Gertrude Agyapomaa 1

Gertrude Agyapomaa

Dr. Smith

English 101 F15H

20 September 2019

My Journey to Reading and Writing

Reading and writing have been a long journey from childhood to the present. Born in

Ghana where the English language is a second language, learning to read and write did not

happen overnight for me. Most of the kindergartens and even some of the public elementary

schools in the small town I come from use the local language in teaching the pupils. This makes

reading and writing the English language challenging for most pupils at the tender age until they

reach primary five to six in the elementary school.

I grew up in a compound house where vernacular was mainly spoken, but I had the

opportunity to read and write the English language quite faster than majority of the children of

the same age group. My father was my source of inspiration. He was always ready to teach and

read to me even when I didn't want to. I remember starting to read and write the alphabet from

A-Z without assistance around age four, but my father told me I could recognize and read most

of them around age two. He taught me two-letter words pronunciation around age three-four.

One evening, after I had my dinner and bath, daddy called my name; “Ama” come and sit on

your chair. As I sat on the chair, he took a writing slate and white chalk and wrote “da” then

asked me to spell it. After I spelt it, he asked; “what is that?”. I didn’t know what it was. My

Daddy then said “da” which means sleep in my dialect. He again wrote “ma” and asked me to

spell and pronounce it. I spelt it but couldn’t pronounce it. Daddy then read it as “ma” which also
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means to give in my language. My father wrote “da da” on the slate and asked me to spell and

read it. To his surprise, I spelt it and read it as “dada”. He smiled with joy and kissed me on my

forehead and said, “yes!!!” that is my daughter”. He repeated “mama” on the slate and said,

“read this Ama”. Instantly, I read it as mama and could write it back as well. Daddy was so

happy and said, “You made my day, Ama”. The subsequent evenings, my father continued to

teach me how to read and write other two-letter words like it, at, to, go, so, etc. and progressed to

three-letter words. My name, Ama was the first three-letter word daddy taught me to read and

write.

By the age of five to six, I could read my first book titled “My Book of Bible Stories”

which my dad used to read to me as a toddler at bedtime. My writing skills began to develop

because my father would always want me to write some sentences from the Bible story book I

read. Around the same age (6 years), I challenged myself to write half a page of a friendly letter

addressed to my cousin. I gave the letter to my father to read for corrections. Whiles he was

reading the letter, he was smiling and nodding his head. After he finished reading, he said “you

did so well Ama, I am very proud of you”. Out of excitement, my mother took the letter from my

father’s hand and showed it to everyone in the compound house. Everyone in the house was

shocked and surprised for what I did at that age. The news spread to my school as well.

There was a time for “fun World fare where pupils who can read and memorized were

chosen to contest for poems reciting. Out of the ten pupils who contested, I become the winner of

the contest. Some months later, the president of Ghana at that time Ft. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings

was coming to Kintampo, my hometown to commission the electricity project in 1992 where

they needed a little girl to welcome him with a flower and to recite a welcome address. I was that

selected lucky girl because of my ability to read and memorize as well at that tender age.
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Unfortunately, my dad was transferred from his work to a different Town at a point in

time. My mother couldn’t go with him due to the nature of her job by then. My younger siblings

and I have lived with our mother ever since. Sadly, my mother couldn't really support my writing

and reading skills whiles I was growing up due to her level of education. My struggles then

began. Things began to get tougher and I had no one to ask for an explanation or help with my

school assignments. I felt like a “prisoner” in my own words. My teachers couldn’t have all the

time I needed to support my reading and writing skills. “I was alone, and afraid, but determined”

as stated by Madera (22). Despite these difficulties, I completed my basic education and obtained

grade B in English. Reading and comprehension were not that challenging to me, but the writing.

The struggles with English writing continued through my senior high school and finally

completed with grade D in English.

As ambitious as I am, I decided to further my education at Queensborough Community

College after living in the state for the past 5 years with my husband and 2 children. As part of

the admission process, I sat for the entrance exams which reading, and writing were part of.

Unfortunately, I failed the writing and passed the reading. I was advised to register for the

CUNY start program for a whole semester. I broke down in tears and felt I was going to waste a

whole semester. It was a struggle in the beginning, but I said to myself; “I can do this if others

have been able to do it”. During the CUNY start program, I took full advantage of the learning

support center by going for tutoring every day for better writing skills. Professor Johnathan, my

English professor in the program did a great job by improving my writing skills. I became one of

the best writers in the class and passed my CUNY Start English writing exams without any

difficulties.
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In summary, I had always prayed to get a professor who will continue with the

fundamentals I had from CUNY start and I thank God for Dr. Smith who is just the answer to my

prayers. Madera stated, “to say that I have conquered my fears of the English language would be

untrue” (24). I had the opportunity to do peer review with a colleague in the first draft of this

assignment. It was surprising with the number of errors identified in my draft. Luckily to my

colleague, she had minimal difficulty throughout her journey to reading and writing since the

English is her first language.

The English 101 class which has just began is another step in the journey to improve my

reading and writing skills. The articles, “One Voice” by Madera and “Learning to read by

Malcolm X have been very encouraging. I learnt that no matter how your situation or

environment, we should never give up in life. I am highly determined to improve my writing

skills by the end of the English 101 class.

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Works Cited

Madera, Susan. One Voice.