Five years later I, an excited eight-year-old girl, boarded a school bus in New Jersey. The excitement quickly turned to fear as I heard rampant swearing in the back of the bus. I was truly shocked when the bus driver did nothing to stop the vulgarity. In my schools in Florida such behavior would have met with a bar of soap and a visit to the principal鈥檚 office. A year later, I had a "Jersey" accent, and had started swearing too.
After nine years my family then moved to a place called "a whole 鈥檔other country": Texas. I discovered that everything is bigger in Texas, from the size of a glass of ice tea to the distances on the road. My mother added barbecued brisket to the regular menu of turkey and Idaho potatoes on Monday and arroz con pollo on Tuesday.
The incredibly friendly Texans, wearing cowboy boots and going to high school football games on Friday nights, seemed a totally different breed from my friends in New Jersey. A slight drawl entered my speech.
In two years time, I found myself in the mountains of rural Bolivian. As part of a team of doctors and students researching hypertension on a group of African- Bolivian villagers, I quickly learned a new vocabulary that included medical and anthropological terms. The GREatest test of my linguistic abilities came when a villager accused me of drinking blood samples in some kind of vampire-like witchcraft ritual. I had to bridge a vast cultural gulf to explain a DNA isolation and analysis protocol in Spanish to someone who had never heard of a gene much less a double helix.
A year later I stood in a line at a McDonalds outside Buenos Aires asking for a sorbeto with a Puerto Rican accent and receiving a blank stare in return. I did not realize that in Argentina the word for straw was papote. Working at the U.S. embassy, I could clearly see the obvious differences between the U.S. and Argentina, but being out among the people and actually experiencing the culture helped me begin to understand and appreciate the subtle differences which, when taken together, make up a people.
Each place I have lived has its differences, from the obvious distinctions of Wisconsin and Texas weather, to the regional variations of the Spanish language. I bring with me wherever I go a part of those places and the impact they have had on my life, most evident to others by the variations in my speech. Beneath all the accents, however, lies something more significant, for I believe who you are is immeasurable more important than where you were. When I was younger, I could not clearly discern between situations where I should or should not adopt the ways of those around me. With maturity however I have come to understand the crucial difference between adaptation and assimilation. I have chosen to reject the vulgarity of the New Jersey school bus; I have also adopted the Texans鈥?warm and friendly manner. Having experienced frequent moves to very different surroundings, I can adapt without compromising what is important to me while learning from each new setting.
A sign hung in my garage for many years that said, "Home is where you can scratch where it itches." To me this means that home is wherever you are comfortable and secure with yourself and your surroundings. I will be at home and prepared to meet new challenges wherever I am. Starting over so many times has taught me not to fear failure, but rather to embrace opportunities for change.
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作文地带知识拓展:
英语（English）属于印欧语系日耳曼语族西日耳曼语支，最早被中世纪的英国使用，并因其广阔的殖民地而成为世界使用面积最广的语言。英国人的祖先盎格鲁部落是后来迁移到大不列颠岛地区的日耳曼部落之一，称为英格兰。这两个名字都来自波罗地海半岛的Anglia。该语言与弗里斯兰语和下撒克森语密切相关，其词汇受到其他日耳曼语族语言的影响，尤其是北欧语（北日耳曼语），并在很大程度上由拉丁文和法文撰写。
英语的英文释义：
English 名词 uk /ˈɪŋ.ɡlɪʃ/ us /ˈɪŋ.ɡlɪʃ/
the language that is spoken in the UK, the US, and in many other countries
英语
American/British English
美式／英式英语
Do you speak English?
你会说英语吗？
English 形容词 adjective uk /ˈɪŋ.ɡlɪʃ/ us /ˈɪŋ.ɡlɪʃ/
in or relating to the English language
英语的
an English teacher
英语老师
relating to or from England
英格兰的;英国的
English films/food/people
英国电影／食品／人
English law
英格兰法律
文档为doc格式
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