Jinyuan Cui
Jan, 19 10
WRIT 1122
Double-Writing
Being born and raised in China with the most difficult language to learn and deal
with, I struggled hard when I got started with Chinese spelling. Also, as a requirement of
the Chinese school policy, everyone was supposed to start learning English since fourth
grade. So, basically, I grow up with both languages. Years after that, when I first got here
(U.S.), it was still a big challenge for me to begin using English everywhere and
everyday. However, the ability of being bilingual surely is a gift to me. Sometimes I feel
I am really lucky.
The earliest and most vivid memory that I have of learning to write and read was
from my grandfather. It was a quite and sunny afternoon and I was four years old at that
time.
“Come here, Gaogao, (my nickname). I’ll show you something amazing.” He said
with a simile on his face.
My grandpa opened a book, which was called “Three Hundred Tang Dynasty
Poems”. And then he introduced me this classic poem that I would never forget:
“春眠不觉晓，处处闻啼鸟。夜来风雨声，花落知多少。”
Suddenly, the poem shocked me deeply with its inner beauty and rhyme. I was too
young to understand what was its meaning inside. The rhymes and the scenery it built
were splendid. In addition, the poem itself was for sure a huge impact on me. After the
initiation, I got crazy about pomes. In order to fulfill my addiction, I finished reading and
memorizing all three hundred poems from the Tang Dynasty in one year. Also, my
vocabulary expanded in to a new level. Moreover, I began writing some pomes in the
same classic Chinese poem format.
However, this was how I got started learning reading and writing in Chinese.
After graduating from high school, there were two colleges, to be exact, two
different kinds of lives in front of me. The first one was called Southwest University of
Nationality, which was a university located in southwest China. Well, apparently, the
second one was University of Denver. In order to learn English well and experience a
different culture, I chose to go with the second.
Jinyuan Cui
Jan, 19 10
WRIT 1122
When I arrived DU for the first time, the only good part of my English was the
oral. It was a nightmare, as I still remembered, that tons of reading and writing were
killing me. As I mentioned before, it was required that English was a must-take subject.
Although we had this policy, the problem was that what we had learnt for writing was a
not only short but also easy paragraph.
My first ligitament paper was for the course BUS 1080, which was called
leadership and communication. After the professor told us about the format and the
content about this paper, the first idea came to my mind was to seek some help from the
instructor. Then, we scheduled an appointment. The professor showed me how the paper
was supposed to be written. I planned to spend the whole weekend to work on my first
paper, in order to make it as perfect as it could be. With my few knowledge of English
writing, one paragraph would take me one or more hour, at least. I thought this could take
way too much time, which would make writing this paper a mission impossible. What’s
even worse was that the night the paper was due was also the Chinese Spring Festival.
After that, I tried to find some help from my Chinese friends. One of them gave me this
pretty helpful method, which was to write in Chinese first, and then, try to translate it into
English. At that time, this way turned out to help a lot. So it began.
When I got the whole thing done, we were having a dinner for the Chinese New
Year at my friend’s house. But, here came another question, which was my poor
grammar. However, that was really my lucky day. A friend of mine who was super good
at translating with magnificent knowledge of English grammar was also there at the
dinner. She gave me great help with both translation and grammar. I could never forget
how happy and satisfied I was the moment I got this paper done 100%. What’s more, it
was such a wonderful new year for me. As a result of being hard-working and the great
help from my friends, the paper got an A. After this important paper, my opinion was that
I could not go with this translation for the rest of my college career. I began not only
writing and speaking in English but also thinking in English, which was a giant step of
my college life.
Nevertheless, this was the way I learnt writing in English.
There is a Chinese saying, “Everything is hard with the beginning part.” I totally
agree with it. Many people think being bilingual is great, but they never see the time and
Jinyuan Cui
Jan, 19 10
WRIT 1122
the effort that one person put into studying both languages. Well, I enjoyed the entire
process. Nonetheless, I feel really lucky that I have this chance to learn and live in both
English and Chinese. Again, the ability of “double writing” is for sure not only a gift but
also a treasure to me.
Jinyuan Cui
Jan, 19 10
WRIT 1122
Speaking and Writing
For those two literacy narratives, due to different modes, the ways I express
myself are obviously different. Generally speaking, speaking and writing are a huge part
of our daily life. From my point of view, one on hand, the oral is more informal and
casual; on the other hand, the written is always not only formal but also more prepared.
There are some points I’d like to talk about.
First, let’s take a look at some similarities. No matter which mode you are using
for expression, there is always an order to follow. The most basic one will be
introduction, first point, second point…conclusion. Both papers and articles are based on
this order. When you give someone a speech or presentation, you also build your outline
and slides in the same way. For my literacy narratives, before I start working on either the
audio or the paper, a general outline is a good first step to begin with. If I don’t write
down an outline, my whole spoken and written processes will always make my head
totally blank.
Second, we have the differences. When I did the audio, what I did basically was
telling a story from my outline, which was the way I leant how to write from both
languages. However, with writing the paper, my story spreads so widely, which makes
the entire process more vivid. In addition, a good metaphor will be: the story is the bone
and the description from writing will be the meat. Moreover, both together make the story
much more energetic and graphic.
Next, either way has some advantages. Let’s begin with the oral. From my
precious experience with speeches and presentations, the materials are always prepared
really well and practices have been done many times. For this one audio, as I mentioned
above, I was just telling mu story from the outline. Actually, when I chose this course, I
totally was not expecting doing some spoken work; however, I really enjoyed expressing
not only my story but also myself in both ways. For the writing, in my opinion, when I
was writing my paper, it felt like either drawing a piece of painting or architecting a
building. Especially, I enjoyed writing in English; sometimes another idea came just from
Jinyuan Cui
Jan, 19 10
WRIT 1122
a word. As many people pus it, words give a person a chance to imagine and build the
world from the article with personal precious experience. In other words, with writing,
it’s more creative.
Finally, it comes to limitations. For the audio, one disadvantage I was having was
the pronunciation. If I pronounced any word wrong, the listeners would probably be
confused about what I was trying to say, which was a huge concern. Anyway, I did my
best with the pronouncing part. However, for me, the worst disadvantage of writing I had
was my vocabulary. As an international student, I am still learning the English language.
Sometimes, instead of variety of words, I used lots of the same ones to describe different
objects. Moreover, grammar is also a problem. In some situation, when I tried to use
several fragments to form one sentence, grammar always confused me.
To sum up, this combination of spoken and written work gives me plenty of
creative thinking, which brings me a chance to feel how each way is supposed to work
out. Again, from my point of view, one on hand, the oral is more informal and casual; on
the other hand, the written is always not only formal but also more prepared.
Nonetheless, in my opinion, it seems that the spoken and the written are separate. At the
same time, both of them also have some sort of deep connection. Literally, to be honest, I
really enjoyed doing both the work.