#made me cry
This tags are fucking sending me to another plane
My brother teaches swimming lessons and in one of his classes this summer there’s a 10 year old boy from Ukraine who has only been in the US since April (fleeing the war) and doesn’t speak any English. According to my brother, he only speaks Russian (I’m assuming he’s from Eastern Ukraine because that area has been the hardest hit and mainly speaks Russian but I don’t know for sure)
Last night my brother, knowing I minored in Russian, asked me for some help with some basic Russian words he could use to make this boy feel more comfortable in the class so I gave him a list of easy words/phrases that could be relevant to his teaching.
Well apparently it helped. He said the boy lit up when my brother met him with “privyet” (hi) this morning. My brother also said he used a few other words like “molodyets” (well done) during the class. My brother talked to the boy’s aunt when she came to pick up her nephew after class and she was so grateful that my brother had taken the time to learn a little Russian. She said it has been difficult for her nephew to adjust to life in the US and while they are working on his English so he can go to school here in August, they’re still very much in an adjustment period and he’s struggling since he doesn’t understand anyone.
I’m just happy that my brother was able to help him feel even just a little more comfortable here. I can’t even imagine how difficult the past few months have been for that kid. My brother asked for a few more phrases for next time so hopefully he can continue to help the boy slowly get comfortable here.
I honestly can’t stress enough how important this is. How important both your own and your brother’s actions are.
Readthis is a threat
everything everywhere all at once is about intergenerational trauma. about depression and passive suicidality and the gravitational appeal of nothingness. about aging, getting older in your twenties and getting older in your fifties. about the specific hurt mothers can cause their daughters and daughters their mothers. about the harsh reality of the immigrant experience and the american dream. but it’s mostly about kindness and family and it’s about choosing to sit at home talking about taxes with someone who loves you, and it’s about telling your daughter that you’d choose her over the entire universe, and it’s about how even in the universes where life didn’t form, love can still exist. and it’s really all of that at once.
