Wednesday, December 04, 2002

Being thrown into an English-speaking world without a bilingual education parachute didn't mean that my parents left their Ukrainian heritage behind or failed to pass it along to us children. At home and at church, we spoke Ukrainian and each Saturday my siblings and I were sent to a school organized and financed by the Ukrainian community in Detroit where we studied Ukrainian language, history, and culture. I went to kindergarten knowing very little English. However, by the end of the year, my parents found they were fighting an increasingly losing battle to keep me from speaking only English. A balance was struck. On public time, my world was English speaking. During the weekends and at home, it was Ukrainian. The system worked. And we became full-fledged English-speaking Americans without sacrificing our ancestral heritage.