Christopher Stephen

Catrina Vininski

ENGL 11000

Sep/11/2005

Dominican Republic WHAT A TRIP

My mom wakes me up in the middle of the night to say Wake up, it’s time! I awake and am ready with clothes on and a suitcase on my right. My mom is a Dominican, dark-skinned woman who is 5’7″. She speaks mainly Spanish, but her English on my scale is a 5 out of 10. She is a very fierce and strong woman! I’m ready, ma, “she replied, saying,” Okay, let’s go. By her demeanor, she is nervous because I’m going to the Dominican Republic without her for the first time; my aunt is accompanying me this time! I put the suitcase in my mom’s car, and we both got in the car. Now we’re on our way to the airport while arriving!

I see my aunt with her daughter waiting for me. I said hola tia to her and Bendicion (Blessing) hugged her. She answered Dios te bendiga, ¿Cómo te sientes, Christopher, estás listo para ir a República Dominicana? I replied I’m feeling nervous because it’s my first time traveling without my mom. The thing about me is that my Spanish is a 5 out of 10, so I can’t reply without putting English words in when I speak Spanish because I don’t know how to pronounce many words in Spanish, but I can understand it! We are checking in, getting ready, and I’m excited, as well as my aunt and cousin! We got everything checked in and ready, and we’re on the plane, but this plane was looking weird, in particular there was no monitor to watch movies or hear music, so I turned towards my aunt and asked if she can help me with my Spanish, Me voy a ir, voy a ir para el cormado, Como tu esta hoy en este dia lindo! We landed after 4 hours and were ready to arrive to see our family members, while we were walking to get our suitcases, I could hear how different people speak from New York in Dr, KLK ( IT means what’s up in DR) was common to hear, but now I hear it more in DR and many new Phrases I didn’t know about! I was overwhelmed with the culture change, the conversations changed as well, it wasn’t English, it was plain Spanish!

 

We took a taxi from the airport and arrived at my aunt’s house, and I was welcomed by my aunts and uncles! I have three aunts and my uncle and his wife! They are all outgoing, but men have different professions. Firstborn is a stay-at-home mom, the middle is a manager of a company, and the last is a lawyer. My Uncle Is a furniture builder/maker! A conversation started and they asked why I wasn’t I talking. I gave them a shrug, indicating that I didn’t know, but in reality, I was nervous and embarrassed that I didn’t know that much Spanish! They urged me to speak and I did, I answering say I’m estoy embarazado that’s why I’m not talking. They burst out laughing, asking me if I heard what I said, and they told me I said I was pregnant, but I started laughing after and said I meant to say I’m embarrassed because I don’t know how to speak Spanish that much. They said it doesn’t matter, keep speaking it, and it will get better after that. Day after day I would create conversations to speak with family, and it helped me create friendship in DR which in term helped me learn that even though I could saying something wrong or don’t know, ask and keep speaking the language to learn more on how to speak it and let other help you like correcting you if you’re wrong! Now I can hold conversations, read and speak in Spanish, and pray to know more languages so I can communicate with the whole world!