To overcome the challenge of having to learn English while being in second grade, my strategies were to read lots of books, have conversations with my classmates to learn english conversationally, and to stop speaking my native language with my parents at home. I already knew that learning English would be easier if I started earlier, so I started learning English right away. To learn reading and writing, I also picked up on vocabulary and grammar with the help of my parents by having them read books to me out loud.

Learning English taught me how to be resilient by having to learn English in a short amount of time. Starting with second grade, without even having to take ESL I have learned how to speak English fluently at about the same level of a Grade 3 student by the end of my second grade. Speaking with people who have diverse backgrounds with different ways of speaking English was another factor in making me resilient. There were students who also had the same language barrier as me, and their thick accents and ways of speaking became so confusing at times it made me work harder in trying to understand them.

Learning English also taught me how I can persevere at times as well. However, the perseverance was only there because I was forced to learn English anyway. 

My strategy here was to use visuals (such) as gestures to help communicate my misunderstanding.

Although, because the incident where I got lost in the subways led me to walk back to our apartment, my strategy was to not repeat the same incident I began studying conversational Japanese between different dialects and slang. To further improve my Japanese I also decided to have more frequent conversations in Japanese with not only my parents but with peers in Japan. 
Although there were no significant skills or strategies I used during this event the incident itself in a way was what motivated me to persevere in learning Japanese because it reminded me how I can be not as fluent as I think I am.

Learning how to solve the Rubik’s cube made me learn how to accomplish something seemingly impossible (that is solving a Rubik’s cube) became second nature to me with just a bit of practice. My resilience to continuously learn new algorithms and memorize them despite hours of practice made me realize how dedicated I can be, and I often use that as an example to remind how determined I can be sometimes as well.