I grew up reading mangas (comics) at my neighbor's who open a bookstore. My family wasn't very wealthy, my parents couldn't afford to buy us any extra story books, not to mention manga, the so call unhealthy readings according to my father. My neighbor was really nice to my brothers and I, he just let us read whatever we like in his store for free, without telling my father. Sometimes we will help him a bit at the store but most of the time we were just immerse in the world of manga. I do not understand a lot of the words in the manga, but my brothers will always discuss the stories with his friends, that's when I start to connect the pieces that I pick up from the manga and try to make sense of it. I strongly believe that was the time that my imagination and creativity starts to develop. Still remain a big fan of manga. =)
Although I did not get any pocket money to buy the story books that I like, but for some reason, there was a big bookshelf that full of books at home. Those were the books left behind by my uncles, aunties, some belonged to my parents and sister. Finished reading all the books in that shelf was my one of my childhood goals, not too sure if I eventually achieve it, but I definitely read a lot from there. Whenever I had words that I do not understand, I'll go to everyone in the family to look for answer. One day, my father had enough from me, and decided to teach me how to use the dictionary, I was about 7. Since then, I become a more independent reader.
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| <The Stories of the Sahara> by Sanmao, 1974 |
After reading <The stories of the Sahara>, a semi- autobiographical account of the life of Sanmao, the author, while she was in the Sahara Desert during the early 70's. Her stories full of love and pain in life, expressed in a sense of humour and sensibility inspired me to start writing. With the help from the dictionary, I will not have problem with difficult words.
Reading and writing habits continue through my schooling life. Born and grew up in Malaysia, a multiethnic country, I am very fortunate to be able to study in my mother tongue, went through traditional Chinese education with many supports, especially in terms of materials, e.g. books, magazines, newspapers, radio broadcast etc. For some reason, the Chinese newspaper in Malaysia uses the mix of Traditional Chinese font and Simplified Chinese font. That makes me very comfortable reading and writing using both fonts and eventually help me a lot in my current teaching. I can easily read and translate the texts from Taiwan or Hong Kong (mainly Traditional Chinese font) to Simplified Chinese font that suit the China students (who use Simplified Chinese font).
Look back at these experiences, the society that I grew up and my families give me great opportunities to explore into literacy and develop literacy skills. These have become one of the life skills that I most appreciate and wish to pass them to my student.
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| Day 1 activity in Content Area Literacy course 2013 Summer |
Ker, it seems like you are comfortable with the blogging applications. I like how you infused the pictures in your post. I was unaware that there is a traditional Chinese font and a simplified font. Is this similar to how English speakers can print or use script when they write or is it completely different characters?
ReplyDeleteLots of people have mentioned the relationships they have had with other people in relation to their early literacy history, like you did with your neighbor. He certainly had a passion for books that seemed to open your world. It was very kind of him to use the store for free.
It is interesting that you mentioned that your neighbor would not tell your father about the material you were reading. This kind of gave the manga you were reading an air of taboo and made it more exciting and motivating for you to read. The research shows that non-motivated readers will often become motivated to read certain text based on how taboo it is perceived by others. I remember I began reading Stephen King books as a teenager because of the adult themes in his books and I could read them in front of my parents and they never knew. :) Thanks for the post. - Jim
Pronunciation wise, there's no different for Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. Just that the Simplified Chinese has less stroke in writing the character. However the Traditional Chinese has been using by the Chinese people for thousand years, they have more stroke, and the characters make more sense to represent the meaning of each character. It's too bad that most of the people who are learning Chinese now are only focus on Simplified which looses the essence of the language.
DeleteWow, what an interesting way to learn to read! Although it is in an indirect way, I can relate to the usefulness of using mangas (comics) as a doorway to literacy. I teach grade 5 in Norway and our library recently purchased a set of comics. The comics are in English but they are set up to read from right to left and they are packed full of action. I could not believe how popular these were with my 5th graders, especially the boys. The books seemed so exotic and fast paced to the students and the boys, who do not typically enjoy reading, were suddenly competing to check out as many as they could.
ReplyDeleteI also liked how your neighbour was so instrumental in the early stages of your reading. The social/community aspect of your learning is an inspirational part of your history. I don't know if you have taken the child development class yet, but your history reminds me a lot of some of the developmental models put forth by Vygotsky and Brofenbrenner, who focus on the importance of the community/social aspect of learning. Very interesting!
Thanks James! Will definitely read more about Vygotsky and Brofenbrenner.
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