<p>For my CA Essay, I'm thinking about taking topic #1 (background story), but I'm not sure if it might sound banal/ redundant/ cliche.
So during high school, I did lots of English as Second Language teaching (around my community, at church, and at school) to refugees and international children and even founded/taught my own ESL class in the community. And I already put this in my activities list.</p>
<h2>But I feel like it's not enough. ESL teaching is one of the most important things (for me as a person) I did in high school.</h2>
<p>I really want to tell a TRUE story about why I'm so devoted to ESL teaching. So my essay now consists of two mini-stories. One of me in the UK in elementary school, (I'm Chinese and I didn't speak English back then.) where I could not understand an assignment and thus was very dejected. And another of me in 9th grade in the US in history class, (now I speak perfect English) where an international kid asked the teacher a really basic spelling, and everyone laughed and I did too--> remembering my own experiences as a kid and seeing this international kid struggling, I started my "quest" of helping non-English speaking kids, who are really quiet, friendless and struggling at school because they don't understand.
And when I taught them English, I also encouraged them with my own experiences, telling them that its possible to speak English well even if you didn't grow up speaking it. And I taught them about American culture and etc, and one kid said that nobody else seemed to understand him/ relate to him as well as I did.
And the rest of the essay would be about its impact on me as a person.</p>
<p>Would that be okay or too cliche? I mean it's true, but half the Asian kids I know wrote about their immigrant experiences somehow, and obviously I want to be unique. Though I guess this essay is more focused on what I did afterwards (teaching/ changing lives).</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s a good idea to write an essay about your heroism. What you did was great but on paper it may come off as arrogant or just plain boring. Maybe leave the second story out and just talk about struggling with English as a child and learning to fit it in or that it’s nothing to be upset over etc.? I think you can write a pretty good essay on immigrant experiences. But if you feel like a lot of people are writing about that then go for something else.</p>
<p>Yeah good point.
But again I don’t want to leave out my ‘teaching ESL’ part b/c that’s the heart of the essay (if I write it). I’ll probably drop the ‘I’m a hero, I change lives’ stuff and focus on how/why I now devote 5+ hours a week to teaching ESL (for free) to others. Sounds okay or still arrogant?</p>
<p>How can someone prefigure the future? Will it be banal? Bluntly stated, writing is banal. How can something mundane give rise to something lively? Imagination. Intense feeling. Power of perception.</p>
<p>Look, you write very well. I couldn’t tell whether English is your first language or not. You have a strong desire to articulate these experiences, so do it. I think your perspective is intriguing because you can relay a different side of things to an audience lacking balanced information which is a disruptive process generally accompanied by the benefactor (reader, in this instance) gaining a few insights.</p>
<p>If you’re going to stick to teaching ESL as a subject, then maybe write about something specific that happened while you were teaching ESL. Write about that one incident and then analyse it. It doesn’t have to be mind-blowing. Something that seems mundane but that affected the way you think could also work. Maybe a time when you were frustrated because of the job or something else of that sort? You can slip in some details about why you teach ESL in an essay like that. </p>
<p>I’d say just write one ‘mini-story’ in the essay, not both of them. It might seem cluttered. But in the end, if you feel like the story from your childhood is using up words that could be used to focus more on the incident you chose, just cut it out. Your essay might be better without it.</p>
<p>I think you can move forward taking a little piece of all the advice here. It is all in the writing. You do have to have a deft touch here because it is a fine line.</p>
<p>“I don’t think it’s a good idea to write an essay about your heroism.”</p>
<p>I agree. However, it seems like you get a lot out of your ESL teaching. So turn the essay into a story about how teaching helps you, not what a hero you are for helping the students.</p>