Tutor
Course
Date
A Challenge I Faced Growing Up
Life events are accompanied by challenges that people must navigate to achieve a fulfilling life. As children grow up, they become accustomed to their society’s cultural values that eventually contribute to their personality. One of the most pressing challenges that people face is the failure to adapt to a different culture that is different from their own. In my experience, moving to a foreign country at the age of five was challenging as I had to learn a new language, which proved a difficult task that I eventually accomplished through making friends, consequently leading to successful adaptation to new ways of doing things.
Growing up in a rural setting in Kenya was fulfilling and beneficial in terms of making friends. Even though children in these settings lack necessary playing facilities, there was no shortage of improvisation, which made my childhood experience fun. Moreover, I managed to make friends that would stand by me through thick and thin while attending to my social needs. According to research, the homogeneity that characterizes rural settings is beneficial to young girls as it enhances not only their political knowledge but also contributes towards the formation of stronger social bonds (Lay 318). As a result, I made friends during my childhood that made my experiences worthwhile to the point whereby I was devastated to learn that my family would be relocating to the United States.
The migration to the United States proved challenging as I had to learn English before enrolling in my new school, which proved a difficult task at first. Since I was young, I was in a better position to learn a new language but was simply reluctant because I felt lonely. I was still reeling from having left my friends and wonderful childhood experiences in Africa that I found it had to concentrate on my English lessons. Indeed, unwillingness to learn new things is one of the factors that could make learning a new language seem so difficult (Durcharme). On my part, this unwillingness arose from feelings of loneliness as it was initially difficult to make new friends and express myself in a foreign language. As a result, I alienated myself further from my classmates as my confidence levels had gone down.
As time went by, I realized that I needed to make new friends in order to learn the English language effectively. I interacted with classmates whom I felt were more accommodating and willing to tolerate me despite the challenges that I was facing. I would communicate using simple phrases, and they would correct me, and with time, my language proficiency grew significantly. The importance of interacting with peers when learning a new dialect is that it enhances the ability to converse hence outlining the importance of friends in language development (McBrien 287). As a result, making friends enhanced my English language conversational skills and helped me learn a valuable lesson that it is essential to step out of the comfort zone if one is to tackle the challenges that one come across in life.
Concisely, making new friends is a prerequisite to efficient learning of a new language in a foreign country. Young children find it hard to adapt to foreign cultures at first because of the language differences and loneliness associated with adapting to new surroundings. The importance of making new friends is that young immigrants can quickly learn how to communicate, further increasing their chances of integrating into new surroundings. Overall, immigrants must strive to conquer their insecurities and make as many friends as possible to effectively learn new languages and cultures.
Works Cited
Ducharme, Jamie. "Why It's So Hard to Learn Another Language After Childhood.†Time, time, 2 May 2018.
Lay, J. Celeste. "She Was Born in a Small Town: The Advantages and Disadvantages in Political Knowledge and Efficacy for Rural Girls.†Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, vol. 38, no. 3, 2016, pp. 318–334.
McBrien, Jody L. Educational Policies and Practises of English-Speaking Refugee Resettlement Countries. Koninklijke Brill NV, 2019.
