(Best for Women)

My mother's native tongue was French. When she moved here she didn't take classes to learn English but listened to the radio, read comic books and listened to people to learn the language. By the time I was cognizant of her speech and use of language, she was very adept at speaking English. Unfortunately she would confuse words at times, like using "washing machine" for "vacuum." As a child I would make fun of her and laugh. As I grew older and realized how people interacted with her (or refused to) because of her word usage and French influenced syllabic pronunciation, I stopped. It sensitized me to be mindful of people who spoke English as a second language. It also allowed me to enter a magical world of new concepts and thought patterns of which monolingual people are ignorant.