Synthesis Essay: I Am Spanish As My First Language

Growing up in a hispanic home is a blessing. Having spanish as my first language then later on, when entering school, came english. Being fluent in both spanish and english comes in handy more times than not. For myself, and for those of my family members that only speak spanish. That is one of my motivations to keep learning spanish and earn the biliteracy seal. My entire family of nine, with me being the youngest, was born in Mexico and our primary language is spanish. The sister that was born before me and I are the only ones in our family that can speak and understand both languages, but I am the most fluent in both languages. Going to the store or even filling out papers that came in the mail was a hassle for my family. Being able to translate

Every culture has their own folklore stories and being able to appreciate them in both spanish and english is fun. At family gatherings, it’s nice to sit around and talk with my aunts and uncles when they share stories of their old days in Mexico. The activities they would do together and how they would get reprimanded by their strict mother, my grandmother. Yet going to school and learning history and having American friends talk about their culture in America is a nice experience. When one is a monolingual speaker, he or she is missing out on a completely different captivating culture.

Although having grown uo in a spanish speaking atmosphere, I wasn’t a spanish expert. To be able to improve my spanish and get to understand and experience my culture, I’m taking an AP Spanish course. Taking that AP Spanish course has helped me improve my spanish and has also succeeded in teaching me some of our traditions through activities we do in class. For el dia de los muertos, we gave a presentation on what the day meant to a class of freshmen. And being surrounded by a group of hispanic people, the tendency to ask about each other leads to us opening our eyes to the diversity within