How do we define literacy? Usually, the answer appears in our mind is one’s ability to read and write, and we certainly know it is a superficial answer. Literacy means the quality or state of being literate. Dictionaries define literate as characterized by or possessed of learning, versed or immersed in literature or creative writing, and well executed or technically proficient. The definition doesn’t incline us to anything about morals or consciences. However, many ideologies have been attached to this term, and we are affected so much by it in many aspects of our life.
What did I learn to write first? When I was at the age of four to five years old, my mother taught me to write my name. What does a person’s name mean? In my opinion, it means identification and ego of oneself. Before you learn something, you have to recognize and know yourself. During the time she taught me to write my name, I was asked strictly to make my name correct, decorous, regular, straight and well-mannered. I took it for granted, and that couldn’t influence me more. I kept practicing writing my name that time, and what I did formed the way of my handwriting. Since the time, I have always kept my handwriting clean and formal in the way my mother told me. Words written down by me are just similar to those printed by machines, and that is also the way I write English after I learned it several years later. Some people who appreciate my handwriting say that my words are well-behaved, some people tell me my handwriting is child-like, but more frank people, including my mother, tell me that my handwriting is ugly.
Besides, this also has something to do with my personality psychologically. Generally speaking, I am an upright and honest man. The way I am is like what my handwriting looks like. However, to be honest, it is hard for a person not to mind others’ comments on oneself, not to mention criticisms. Though I am used to how different people view my handwriting in many ways, sometimes I still can feel the discouragement and depression emerging from my heart. That’s why I don’t have much confidence in myself. Even though I keep doing what my mother expected me to do, she doesn’t seem to have a positive attitude on my handwriting. How sarcastic!
When I was even younger than the age of learning to write my name, once my mother gave me a book. Then I had to listen to a tape of this book, and I had to follow the pace of the tape to read the book. Of course, I couldn’t recognize any words. I understand what was said while I was listening to it, but I just couldn’t read. My mother was washing clothes, and I asked her several times when I should turn to the next page. She just answered me a bit impatiently that I should just read and keep following the tape. Now I just wonder why I could did it so patiently since I couldn’t read anything and I was just a little child. Fortunately, that didn’t decrease my interest in reading in the early time of my life.
After I went to elementary school, I enjoyed reading because my literacy ability was increasing day by day. I read as many things as I could when I was an elementary school student. It was a pleasant time because I was just simply glad that my literacy helped me realize more things. Nevertheless, the disaster began when I became a junior high school student. I had to say it was cruel and competitive to be a junior high school student. When it was the second school year, all students were divided into different classes again according to their grades. I was in one of the best two classes. There were tests every day, and all students in my class need to attend school even on Saturdays and Sundays. After school, I went to a cram school. There were no winter vacations and no summer vacations for all the students in my class. The word, literacy, means something more when it is applied to the case. Can literacy be functional? My parents stress on literacy very much. It is a strong ideology of all the people in my country that each person needs to have extremely good literacy if he wants to live better and earn more money. During the time of being a junior high school student, my classmates and I were told that what we did was to prepare for our future. In fact, I think that it is a little sad to admit that literacy becomes the basic skills to compete with others. Literacy seems to be one’s basic ability to achieve what he wants to do, to adapt his way of life to the society, and to interact with other people.
Of course, I entered a senior high school because my entrance exam was not bad. The horrible life in the junior high school helped me to step forward to another phase. There were not as many tests as in the junior high school. The best news was that students didn’t need to go to school on weekends. And fortunately, all the students could still sense the strong pressure of preparing for the entrance exam of entering universities after three years. What a life!
Though I studied hard, my grades were not very good in senior high school. The grades of all my subjects were just average, but I was a famous person in my class because my English was the best and my math was the worst in my class. When I was going to graduate, I needed to take the remedial exam because my math grades of the last semester were too bad. Of course, I failed, but those who failed for the first time had the second chance. The questions would be completely the same as the first time. My math teacher asked me to give him the questions, and he wrote down the answers in detail for me. I memorized all of the answers, and I passed the exam. Though I don’t hate math, I never consider it to be a part of my literacy in my life. Probably that is the reason why some professional occupations exist in the world, such as accountants and mathematicians. People like me don’t bother themselves with math.
During the period of senior high school life, I used to go to a church near my house. My purpose was to learn English there. There were formal courses and bible classes. I took part in both of them. These courses combined with my studying hard improved my English. Formal courses cost money, but bible classes were free. The teachers there were all missionaries from different countries. They earned money by teaching English, and they carried out their religious missions by teaching bible classes in English for free. It was a fair trade based on the need of literacy in English.
In 2002, I became a soldier after graduating from university. In my country, it was an obligation for men to be soldiers. I was assigned to the defensive artillery subordinated to the Air Force. In five months, I was picked to assist in dealing with the personnel matters because I was a university student. My literacy background changed my life of being a soldier. Originally, my position was more risky and sweaty for I had to handle the artillery. Then I must learn how to deal with the official documents and some new skills to adapt to my new job. The degree of literacy divided the soldiers into different groups. If it had been in war, I would have had more chances to survive.
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