laughs is what helped make me great.

“Not Afraid” Language & Literacy Narrative

I can’t seem to forget the cool Caribbean breeze blowing ever so smoothly through the neighborhood. I was perched in a creaky wooden rocking chair on the verandah with my legs propped up with not a care in the world. My cousins all surrounded me and passed around snacks and talked about any and everything. I always felt like I was my best self when I was surrounded by my family and friends and relaxing and enjoying the caribbean atmosphere that I couldn’t get anywhere else. The one thing I loved about Jamaica was the way I spoke and felt like it was one of those deeply rooted things that made a person who they are. My dialect is what set me apart from everyone else and helped me shine. And while there was so much good that came outta my country it also brought along self conflict. The self conflict all started when I came back to America after my extended vacation. I had come back to start school, and I was entering the 5th grade which seemed like a big accomplishment for me at the time. If only someone would’ve told me that the kids in America could be so cruel and scared of people with accents and a culture that they weren’t accustomed to. That day I got to school super early and excited to start the day. All the excitement was short-lived when I finally decided to open my big mouth and say “ Hi! My name is Omeisha, what’s yours?.” Those few words sent me into an inner turmoil that I battled with. As soon as I said those words the class simultaneously stopped talking and turned their heads to face me and started laughing, and in the midst of this kids were saying “ why does she talk like that?” and “ Doesn’t she know that you only speak English in America?.” At that point I wished the floor would open up and swallow me right where I stood, I felt so embarrassed and ashamed. I went the whole day quiet as a lamb, and I forbade my mouth from saying one betraying word. I went home confused due to the fact that I thought I was speaking English and knew I wasn’t speaking gibberish or another language. I was also angry at myself for speaking the way I did and felt like I was cursed and just wanted to get rid of my accent as soon as possible and speak like a normal American. I wanted to get rid of the only thing that made me who I was just to seem like I was normal.

After this happened to me I wouldn’t speak to my family for months; which was very peculiar because I was normally known as the chatterbox. I was just so afraid of someone be it family or strangers ridiculing me for the way I talked. I just couldn’t understand why those kids thought it was basically illegal to not be like them. And I really wanted to know why something as frivolous as an accent could cause me to feel so ashamed and disgusted with myself. I became a social hermit that got anxiety from just thinking about interacting with another person. I avoided conversation like the plague and tried not to get noticed by people. I became this person I never wanted to become. While this was happening I didn’t notice that my aunt was watching me and taking note of why I was acting the way I was. She finally approached me one day and asked me what happened and where her favorite niece had gone. And I don’t know what came over me but I broke down and told her everything that happened. I told her all about how the kids at school made me feel like a  laughing stock just because I wasn’t like them and made my mother tongue feel unworthy. I told her about how I hated Americans and their way of thinking. And most of all I told her how ashamed I was to have this accent and wished I could get rid of it  all together so I could feel normal around the kids. I never felt as ashamed as I did in that moment because I was shedding tears over irrelevant kids who don’t know any better. Nonetheless, my aunt listened wholeheartedly to my cries of pain and embarrassment and rubbed my back in soothing circles. After I finished wiping away my salty tears my aunt then began giving me the life changing speech that I yearned for. She began to tell me about how any and every accent or dialect is different and unique and that’s what makes them beautiful. Also, she was telling me that no one is the same, everyone is different and talks, walks, and sees differently and that’s what makes us human. And that culture can be seen all over the world and it’s what makes everyone who they are and there is nothing to be ashamed of because difference is beautiful and should be embraced no matter what. She helped me to feel proud of who I am because there’s only one of me. And she taught me to ignore anything the kids at school might say to me about the way I speak and even teach them that everyone is different and these differences shouldn’t make them feel entitled to bully and mock. I took heed of everything she told me and understood that my accent was one of a kind. 

I went to school the following week with a brand new attitude and mindset. This time I was not afraid to raise my hand and answer a question with a heavily accented response, after all I couldn’t help it. And I no longer sat at tables by myself to avoid conversation and interaction with the other kids. I walked up to kids with my head held high and said “ My name is Omeisha and what’s yours?”. I said this once life-altering sentence with pride and happiness and didn’t dare tone down my accent for anyone’s pleasure. And of course the kids still looked at me weirdly but it didn’t seem to bother them as it once did because they saw that I was no longer afraid to speak. They saw and heard how much their stares didn’t have an effect on me as it once did. I felt like I officially placed a claim over my dialect and owned it wholeheartedly that day. My personality did a complete 360 degree turn when my aunt gave me that speech and I thank her so much for it till this day because it literally changed me for the better. I underwent a metamorphosis and transitioned from the ugly and silent caterpillar to the beautiful social butterfly that continues to spread her wings. If I’ve taken anything away from this whole ordeal is in the words of Muhammad Ali “ Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” I stop letting these kids intimidate me because of the way I talk and I’m always ready to educate anyone on how and why no one speaks a perfect form of English. I also made it my mission to support and stand up for kids that might have went through the same thing as me because I know how self-destructing the words of kids can be. And I try to spread my aunt’s words of wisdom to people that are having self conflicts with themselves because of how they talk or are treated because of how they speak. May I say that it truly feels good to be comfortable with myself and how I grew up and I now look back and regret ever feeling ashamed of speaking in my broken English because it truly is my favorite way to speak. People hear my accent and automatically know where I’m from and that couldn’t happen if I spoke “regular English.” I still never understood what those kids meant when they said that “you can only speak English in America” because last time I checked America has no designated language that a person can speak. And for them to say that is blatant ignorance because America is filled with people of many backgrounds and ethnicities that speak many  different languages and dialects. Which goes to show that living in America doesn’t mean that you have to speak English, there are so many immigrants living in America and for most people their first language isn’t English. 

Overall, I believe that people should be free to speak and talk in any way that they want to and there shouldn’t be a problem because that is what makes them as a person. An accent should never dictate anyone’s life and future relationships. And if a person willingly judges someone based off of something as superficial as an accent they really need to reevaluate themselves because they might not be happy with something about themselves. And this might raise the question of if they are deflecting their self-conflict onto someone else and tearing them down in the process. People should really worry about themselves before they go and worry about someone that clearly isn’t worried about them. I look back at that incident and now I just smile because without those mean words I probably would still be that same silent girl who was afraid of her own mother tongue. I wish those same kids could see me now and see that I’m not afraid.