Name : Iftekhar Muntasir

Course : ENGL 11000

                                                              COVER LETTER

          I am Iftekhar Muntasir, a CCNY student who was born in Bangladesh on December 17, 

2004. My brother, my mother, and I make up the majority of my family. In 2010, my mother 

immigrated to the United States, bringing us here in 2017.The purpose of this cover letter is 

to demonstrate how a language barrier can cause several issues and inconveniences, as well 

as how it directly affected my family and I. My narrative describes in detail how I confronted 

racism and hostility because of linguistic differences, as well as how I coped with the 

problems I encountered. When I started middle school, I faced my first, but not my only, 

difficulties with racism and language barriers, when my fellow classmates and teachers 

would make fun of my poor English speaking skills and accent. 

       Since moving here, I’ve come to believe that bullies and authority figures frequently 

target new immigrants like me because we can’t keep up with “American English,” even 

though language should be a means of expression rather than a vehicle for prejudice and 

Hatred. My English did improve over time, but not in the same way that the system and 

culture here treats those who speak with accents or other languages other than English.It 

always depends on a person’s mindset of how they view you, and my goal in sharing my story 

is to change how people view immigrants who either don’t speak the “AMERICAN WAY OF 

ENGLISH” or have an accent. Everywhere there’s good and bad, in my experience, I’ve met 

both. There have been times when I’ve met people who have looked down on me for not 

being able to speak their way as well as people who respected me for being quad lingual.

          No one should be criticized or denigrated based on their use of language, which is a 

component of life that is most essential for communication. Since different people 

communicate in different ways, this is not something that should be taken into consideration. 

Because of my imperfect English and inability to communicate with those around me 

effectively, I have experienced numerous injustices and hardships throughout my 

adolescence. However, this does not give those people the right to treat me with contempt, 

and it took me a very long time to get over this problem. I wanted to reach as many people as 

possible through my writing so they could learn from my experience and recognize that there 

are differences between everyone but that everyone should be treated with respect. People 

like me who immigrated here aren’t any less than those who were born and raised in the 

United States.

                                             Language And Literacy Narrative

            I am neither an author nor an expert on English literature. I can only speak from my 

own experience with the many forms of English literature and language.

            I am a student who recently became a citizen of the United States and am a 

quadruple-lingual immigrant. According to that description, I am an immigrant with lofty 

aspirations who came to the United States. I often reflect on the ability of words to conjure an 

emotion, or a straightforward reality. English was one of the languages I learned growing up, 

but it wasn’t the English Americans use. Since that’s how things work back home and how I 

grew up, I was initially quite eager to discover new things and meet new people when I first 

  moved here. I didn’t realise that my language barrier with other students and teachers would 

make my life so much harder, therefore things didn’t quite go the way I had anticipated.

          My peers would frequently mock me and the way I spoke English and I would 

frequently experience bullying as a result. I would become upset and go home. Looking back, 

I often chuckle at myself, but at the time, I didn’t blame myself because I was only twelve. It 

took me some time to overcome the language barrier, but it was all because of one of my 

friends who were also from Bangladesh and had gone through the same struggles as me with 

English language and accent. He came to me and said, “I’m glad I could help you through 

those tough times and get those unpleasant memories back.” “Iftekhar, don’t be depressed; be 

proud of the fact that while the ones making fun of you only speak English, you speak four 

languages. Let them make fun of your accent, and use it as motivation to improve your 

English language skills.” I then asked him, “How do that?”. He responded by saying “What 

counts is how you want to communicate and express yourself; why are you worried about 

How they want you to speak? Instead of trying to sound like them, you should find ways to 

overcome your accent on your own. Perhaps you could start by simply spelling out the 

words?”. I started following his instructions and began reading books like the lightning thief 

more frequently. I also repeatedly practised pronouncing words that were a bit difficult for me 

to pronounce on Google until I was successful, I also would youtube to look up speeches. 

Although I started to sound better when I spoke, the folks who made fun of me and remained 

the same. You believe you’re getting better because you can speak for five minutes without 

stopping to think, one of the children would frequently say. It was starting to kind of depress 

me, but then my friend said, “Why bother with individuals who can’t help but just hurt and 

prevent you from accomplishing your goals?”. His remarks struck a chord with me, and as a 

 result, I stopped caring and got over the classmates’ criticism of my accent. Later, when I 

transferred to a high school, my English speaking significantly improved. People would 

occasionally still make fun of me from high school, but I kept in mind what my friend had 

said to me and continued to ignore them.

            I eventually stopped dealing with such problems and understood how much one’s 

speech may affect their lives. Even after I stopped getting teased for my accent, I would 

frequently witness people showing my mother less respect due to her poor command of 

English, which always made me think of my own dramas with the language. I once witnessed 

my mother having trouble speaking with a worker at Best Buy while she was learning about 

the features and cost of a PC. When she said, “What special this PC,” the worker 

laughed and advised her to find someone who speaks your language. I was not far off when I 

became very upset upon realising that I had also experienced this type of criticism due to my 

pronunciation: When I returned to the expert, I asked her what she found so amusing. She 

told me something about the PC and you started laughing. She then started to justify the 

situation while trying to hide her laughter. Due to the English language’s differences, my 

mother and I had experienced difficulties. Over time, people had teased us and we no longer 

had any influence when addressing others; instead, we were mocked and tormented. My 

mother  however, was never weak; she was always resolute and would tell me things like, 

“Listen, don’t judge people by how well they speak English; rather, judge them by their 

talents and how they treat others, regardless of any language barriers. Because no matter what 

language a person speaks or how they speak it, they should all be treated with the same 

respect and value.”