A Comedy of Errors

Epigraph: "Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words." - Mark Twain


Prologue:

It's been decades since I first arrived in the US as a young college student from Ukraine. But even after all these years, I still remember the early struggles of adjusting to a new country and a new language. And perhaps the most challenging part was trying to write in English.

I thought I was doing pretty well, until my family members - all Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union - got their hands on my writing. Their critiques were so thorough and relentless, it felt like they were trying to find every little mistake like they were searching for a needle in a haystack.

But in the end, their critiques helped me to become a better writer, and it turned into a comedy of errors that still makes me laugh to this day. So, sit back and enjoy the story of how my family turned my writing into a schtick comedy of errors, and how I learned to love the process of writing with their help


A Comedy of Errors: My Family's Critiques of My Writing


Let me tell you the story. It's the 90s, and a bunch of immigrants from the former Soviet Union have just arrived in the US. Now, they may have been Ukrainians, Jews, or a mix of different nationalities, but back then, they were all just called "Russians."

So, there I was, a young college student trying to navigate my way through a new country and a new language. I thought my writing was pretty good, but boy was I wrong! My mom, who had just arrived from Ukraine, found 15 mistakes in my three-page writing!

Then, her classmate, who had been living in the US for 30 years, found 10 more mistakes! And of course, my father, who had been studying English since first grade in the USSR, found 7 more mistakes!

But that's not all, folks! My uncle, who was also an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, found 5 more mistakes as revenge for my mom's classmate's husband!

And when I showed my writing to my college professor, who had never met a Ukrainian or Russian before, he was in for a real surprise! He said, "When will you Russians start to study the language of the country where you're living now?!"

I mean, give me a break, I was just trying to learn English while adjusting to a new country and culture! But hey, at least it makes for a great comedy story now, right? This is the story of how my family turned my writing into a schtick comedy of errors, and how I learned to love the process of writing with their help.