Wanting to make a good first impression on her classmates, Linnéa confidently walks up to the board, careful of not tripping on the extension cord lying across the mat. She doesn’t have to try, she is confident in herself and math. Linnéa is also erudite on the subject of math, but the sudden change and feeling of being so different has made her take a step back and not wanting to draw attention to her. She wasn’t her jaunty self. The blond girl who went before her smiles at Linnéa and gives her the marker as she walks up. Linnéa sets up the problem like the girl before did, not in the way she had grown up learning. She starts solving the math in her …show more content…
sorry,” Linnéa mumbles, still facing the board. “Umm… add the five and two…” She said, her voice a little shaky while writing the number seven under the line, in line with the five and two. “Then… add four and two… and bring the one down… here” Linnéa explains while writing down a six and a one, finishing off the problem.
“Nice work, thank you.” Linnéa’s teacher says in a tone that sounds like a compliment. Even though she messed up a little bit, she still felt proud of herself. It was the first time she stood in front of her new class while speaking… well, kind of, she didn’t talk in complete sentences and she didn’t look at them. But for her, it was a big step.
Linnéa is enrolled in a program called English as a Second Language, which is for neophytes. Starting on the first day they will pull her out of class for an hour each day and practice English with her. The two teachers running it are very benevolent. They both kindly pays for a Rosetta Stone account for Linnéa. Rosetta Stone allows her to practice her English, listening and speaking skills at home and in school. Linnéa is not the only one in the program. There is a tall, tan girl who is very nice, she walked around with Linnéa on the first day. She is from the Philippines. There is a boy from Puerto Rico, he is pretty short but nice even though he and Linnéa doesn’t talk much. The guy and the girl, however, were both fluent in the …show more content…
The night before the science fair, she has trouble falling asleep. She is lying in bed and thinking about her situation. If she were to go, what would be the worst possible situation that was to happen? Maybe she would not talk? Well people would probably just assume she was mute. But then again, how would she ever move forward with her learning? How would she ever improve if she never took those huge risks? Linnéa would have abdicated her reason for moving. If Linnéa stays home she would never fully get the experience of the new culture. If she went, she would step out of her comfort zone and challenge herself. Linnéa finally made her decision to go to the frightening science