{QTtext}{font:Arial}{plain}{size:14}{textColor: 65535, 65535, 65535}{backColor: 0, 0, 0}{justify:center}{timeScale:100}{width:320}{height:40}{timeStamps:absolute}{language:0}{textEncoding:0}
[00:00:00.00]
Interviewer: Please state your name.
[00:00:02.03]
Benny: My name is Benny.
[00:00:03.30]
Interviewer: Is there anything else 
 you'd like to say about yourself?
[00:00:05.71]
Benny: I'm a Zoology major at Ohio State.
[00:00:07.96]
Interviewer: And what is the subject of your narrative today?
[00:00:11.98]
Benny: The first time I felt literate in a language.
[00:00:13.79]
Interviewer: Please continue with your story.
[00:00:16.08]
Benny: All right. 
 My story started back in 7th grade 
[00:00:18.24]
when I was given the option 
 to choose a language.
[00:00:21.44]
We had German, Spanish, and French 
 at our school.
[00:00:25.26]
And the German program was really small,
[00:00:27.55]
so I decided to take German, 
[00:00:28.62]
which I think was a really good choice
[00:00:31.48]
since both my parents actually emigrated 
 from Germany to the United States.
[00:00:35.90]
I never learned German 
 because they spoke English pretty well,
[00:00:38.60]
but all my family in Germany 
 they didn't know a word of English,
[00:00:41.99]
so I really couldn't connect with them.
[00:00:43.51]
And then I knew I wanted to visit Germany 
 when I was in high school,
[00:00:45.96]
so I started taking German in 7th grade,
[00:00:48.21]
and I was really bad at it along with 8th grade.
[00:00:50.68]
I was terrible at foreign languages.
[00:00:52.78]
And then as I moved on to high school,
[00:00:54.59]
Freshman year I really started to buckle down 
[00:00:56.09]
cause my parents were kind of like disgraced 
 that I was getting bad grades in German
[00:00:59.30]
when they're both from Germany.
[00:01:00.76]
So, I kind of worked a lot harder.
[00:01:02.54]
And then junior year came around,
[00:01:04.35]
and I told my parents I wanted to go to Germany.
[00:01:07.47]
I want to meet my family,
[00:01:08.40]
so we decided to take this big trip.
[00:01:10.71]
For two months we went to Germany,
[00:01:12.95]
and when I got there I was pretty shy.
[00:01:15.51]
I didn't really know what was going on,
[00:01:16.95]
but then after I started seeing words,
seeing signs
[00:01:20.82]
being familiar, understanding people.
[00:01:22.75]
I really felt in the language, and I blossomed out.
[00:01:27.39]
Started speaking German to people,
[00:01:28.85]
and it was great. 
[00:01:29.76]
Like people were connecting with me.
[00:01:31.28]
I met my family.
[00:01:32.36]
Everyone knew what was going on.
[00:01:33.52]
It was really cool,
[00:01:34.59]
and I felt like I could really connect with them with my German skills. 
[00:01:36.91]
And that's what I did, and I felt pretty literate.
[00:01:40.66]
And then the trip went really well.
[00:01:43.95]
And then I came back to the United States
[00:01:45.72]
and told everyone about my awesome trip.
[00:01:49.06]
Told my German teacher.
[00:01:50.25]
Gave a huge presentation for my German class,
[00:01:53.64]
which it was a big presentation 
 for a small group of people.
[00:01:56.74]
But, started, got this German study abroad program going at my school.
[00:02:01.48]
So, every year five or six kids go to Germany.
[00:02:05.27]
It really helps them learn the language.
[00:02:07.57]
It helped me learn the language a lot too.
[00:02:09.35]
And that's the story of how 
 I felt literate in German.
[00:02:14.01]
Interviewer: Is there anything else 
 you'd like to add?	
[00:02:17.45]
Benny: Yeah. It really helped me. 
 It helped me learn.
[00:02:22.98]
It really boosted my morale and everything.
[00:02:25.51]
I learned who my family was.
[00:02:27.50]
Germany was a great part of my life now.
[00:02:31.77]
And I really feel like I know the language well.
[00:02:34.94]
That's about it.
[00:02:38.84]
Interviewer: Thank you. 

[00:02:40.60]