Tag #142485 - Interview #100081 (Feiga Kil)

I entered Russian compulsory school. There were no Jewish schools in Latvia at that time. Besides, I had forgotten Yiddish by that time. I was fluent in Ukrainian, but I didn’t know Russian at all. It was hard for me to study. I had to stay in the 5th grade for two years. I spoke bad Russian with a strong Ukrainian accent. I made many mistakes in writing. Though Russian and Ukrainian are very similar, their writing is different. Schoolmates teased me not for being a Jew, but for being illiterate in writing and in speech. Thought, Letts never teased me, only Russians. The languages were hard on me, but I also got good marks in math, as formulae are the same in any language.