Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Michael Opas - [n.d.]

Learning English

And you were learning English all the time and your wife was learning English?

Yeah, we went, we went uh, different days. I went Mondays, Mondays and Wednesdays, my wife went Tuesdays and Thursdays to a different school.

Was it difficult to learn the language?

Well, not so--no, not so difficult. I knew German. See, this helped me a lot. German is very, is very similar. Not very similar, but it's a lot of, a lot--very many words are similar.

Hm.

So I found it not so hard. I found it not so hard. Matter of fact--I don't know--my teacher used to tell me I have a photographic memory.

Mm-hm.

I memorized, memorized. I could spell, I could spell faster than someone else. I might spell the word--I, I didn't know the meaning, with--what, what it mean...

Mm-hm.

...but I spelled. I knew how to spell because once I saw them on the blackboard, I knew how to spell it...

Mm-hm.

This was one thing here. And I knew, I knew how to write. I mean, writing wasn't--so, I had some education--formal education--so it wasn't so bad. No, after--I only went to school three months, that's all.

Hm.

Yeah.

And you learned enough English to carry on.

Yeah, yeah.

Very good.

Yeah. Well, after, after three months. Meantime I found a job.


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