Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement?
When I was in the middle of fifth grade, my father’s job required us to move to India for three years. As a child who had spent his entire life in the US, I found this experience an exceptional struggle because of the new style of education, the vast cultural differences and seemingly impassable language barrier. My school in India was English-speaking, but in name only. Conversations between students were overwhelmingly held in Hindi, with snippets of other local languages thrown in here and there, but English was never heard beyond the classroom. Even teachers, feeling too far out of their comfort zones, reverted to the native language they knew best.
I often felt isolated because everyone had been taking Hindi class for their entire lives, but I was just starting out. Since no two of us were fluent in the other’s language, our exchanges tended to be broken and awkward. It seemed impossible to start meaningful discussions or relationships with anyone.
I decided to relentlessly pursue the study of Hindi - studying intensively and exposing myself to it by initiating conversations with my peers, listening to the way they spoke and asking anyone who had time for basic guidance. After months struggling with gender specific nouns and distinguishing plural forms from singular ones, I could finally hold a proper conversation. I saw myself improving in class, making new friends and at long last, engendering the connections I had been lacking. Everyone could speak to me in the language that they knew best, and now I could really understand it.
As a child, it was difficult for me to analyze problems from perspectives that strayed from my own. After being exposed to a situation where I could not realistically expect others to take my perspective into account, I found myself becoming more sensitive to the opinions and ideas of those around me: I knew what it was like to not be understood. This newfound level of empathy has allowed me to learn quicker, be an effective teacher, and truly begin thinking on levels that transcend my own perspectives.