222 Essays - English As A Second Or Foreign Language, Free Essays

222 Essays - English As A Second Or Foreign Language, Free Essays 222 Failure Experiences to Success Introduction What does the word ?failure? mean to you? Does it make you feel ashamed and disappointed? Have you ever given up when you become a failure? To many people, the word ?failure? usually has different negative meanings to people who are not successful in their past and lacking knowledge to be able to pass exams. It?s like the end of the world when things could not be re-done or reversed so that they could start over. Somehow to them, being called ?a failure? is also equal to becoming ?a loser.? Perhaps it?s okay for them to feel miserable and listless. I was also one of those people. It was always depressing to me and I would never dare to face what I did wrong again. Not until I had a chance to read Lives on the Boundary by Mike Rose, I realized that failure was not the end of every story, that everyone in this world, for at least once in their life time, has failed. It?s up to the failure to decide whether it is his or her ending or beginning of a new challenge. In Lives on the Boundar y, Mike Rose has taught me that every failure is a step forward to another success. Lives on the Boundary starts with ?this is a hopeful book about those who fail.? Basically, Rose gives hope to people like me, as an immigrant and non-English speaker, whose wish is to do better and be fluent in English as well as many other things in our lives. ?Lives on the Boundary concerns language and human connection, literary and culture, and it focuses on those who have trouble reading and writing in the schools and the workplace.? (Rose, xi) In the book, Rose has given us the advice by combining autobiography of his journey, the case study of his struggles in learning English and his writing strategy, and the commentary of himself and his students. Mike Rose has developed the way we think of failing and our talks about people who don?t do well in school. He gives us many examples of his students who have been labeled as a ?failure.? His students are people from poor neighborhoods, working-class families, immigrants who want to achieve a better life. ? The people I?ve tutore d and taught and the people whose lives I?ve studied-working-class children, poorly educated Vietnam veterans, underprepared college students, adults in a literacy program- they, for the most part, hadn?t been so fortunate.? (Rose, xi) They fail because they do poorly in schoolwork; thereby they get behind in most of their work. ?By the various criteria the institutions use, the students deserve admission-have earned their way- but they are considered marginal, ?high risk? or ?at risk? in current administrative parlance.? (Rose, 2) Instead of giving up on those students, the teacher Rose believes the school and teacher should change their potential so that the student can get better and become successful. Rose argues that using the basic methods could help most students to become better in basic writing. As an immigrant in the United States, after reading the book Lives on the Boundary by Mike Rose, I have been convinced that we should ?look beyond the labels of failure and feel hop eful about those who fail.? High School Memories and Experiences First of all, we need to think about the challenge that makes us become a failure, and how it affects our life. In my memories, high school seemed to be the most challenging time in my student life. It was about the time when I started to understand more about what was called double-dealing and when I had to deal with my scariest and happiest time in my life. It was not because I didn?t have any obstacles during my elementary or middle school. It was just because my life and my future have begun to change since I came to the United States seven years ago to start my high school. It was my happiest time because I knew and believed my future was going to start. However, it was also my scariest time when I had to leave my hometown, my friends, my country, and came here with