Mischa Learns English NO AUDIO

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Printed in the United States of America

ISBN 0-15-323162-9

Ordering Options

ISBN 0-15-325518-8 (Grade 3 On-Level Collection)

ISBN 0-15-327018-7 (package of 5)

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by Manya Weg

illustrated by Andrea Arroyo

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2

“Oh, no!” someone yelled. I looked out my bedroom window. I saw a boy leaping in the

yard behind our building. He was trying to

retrieve his soccer ball. It was stuck in the

branches of a tree.

I hurried down to see whether I could help.Together, we managed to get the ball down.

Then we faced our next problem. I didn’t speak

English and he didn’t speak Russian.

This past June, my family came from Russia

to live in California. I had not studied English inRussia.



3

The boy, Ricky, and I managed to introduce

ourselves that day. Soon we became good

friends. We played soccer. That was a game I

knew from Russia.

Little by little, Ricky taught me English. We

pointed at things to help us understand each

other.

On the Fourth of July, our families went to

watch fireworks. Some would streak across the

sky. Others exploded into bursts of color. Some

fireworks darted around crazily. I enjoyed this

American celebration.



4

“Hurry, Mischa,” my mother said to me in

Russian one morning. “You shouldn’t miss the

bus on your first day of school.”

“Please, Mom, we’re in America now,” I said.

“Call me Mike, OK? Everyone else does.”

My mother gave me a look. I guess I was

being a little stubborn. “Other people can call

you Mike,” she responded. “Our family will

always be Russian as well as American. To me

you’re Mischa. Don’t grumble.”



5

I finished my breakfast quickly and ran to

wait for the school bus. Ricky had a soccer ball.We kicked the ball around a little while we

waited.

He introduced me to some other kids. They

seemed very curious. I bet they were wondering

who the new kid was. Some of the boys werevery friendly and told me their names. I met

David, Michael, Ted, and Billy.

The bus came and brought us to school.

Ricky and I were not in the same class. He

showed me where the lunchroom was and toldme to meet him at lunchtime.



6

My teacher’s name was Mrs. Parker. She

smiled and giggled a lot. The other children

seemed to like her. I thought I would like being

in her class.

Mrs. Parker realized that I spoke very littleEnglish, so she asked a girl to help me. Natalie

spoke both Russian and English! She had come

here more than a year ago.

Natalie said she would help me whenever I

didn’t understand something. “Don’t worry,”she said in Russian. “You’ll learn fast. I did.”



7

Mrs. Parker pointed to herself and said her

name very clearly. Then she asked me to say it,

and I did. I could hear that it didn’t sound

exactly the way she had said it. I had a Russian

accent! No one seemed to mind, though.

Later, as the children spoke, I realized some

of them had accents too. A few had come from

other countries, and like me, they spoke other

languages besides English.



8

Mrs. Parker asked Natalie to introduce me to

the class. Natalie introduced me as Mischa. I

quickly whispered to her. Then she introduced

me as Mike. Much better, I thought to myself.

Mrs. Parker pulled down a map of the world

and showed us the United States of America. She

pointed out the Pacific Ocean to the west and the

Atlantic Ocean to the east. America was a very

big country, I thought to myself. It stretched all

the way from one ocean to the other.



9

Then Mrs. Parker asked me to show everyone

where Russia was on the map. It was on the

other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Russia was

huge. Two big countries, and they’re both mine!

I thought.

Mrs. Parker asked Sung to point to South

Korea, where his family had come from. She

asked other children to show on the map the

country their family had come from. Then some

students showed the different state where their

families had lived before they came to California.

Some students had always lived in California.



10

Natalie was my partner for math. I had

already learned about meters and kilograms in

Russia, but now I had to learn about feet, inches,

and pounds, since those are the measures used

most in America.

We all took turns measuring our height and

weight. I was 3 feet 8 inches tall and weighed 75

pounds.

Then Mrs. Parker asked us to go on a Measure

Hunt to measure anything we wanted. Natalie

and I measured all sorts of things.



11

Then a bell rang for lunch. Natalie walked

me to the lunchroom. In Russian, I told her

about my friend Ricky. Natalie and I picked up

our lunch trays, and then we walked over to

where Ricky and his friends were sitting. Iintroduced Natalie to Ricky. Ricky told us his

friends’ names. Natalie and I sat down to have

lunch with them.

I learned the words for vegetable soup,

meatballs and spaghetti, salad, and apple.I already knew the word for cake!



12

The kids talked about the food. Some of them

had brought lunch from home. “Do you like the

food here?” one of them asked.

“Yes, it’s OK,” I mumbled. I didn’t say

anything else.

In Russian, Natalie and I talked for a while

about our families. Natalie’s mother was a nurse,

and her father worked at a bank. I told her my

father programmed computers and my mother

worked in a bakery.

Over the next few weeks, I learned more and

more English from my new friends.



13

One day after lunch, two sixth-grade boyscame into the classroom. They gave Mrs. Parker

a note and then left. She turned to David and

me.

“Boys,” she said, “Natalie is not here today. A

student at the school nurse’s office needs Miketo translate Russian for her. Please go to the

nurse’s office to help her.

As we walked, I wondered whether I really

would be able to help. I knew I had learned a

few words, but would I really find the words Ineeded?



14

In the nurse’s office, there was a young girl

sitting on a bed. She looked pale. She was

holding her arm. It was swollen.

“What is wrong?” I asked her in Russian.

“I slipped on the stairs and banged my arm,”

the girl answered. “It hurts a lot,” she said.

Then she began to cry. “I don’t understand what

the nurse is saying.”

“Valentina’s mother or father must come to

take her to the hospital,” the nurse said. “She

needs an X ray.”



15

I translated what the nurse had said for

Valentina. She calmed down. “My mother does

not speak English very well,” Valentina said.

“How will she talk to the doctor?”

“Natalie’s mother works at Lincoln Hospital,”David said. “She speaks both languages. Let’s

call her.”

The nurse thought that was a good idea. She

got the number from the school office. First the

nurse spoke to Natalie’s mom in English. Then Ispoke to Valentina’s mom in Russian.



16

Valentina’s mother came to school a few

minutes later. She thanked me. She took

Valentina to the hospital, where Natalie’s

mother would meet them.

Back in the classroom, David told Mrs. Parker

what had happened. She smiled. “It seems that

you really are learning English,” she said.

I looked up at her. “I guess I really am,” I said.



1 Who is “I” in this story?2 What is the main event in this story?3 Why do you think Mrs. Parker asked the

students to show, on the map, where their

families had come from?4 What did you learn from this story about

adjusting to a new culture and language?5 How is Mischa the same at the beginning

and at the end of the story? How is he

different?6 What would you do to make yourself more

at home in a place where you knew nobody

and didn’t know the language?

Another View This story is told by

Mischa. Rewrite part of the story, telling it as

though you are Ricky or Natalie.

Think and Respond

School-Home Connection Talk with family

members about what you could do to make a

new family feel welcome in your neighborhood.

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Mischa Learns English NO AUDIO