My parents split their duties into the English / linguistics part (taught to me by my father) and Russian / math (taught by my mother). Unlike my father, my mother had to work Saturdays, so I lagged somewhat in the skills she was responsible for, especially the cursive writing in Russian that I picked up significantly later than the English cursive.
By the time I was to start school at the age of 7, I had already become exposed to the idea that having to learn Ukrainian would be an intolerable burden and ultimate unfairness. For the life of me, I can’t remember where I got this from (this was obviously not coming from anybody inside my family) but I recall approaching my father with, “Can you believe that I will have to take Ukrainian in school??? This is ridiculous! I don’t know Ukrainian!”
“Ah, don’t be silly,” my father said. “Of course, you know it. It’s your language, so you know it already. Here, take this book in Ukrainian, read it, and write a 3-page essay on what it is about.”
“In Russian?” I asked.
“No, in Ukrainian.” Then he paused and added for good measure, “And then translate it into English.”
And that was how I became tri-lingual.
Clarissa's Blog 
Your father is really clever! 🙂
But, unfortunately, his memory fails him: he doesn’t remember that…
He trusts you completely though. 🙂
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Нам не дано предугадать, чем наше слово отзовётся. 🙂
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Nice, you have a great Dad. 🙂
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You don’t even imagine how much I agree with you, JT! 🙂 🙂
But, seriously speaking, Clarissa’s father is not good enough. On the other hand, can a father be good enough?..
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I can’t speak for others, but he’s good enough for me. 🙂
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Always room for improvement but you can still be great. Just the fact that you blog together speaks volumes. 🙂
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Do Ukrainians start school at 7? Were children expected to know how to read before they started school? I was an early reader, too, and when I started kindergarten at 5, I was sad and confused and despairing at being in this environment. I remember one activity well. We were given a circle of red or green construction paper, and we were helped to write “red” or “green” on it. Then we glued it to a tongue depressor, and walked around in a circle holding it up. I was not reading Dreiser, but I was reading children’s chapter books by this time, and it was just misery to spend my day doing these stupid exercises.
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Yes, our school starts at 7. Almost nobody could read at all and I was bored out if my head, just like you. I always hated school. 🙂
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