Free My Greatest Accomplishment Essay Example

As a person from Saudi Arabia, I never learned English. Recently, however, I graduated from the English Language Program (ELP), which was part of the curriculum at the University of Dammam. Learning the English language was one of my dreams, and I felt so fortunate and grateful for the opportunity to finally learn English. Not only is learning English important for academic achievement, but it fulfilled a personal goal of mine, one that I will never forget.
The school arranged an excellent event, and my parents flew to North Florida to attend my graduation ceremony. It filled me with tears of joy to graduate from the program, and my parents were very proud of me. At the graduation ceremony, I could see my father nearly cry for his son, as I walked on the stage to accept my degree. Finally, after years of work, I had accomplished what I thought was impossible, at one point in my young life. Thus far, learning English is one of the most significant accomplishments of my life.
In addition, I had never seen my father cry. Although he did not show his tears to me, I could tell that he was very proud of his son the day I completed the ELP. In the past, I wondered why my father rarely expressed his emotions towards me. However, fathers are usually not direct or emotional with their children. To me, my father is a great man, but he never went out of his way to tell me how proud of me he was during my childhood. However, on this special day in North Florida, my father cried, but also told me that all of the family was very proud of me, including him.
Learning English was a challenging endeavor, and it was painstaking. Receiving the ELP meant a lot to me because it capped off my high school career. In a certain way, it made me a man. To come to the United States, live on my own, and learn a great universal language made me feel independent. Moreover, this accomplishment made me feel as if I could accomplish anything in my future. Thus, I feel that this process, and graduation ceremony, gave me a type of confidence in myself that I never thought I could attain. Nonetheless, as I accepted my diploma on that very hot and humid day, I looked out at the crowd, and saw my mother taking pictures of me, but I also noticed my father nearly in tears. This event was as important to him as it was to myself. My stern father seemed like a child on that fateful day. Finally, I knew that he was very proud of something that I had accomplished.
I want to clarify that English is a very difficult language. From my experience, I have learned that most English speakers consider Chinese or Arabic to be the most difficult languages to learn. As a native Arabic speaker, I soon discovered that English was very difficult to learn. I can only imagine how difficult English will be to master, over time. For me, the reason that English is so challenging is writing. Writing can be extremely arduous because the grammatical rule of English are inconsistent. Also, there are no stable rules for spelling a lot of words. For example, although the “c” is receive sounds like an “s”, the “c” is school sounds like a “k”. This is a minor example, but Arabic is very consistent, and Arabic is really an easier language to master than most people think. In addition, English has a lot of slang terms, and in writing, many slang terms are unacceptable. They are usually called colloquialisms in English academic writing, However, many times, it is difficult to know the difference between slang, and more formal academic tones when writing an essay – such as this one. Moreover, almost everyone speaks English differently. Therefore, understanding each person’s dialect can be very challenging. When I first learned how to converse with others, I found this to be one of the most difficult aspects of verbal communication.
However, as challenging as learning English was, it was just as challenging to view my father in anew light. Suddenly, my stern, strict father became different. My father may have always been a compassionate man, but he did a very good job of hiding his true emotions – especially about his family – just below the surface. As I mentioned, I never saw my father express much emotion, especially joy, until that very special day, the day I could officially say I graduated. The ceremony was also beautiful. Afterward, I recall my father coming up to me, and he even spoke to me in English! He told me that I am a great son, and that he loves me more than English words can say. Then, he hugged me. I was about to cry myself, but I held back my tears of joy. My father had become a softer, more gentle man on that day.
Thus, learning English was a major accomplishment in my life. In addition, by learning English, I also developed a stronger, more authentic relationship with my parents, especially my father. For one of the few times in my life, I saw my father show that he is not only humble, but he can show pride in his son’s accomplishments as well. My father is a hard-working man, and I want to be a hard-working man as well. I learned a great deal during the entire experience in North Florida. I learned independence, English, and I learned how much my father loved me, and that manhood is defined differently by various cultures. Thus, not only was my father proud of me, but I was proud of him. I was so proud of my farther because he let hi guard down, and showed his emotional side, his genuine love for his children,