Getting To Know
The Culture I Grew Up With
Growing up as the first child in my family born in the United States, I was raised a little differently from the rest of my family. I was raised speaking two languages: English and Russian. My family never fully accepted a Jewish religion or an Ukrainian lifestyle. However, we did embrace the food and the language to the best of our abilities. My grandparents, parents, and sister all came from Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine to San Francisco about 15-16 years ago. It was a drastic change and the rest of my family had to adapt to the new language and way of life. They had to find jobs, a place to live, and to completely change everything they knew about daily living, as it differed majorly between the two countries. Within a year or two of living in the United States, I was born.
My family taught me Russian from day one, and English from day two. I grew up being told Russian stories, folktales, poems, and songs. As far back as I can remember, I learned Russian from an orange alphabet book with weird little drawings and the silliest of phrases. There was always one story that I couldn’t stop asking my mom to read to me and that was Pinocchio. I never knew why, and I still don’t but I prefer the Russian Pinocchio over the English or Disney version. There was always something that stuck out from the Russian one that I found more appealing. It probably was the girl with the blue hair, but there were so many characters that added to the excitement of hearing the story for the hundredth time.
Food was a big part of my family, and my mom cooks the best food, whether it was Russian, Ukrainian, or anything else. I grew up eating piroshkis and crepes and broshe and many other things. My mom was always cooking and I did not grow up eating the most “American” foods. My breakfast would be something along the lines of eggs, soup, sweet bread, or oatmeal (more commonly known to me as kasha). Lunch would be something like meat with potatoes or soup and the same went for dinner.