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Macaulay Honors College
at Baruch, Spring 2013Professor Els de Graauw
ITF Benjamin Miller Log in
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Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better
Although Lilya learned English back in high school in the Ukraine, she hadn’t used it until she came here at the age of 42:
When you start life all over again, at 42 years old, it’s not easy. But I think you know, some people think that my English is not good, I understand that my English is not good, but in some way I understand that I accomplish a lot.
It’s Not Your Fault
Throughout Lilya’s 17 years in New York she never felt discriminated against by America or it’s people:
You know, I like this country. And I like to live here. Despite, you know, to be an immigrant, it’s not an easy (chuckles) it’s not an easy process. And through these 17 years, I went through many difficults. I went through many problems, but you know, I whatsoever happened to me here, I never ever blamed the country, I never ever blamed the United States.
To Leave, Or Not To Leave….Definitely Leave
For Lilya, leaving the Ukraine was an easy decision after 42 years of hardship:
I’m a Jew and it was not easy to be a Jew in that country because of umm anti-Semitism and a lot of discrimination to the Jews that I went through, and that’s why I always dreamed to live in some country that I feel freedom, that I wouldn’t feel discriminated to get the job, to get the education because I’m Jew, not because I don’t have enough knowledge, enough education, enough experience, but because I am a Jew and I don’t think that this is fair and I don’t want this life for myself and I don’t want this life as I told you, for my kids and grandkids and future generation.
