How to live and work without English in the USA: personal experience

About how Russian-speaking immigrants manage to live in Los Angeles for years and work, practically not understanding English and not trying to learn it, says Nikolai, the author of the channel on Yandex Zen.

Photo: Shutterstock

I’ll tell you using the example of the people I work with - and I work in a Russian store for Russian-speaking people, mainly from Ukraine.

First example

So, there are a couple of women there who came in the 90s during the collapse of the USSR. Having lived in the US for 30 years, they do not speak English. It’s just terribly bad and they won’t say anything other than “Hello”. But they don’t have any problems with this; they buy groceries in Russian stores and bought cars through Russians. Russian-speaking pharmacies - please, doctors - for God's sake, mechanics, mechanics, lawyers, taxis, in any big store you will meet Russian-speaking people, everywhere. Therefore, here in Hollywood (Los Angeles area), you can survive without speaking English.

This is a terrible situation for me because my English is not improving. This means that you can stay in such a job longer than necessary - and after 30 years you will end up in America without English.

On the subject: In Massachusetts, the winner of the lottery lost a prize of $ 4 million due to lack of knowledge of English

Second example

All the same from work. We have a guy in our store, he is 33 years old. He came to the United States on a tourist visa in 2018 and applied for political asylum. But he does not have English at all. As he says, finding a job without English is simple, but impossible with English.

And so he found this store, where they hire, for the most part, Russian-speaking people. And every time he says to me:

— It’s so cool, it’s as if I never left Russia.

To which I reply:

- No, friend, this is not cool.

He claims that everything should be so, and he does not need this English. Okay, that's his right.

On the subject: Personal experience: can they not be hired in the USA due to the Russian accent?

Third example

My friend received a US citizen passport and brought her mother at the age of 50.

I found my mother a job through Russian-speaking employment agencies, as my mother does not understand a word in English. Work as a nurse-girlfriend of a woman of 65 years. And so they walk, watch Russian TV shows on TV, and she lives in her apartment next door, receives $ 500 a week for this, which, she herself says, does not know what to spend on.

So you can find work here without speaking English, because the Russian-speaking community in Los Angeles is huge.

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