From birth, exposure to different vibrant cultures was never an out-of-the-ordinary concept in my home. My dad’s parents were immigrants from central Ukraine, and although they loved the opportunities that the United States gave to them, they were hell-bent on passing their traditions on to their children. My father, Victor, my uncle Borys, and my aunt Vera made sure to retain the values that their heritage instilled. For their children, that meant becoming fluent in Ukrainian, and passing the heritage down to them. Fast forward about 30 years to Grosse Pointe, Michigan, and you’ll see a young Victor teaching his infant daughter, me, basic Ukrainian. My experience growing up as a Ukrainian American is one I wouldn’t trade for anything because of all of the opportunities it granted for me
I went to Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Catholic School in Warren, Michigan, for my elementary and middle school years, so being around cultural diversity was never a foreign concept for me. One of our required classes was Ukrainian class, so learning to speak another language never frightened me. In fact, I thought that all kids grew up learning another language from elementary school. Fast forward to my eighth grade graduation, and I had a substantial amount of Ukrainian language under my belt, but I lacked a passion for learning languages.
When I started high school, I decided to sign up to take German to explore my mom’s heritage more. I ended up having such a passion for learning to speak languages. My high school German career landed me in German speaking competitions, applying for (and earning) scholarships, coming close to winning a trip to study in Germany for the summer, taking three years of French in high school, and ultimately to my German major.
Along the way, I realized the thought of learning other languages not only terrified some of my classmates, but it bored them. We grow up with such a narrow vision of the world if we don’t learn about other cultures, and we don’t see the possibilities that communication presents to us, because we’re stuck on the fact that we won’t be as good as the native speakers, or we’ll never earn enough money to travel to the country to practice the language.
There is a plethora of benefits that come with choosing to study another language. Becoming fluent in a language other than your own is not only impressive, but it opens you to so many employment opportunities that you can’t count on two hands. Studying one language opens doors to jobs as a domestic or international language teacher, a businessman or businesswoman with a world view of their field, a translator, a worker in foreign policy and many more.
The most important thing learning Ukrainian, German and French has taught me is a view of the world we live in. You can’t truly understand the struggles or accomplishments of others unless you immerse yourself in that world. Becoming an open-minded person is something I’m so thankful for, and it came with becoming multilingual.
