Name

Instructor

Course

Date

Narrative Literacy

Education marks an essential aspect in improving people’s lives for a better future. The Saudi Arabian government does value education and, therefore, established a program called ‘King Abdullah Scholarship’ (KASP) on 25 May, 2005. The program offers a chance to both male and female undergraduate and graduate students to study abroad. Upon settling in the United States, I suffered from culture shock since it was hard for me to adapt to a new country with a very different culture. Back home, I had built a close relationship with my family, especially my husband, and separating from them was not easy. Studying in a foreign country and being away from home is a unique learning experience. One learns way more than any book can teach concerning a country’s culture. Moreover, I faced some challenges adapting to the new environment. For example, language was one of the biggest barriers that I had to overcome. I lacked a clear way of communicating my needs, which made me feel disheartened. Atop that, I developed a dislike towards the local people. I also felt inadequate and lonely in my life. In order to cope with the challenges, my family suggested I embark on writing because I was a good writer in the Arabic language. However, they advised me to start writing in English. When I was in my country, I used to write a lot but quit when I got married. Writing was my hobby because it helped me express my feelings via writing. It was not easy for me to get back to writing, but had a lot of support from my family who highly influenced my emotional literacy (Weare 4).

Nowadays, I consider writing a response to the environment because I react to people or objects through it. I enjoy the fact that I can create my stories, and come up with unique characters instead of just reading about them. Writing also offers me the ability to indulge into a world where I can explore anything I want or need. In addition, I also get to create a fixed space for someone to receive and react to my ideas where required. When I write, I do not have to worry about what is going on in the real world because, at that time, my characters are the real world to me, which I enjoy the most. Moreover, the experiences gained from studying abroad shaped my identity and personality. This was especially aided by the culture in the foreign country, which had a significant impact on helping me become literate and improve on it.

My initial encounter with literacy occurred to me at an early age, before getting married. I started by writing fictional stories, which I enjoyed doing. My literacy work since then was driven by passion, a factor that has always pushed me to indulge into more writing than ever. My educational background also plays a key role in assisting me develop impeccable literacy skills. Exposure to different literatures gives me the best experience as I comprehend other authors’ works. Indeed, one cannot learn or develop skills without other people’s help. Thus, I have always admired other authors’ literature works and used them to improve my writing skills. In turn, that exposure broadens my imagination, and I generate incredible ideologies in my writing.

Interaction, both at home and in the foreign country, has also shaped my literacy skills in various ways. Back at home, I used to write using my native language, which was very easy for me. The situation was simplified by the fact that I have been talking and writing in my native language since I was young. However, literacy writing is a skill that has to be honed despite having exposure to my language for a long time. Therefore, I had to improve my writing skills via practice and additional studies. Most of the time when I am home, I interact in my language. Consequently, this makes writing using the same language quite easy. Change of location to a new environment, by contrast, made writing a bit difficult to execute. English is a second language to me; hence, I have had to master it beyond simple understanding. Indeed, I may have ideas that I want to express in writing; however, if I lack the appropriate skills to write it down, all my ideas may be rendered void. Therefore, I have had to study literacy language keenly in order to improve my writing skills using the English language. It is crucial for one to understand the rules in writing using the English language. As such, it is vital to learn things such as sentence structure, verb use, vocabularies, nouns and adverbs among other components. Interacting with people in the United States also helps me understand the English language better than when I was back home. To most, English has been their native language; hence, they express it better than I do. Listening to the English language native people talk, and reading their literature works has also heightened my writing skills. Over time, I have gained additional understanding in the use of the English language in literacy.

Technology is yet another factor that has highly improved my literacy work. The internet, for example, is a major technology factor that has highly contributed to my literacy work. I have had endless opportunities to peruse through the World Wide Web in search of motivational literatures that have helped improve my work. In addition, I have been able to exploit different learning materials concerned with writing different literature pieces. In turn, I have had the opportunity to do extensive readings in relation to literature writing. Exposure to media has also developed my literacy skills in several ways. The media is a source of entertainment and information. As such, I have used this to my advantage in different ways. I learn a lot from watching movies and listening to music. Both forms of entertainment provide me with ideas that I am able to coin stories from whilst writing my works. A movie or a song, for example, may be written with a purpose to teach about love among the involved characters. Watching such a movie or listening to a song with a message of love helps me develop ideas concerning that subject matter. Afterwards, I put the developed ideas to paper. The environment also has much to offer when it comes to literacy works. When roaming outside the confinements of my house, I make observations about different things. For example, I look at how people interact, their behavior and the relations they portray within different environments. Concurrently, I relate such behavior to the characters I develop in my literacy works. Moreover, making an observation about my environment extends my understanding about the human nature.

Work Cited

Weare, Katherine. Developing the emotionally literate school. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications Inc.