Writing a Self-introduction

A few weeks ago, a student in Taiwan emailed me to introduce herself, saying she knew a couple of my students, was impressed with their English, and wanted to study English online with me as those two friends of hers were doing.

To get started, I just asked her to write a brief self-introduction. She writes well; here are a few things to watch for in her essay:

– she uses a clear structure, in this case, chronological order
– she cites a complete school name, followed by the abbreviation in brackets, then uses the abbreviation in all following citations
– book titles are italicized
– she shows a true “thirst for knowledge.” This is one eager learner!
– rather than regretting the difficulties of changing schools often–and there must have been difficulties–she is positive about the challenges and excited about how her diverse background helps make her unique. This fact led us to a brief conversation in class today about “the road less chosen,” and how an unusual past creates unique experiences and views. (As I told her, the fact that I spent one year of college in Germany and ten years in Taiwan teaching gave me an unusual background and now some unique perspectives and life experiences.)

Her essay:

Mr. Dreyer, some things about me I would like you to know are:

First of all, as I had already mentioned, I am a student studying at the National Experimental High School (NEHS) in Hsinchu, Taiwan. As you had also stayed there for quite a period of time, I am not going to introduce my school to you, instead I would like to talk about what I had learned in the past few years.

Starting from third grade, right after I left Taiwan, I started studying in international schools. My first school there, Xiwai in Shanghai, was very different from NEHS, but it actually taught me many useful skills. There I met a teacher, Mr. McBroom from the U.S., who changed me entirely, who made me a more efficient and productive person. In his class, we did not have any textbooks. All we had were our hands and our heads, our pencils and our notebooks. Not only was his speaking speed compared to our writing speed a great problem, but the new and harsh scientific words were the ultimate killer. But after a semester, I learned to write down all my notes with points but not copying down the whole spoken sentences; I learned to memorize all the things in class and turned them into my knowledge. That semester, I learned to put my time to better use, and that, differed me from all my other classmates. Although that was a very harsh time, I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed my progress and achievement.

However, as time flew by, it was time for me to leave that school and go to another school, Shanghai High School International Division (SHSID). I got nearly full marks on my written entrance examination, but I seriously did not do well in the interview. Since I answered all the questions with a yes or no, instead of complete sentences, the teacher might have thought I did not know how to speak, so I was placed into Standard English class as a result. But chances are given to prepared people. I first got champion in the English storytelling contest, then got a pretty high mark for my first monthly exam. Eventually I was given the chance to apply for Honors English, and I got in. In that school, I overcame my fear of talking to strangers and learned to share my thoughts and ideas with others. There, I became a more optimistic person, and I enjoyed being in front of people, presenting or giving speeches, anything.

Together with my parents, I came back to Taiwan and got into the International Bilingual School in the Hsinchu Science Park (IBSH). In my two years there, I discovered the joy of studying and found myself interested in reading. In seventh grade, we read Animal Farm, The Power of One, and The Road, books that have a deeper meaning beneath the literal meanings. With the teacher’s explanation and discussion with groups, I figured out that literature is something fun to devour, something interesting to learn. So beyond my love of science and history, I now have a new friend, literature. However, I still do not have the ability to realize the deeper meanings hidden in sentences on my own, thus, I would like someone to help me with that.

Although I have transferred between schools much more than most other people, although I skipped many lessons that seemed to be important; in every school I learned different insights; with every transfer, I learned to adapt to the environment faster than anyone else could. I like all I have learned, I enjoy what I was given; I do not mind what I do not have or what I have lost; what I care about is what makes me better, and makes me different from others.

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In this case, the student simply wrote the essay at home, read it aloud during our online class, then I gave her some feedback in real-time (add this, delete that), and she made the changes directly to her text. I then told her the saying, “this isn’t rocket science.” That is, just writing a story and talking about it and editing it in class is not mysterious– in fact, it’s quite simple!

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