As a 21-year-old born and raised in America, it’s hard to imagine that my parents, at an age not much older than me, immigrated to the United States. Growing up, English and Mandarin Chinese were both spoken, oftentimes hilariously combined to what I dub “Chinglish.”
My passion for learning and studying language started at a young age. In my first year of elementary school, I was a student in the Spanish immersion program within my public school district in Lehigh Valley, PA.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is more adaptable to change” – Often attributed to Charles Darwin
When Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, Oleksandra fled to the United States to live safely with her sister, Svitlana, a long-term resident of State College. Since men were prohibited from exiting Ukraine at the time, she had to leave her husband and 32-year-old son behind.
I came to the United States from China in 2014. I had very little English in school in China. I grew up in a poor village. I came to the US with very little ability to communicate. I wanted to come to the US for a better way of life.
“You seem so invested in learning a new language and improving your ability to communicate with the local community, why is that?” I asked.
Money. We need it for everything in our day-to-day lives and it’s essential to preparing for our future. However, it seems like we never have enough of it.
As an eighteen-year-old excited to attend Penn State, one of my main goals was to better my cultural competence. Coming from what I describe as a “cookie-cutter town,” I grew up learning a great sense of community and was surrounded by countless caring people who would drop anything to help at a moment's notice, but nearly everyone came from families like my own. There was very little diversity.
Five years ago, my spouse and I landed at Dulles airport on our way to State College. My husband had accepted a postdoc position at Penn State University, and I joined him to start a new chapter in our life.
Literacy is a 6th sense, essential to understanding the world that surrounds you in a coherent and rational manner. Literacy is not just flipping through textbooks, it is comprehending the news, reading a room, and ultimately the key to communication. How do you read the world around you? Do you comfortably flow through the torrent of our literary surroundings; or do you feel adrift and unheard when trying to illustrate your perceptions?
