Learner Spotlight: Matsumi
We invite you to meet Matsumi, our featured student this month in our “Learner Spotlight”. Featured adult learners represent the Literacy Council’s programs, including authors from Reflections: Voices of English Learners, the Literacy Council’s literary magazine, as well as adult learners in other programs. Matsumi contributed several articles to the eighth edition.
I came to America from Japan where my daughter’s family lived eight years ago, and meeting the Literacy Council in Frederick and learning English for the first time in a long time was a valuable experience that helped me grow regardless of my age. By exchanging opinions with my classmates, I was able to converse more proactively, and I discovered that writing is fun. I am so grateful to ESL Coordinator, Ms. Catherine, and all the other staff for all their help. Thank you so much. I will be leaving this place soon, but I wish you all good health and happiness.
We hope you enjoy Matsumi’s written works, “Another Hero”, “My Treasures”, and “Dreams”. View all of our students’ stories on our Reflections: Voices of English Learners web page. Below is an excerpt of Matsumi’s article.
“Dreams”
What kind of dreams do you have?
People may say that I don’t dream because I’m tired and sleep soundly, but you still don’t remember, and you do dream. In fact, it seems that some people do not dream due to a combination of conditions such as short sleep time.
When I was a student, I was often in a bind, and I remember being scared and wanting to get up, but I couldn’t. Sleep paralysis is a condition in which the body feels like it is tightening even though the consciousness is clear when sleeping. This is also a kind of dream, but I’m sure I was stressed out from studying. I haven’t had one since I was a student.
In Japan, it is an old tradition that what you see in a dream becomes a reality, which is called a positive dream, and if the dream is good, you don’t tell anyone because it will not come true if you tell people. On the other hand, if it is a bad dream, you will tell people so that bad things do not happen. Precognitive dreams are often referred to as positive dreams.
Read the rest of Matsumi’s story and more student stories in our 8th edition of Reflections.