Throughout the LLN process there were a couple of minor things that had to be changed to make the narrative more appealing. I had to include more people or include the names of the people involved to create a more expressive narrative. One other minor thing that had to be changed was just simply rearrangements and some typos.
Drowning in Spanish, Learning to Swim
The first day of junior year spanish, my teacher walked in with a small and stated that she will be speaking spanish for 90% of the class. Those words hit me like a weight. My stomach sank as if it dropped straight to the bottom floor of the building. I thought, how am I supposed to survive this? It felt like I was being thrown into deep water without knowing how to swim. Class became a blur of sounds. My teacher’s words tumbled too quickly for me to catch, and the harder I tried, the more they slipped away. Their sentences rushed past me like cars speeding down a highway. I’d sit there gripping my pencil, staring at notes that made no sense, stress building with every passing minute. Sometimes it felt like I was trapped in an unskippable cut scene—just forced to sit there, powerless, while everyone else seemed to move ahead. The stress started to build so much that even outside the classroom I couldn’t stop thinking about how lost I was. Especially when I got my work back, looking at that low grade felt as if time had stopped and the only thing that was on the planet with me was that paper.
This caused my grade to slip. I felt like something was wrong with me when friends came together and talked about their Spanish grades. I was even too embarrassed to show my mother the grades I got in that class in order to avoid any expression of disappointment from her. The school put me in mandatory office hours for my spanish class but it never helps. During those office hours they would just give you a packet and leave you to finish it. I felt like I was being
failed by the school that was supposed to help me grow. That’s when I learned that I have to make an attempt to find a way to help me understand Spanish in my own way.
With the help of one of my friends who was also struggling we both came up with a plan. At night we both made a promise to ourselves to not only go over every single note we took in class but also listen to spanish videos and try saying the words that we heard in the video. We also talked to each other in Spanish from time to time to get used to speaking and understanding the language. Although I had all these steps to gain a better understanding there was still this lingering feeling of uncertainty that kept haunting me like a ghost, sending a chill down my spine.
As I arrived to my class I prepared myself to be completely last in the Spanish trans the teacher is going to place me in. They gave a lecture fully in Spanish and to my surprise I could somehow understand what she was saying. Not every word nor sentence but enough to know what she was teaching the class. The stress that used to crush me started to fade, replaced with a sense of ease. For the first time, I could actually follow along. Slowly I started to gain confidence in the class which affected how I acted during class. All the doubt that I felt vanished, that haunting feeling of failure was exiled, all that was left was this new feeling of pride in my work.
All of those hard nights of going over all my notes, listening to Spanish audios, and staying up all night paid off. Looking back, I came to a realization that the stress that once made me powerless was my greatest encouragement in order for me to further grow. That feeling gave me the push that was necessary to find a change to overcome the mental block to improve myself.
Translation 1:
Drowning in Spanish, Learning to Swim
The first day of junior year spanish, my teacher walked in with a displeasing grin then stated she will be speaking spanish for 90% of the class. Those words hit me like a weight. My stomach sank as if it dropped straight to the bottom floor of the building. I thought, how am I supposed to survive this? It felt like I was being thrown into deep water without knowing how to swim.
Class became a blur of sounds. My teacher’s words tumbled too quickly for me to catch, and the harder I tried, the more they slipped away. Their sentences rushed past me like cars speeding down a highway. I’d sit there gripping my pencil, staring at notes that made no sense, stress building with every passing minute. Sometimes it felt like I was trapped in an unskippable cutscene (which is a significant part in a game)—just forced to sit there, powerless, while everyone else seemed to move ahead. The stress started to build so much that even outside the classroom I couldn’t stop thinking about how lost I was. Especially when I got my work back, looking at that low grade felt as if time had stopped and the only thing that was on the planet with me was that paper.
This caused my grade to slip. I felt like something was wrong with me when friends came together and talked about their Spanish grades. I was even too embarrassed to show my mother the grades I got in that class in order to avoid any expression of disappointment from her. The school put me in mandatory office hours for my spanish class but it never helps. During those office hours they would just give you a packet and leave you to finish it. I felt like I was being failed by the school that was supposed to help me grow. That’s when I learned that I have to make an attempt to find a way to help me understand Spanish in my own way.
Shawn, a friend of mine, helped me get a better grasp on the language in and out of class. In class when one of us doesn’t understand or need a certain word for assignments we use each other’s notes as a resource in order to keep up. When out of the class we incorporate spanish in some of our jokes to not only have a good time but to also understand the language. He isn’t the only friend I do this with. Whenever I speak with some of my home girls and they irritate me I would randomly speak spanish just because. Little did I know doing that would be beneficial for my progression for the class. There were also times during advisory when me and my advisor Ms. Miliano (who is the Spanish teacher) sometimes have full blown conversations in Spanish, though sometimes I’ll use spanglish in those conversations.
As I arrived to my class I prepared myself to be completely last in the Spanish trans the teacher is going to place me in. They gave a lecture fully in Spanish and to my surprise I could somehow understand what she was saying. Not every word nor sentence but enough to know what she was teaching the class. The stress that used to crush me started to fade, replaced with a sense of ease. For the first time, I could actually follow along. Slowly I started to gain confidence in the class which affected how I acted during class. All the doubt that I felt vanished, that haunting feeling of failure was exiled, all that was left was this new feeling of pride in my work.
All of those hard nights of going over all my notes, listening to Spanish audios, and staying up all night paid off. Looking back, I came to a realization that the stress that once made me powerless was my greatest encouragement in order for me to further grow. That feeling gave me the push that was necessary to find a change to overcome the mental block to improve myself.
