English 1: Has any event in your life had the same impact that learning how to read had on Douglass’s life? If not, why not?

For me personally, learning to write and read in Russian is the greatest impact I had in life and a big advantage towards my future.

Many people told me that just by knowing a second language (in my case Russian) will give you good jobs and you can do great things. I didn’t understand that at first, but then I came to realize why second languages are really important and useful. For example, when you’re interviewing to get a job the boss can count on you for helping out new workers that speak the same language. I was thinking hard of how it was useful and the answer was really simple, when there’s a new worker or something that can speak the same language as you, you can communicate with the new worker and easily show them around the place and tell how things work. To me that was the reason why learning this language in general is useful.

I can only imagine how Frederick Douglass felt whenever he knew that he can read. He was probably really happy to know that this is his advantage of escaping slavery. Since the day he knew that he could read, he started to learn how to write as well. He would practice the skill of reading and writing until he mastered it and until he freaked out the mistress’s husband. I can’t count how many times my skills to read and write in Russian or in English were in need. There are many events as to which I was needed for my skills. For example, at school whenever we would learn about countries or something I would share something about my country and teach my classmates some simple Russian words. To them learning about my country was exciting for them and I couldn’t be more happy to be the one to present these useful skills.

Or this once-in-a-life time chance whenever my cousin Angelina and my aunt Love came over to us from Russia. Aunt Love asked me to try to teach Angelina some English because she was struggling on that subject. I accepted her request knowing that this wasn’t gonna be an easy task, but at least I’ll get some experience teaching someone something and hoping that Angelina gains something from me teaching her. They came over from Russia to us for only 2 months so I had to come up with a way to teach her some English in a short amount of time. So I decided that the best decision was to not try to hard on teaching her ’cause I learned that it doesn’t work and that just puts a lot of pressure on her. So I decided that instead wherever we go, whether it’s a park, grandmas house, or our house I would constantly talk to her in English and just get her to know the sentences and how to say things correctly. It’s no surprise that people say that time flies as we have fun mainly because it’s true. 2 months flew by just as fast as they arrived and when those 2 months finished Angelina knew more about English than she has ever known. I was happily relieved by the fact that my skills of reading, writing, and speaking English were just enough to teach someone.

THANKS for reading this essay! I hope you got to know a bit more of how much I’m really proud of being a Russian and knowing how to read and write in that language. Same goes with learning to read and write in English as well.