The person I interviewed was my roommate Saaya. She is from Japan, 20, and she is an international student!
What are you asked to do with reading and writing at this point in your life? And what are the difficulties?
-At this point in her life she is mostly doing writing for academic reasons. She is currently an English major at her university. She says in America her teacher asks her to be super detailed and has to write plus support what she has to say. Then in Japan she doesn’t have to be so detailed.
-Reading in English is difficult because there is so much vocabulary she doesn’t know, so whenever she doesn’t know a word she has to look it up. Which, she says takes a very long time and is very boring to do. Plus she says that the American teachers say they can skip something’s and guess the meanings of the words from the story. Then in Japanese she said that they tend to have to understand every sentence and if they don’t they stop the reading to try and understand. She explained how her teachers in Japan told her it is, “not understanding was a very bad way to engrave reading skills.”
.What do you remember of reading and writing before you began school? Who helped you with it and what was that like?
The earliest she remembers is that her parents took her to the libraries often, and she loved to check out a lot of books from there that her mom would read to her before bed. Especially her mom, who used to read to her as kid before bed.

Hi, my name is Tiffany! What is my story you may ask? Well, I lived in Anchorage, Alaska while my mom traveled the USA. Yes, it was cold! I wouldn’t mind living there again. I love California, such a beautiful place. I just think there is more to explore in the world, more food, and even more cultures. That is why I want to be an international teacher! I love to travel, people, and food. So, I think I could accomplish killing three birds with one stone.

I am an English major! I love to read anything I can get my hands on. I love to write mostly fantasy or non-teen stories. Writing clears my mind as well as reading does. I think the purpose of reading and writing is to feel connected to something.  Reading takes me to a different place and helps my vocabulary. When I write I feel as if I am expressing myself and putting my thoughts into the world.

In Szweds piece I was really intrigued when he stated that “illiteracy has been the singled out as a root cause of poverty.” I was really surprised and had to really think about it. It made sense though, if you don’t know how to read and write people are going to look down on you. This, I think happens a lot. One thing that did confuse me is on page 24. He uses the term “public and private literacy” which he explains, but I do not fully understand. In all I think he does make a very compelling argument, very persuasive.