(Week 13) Literacy: (n.) The ability to....

Literacy is generally defined as the ability to read and write, but to me it is so much more than that. Yes, reading and writing is important but the two together hold no real importance in our lives without understand of what is being read or written. Comprehension has a great significance in the definition of literacy. We communicate with one another these days through reading and writing more than we ever have in the history of the world. Our understanding what is being conveyed to us or what we want to convey to other people makes all the difference. Words are an amazing tool that we have be blessed to have at our disposal. Each word has it owns place in literature and can redefine our perceptions of so many things.
Literacy is language and the use of language in reading and writing. To be literate in one country is not the same as being literate in another. I’m not talking about language barrier but rather the way in which words are used. For example, in our country, we use the phrase ‘I don’t care’ when asked about our opinion or our preferences on something. In Spanish, ‘I don’t care’ is ‘no me importa’ which literally translated means ‘its not important to me’. This phrase in Spanish is portrayed the same way ‘I don’t care’ is in the U.S. to say that phrase it its Spanish version comes off as being offensive to many. Our comprehension of our very own languages and their use in our lives is different among people and cultures. Literacy, with my added definition of its need for comprehension, is then different all around the world. It is truly amazing.
Literacy in my life has made a great impact on me. I love to read and I do it all the time, whenever I can. My love for books has lead me to learn and appreciate things so much more than I did before I began reading as much as I do now. Of course, a lot of that comes with age and personal experience, but I attribute a lot of my knowledge to what I have read; whether that be in a newspaper, magazine, book, journal etc. I am thankful for literacy because it is not only a way to communicate, gain understand, and even expand my imagination, but it is a way to preserve those things long term, something the world didn’t ever think would be possible thousands of years ago.