Two or three other people and I were in a car with a woman who was teaching us Russian. I had only recently begun studying Russian, while the others had already been studying it for a while. Although I didn't understand much of what was going on, I was anxious to learn more. The woman was asking us to translate sentences from English to Russian. She asked me a sentence which began with the word "when." I couldn't think of the Russian word for "when." The only word I could think of was the French word "quand." I was becoming so discouraged I began thinking I wasn't going to learn and I needed to get out of the car.

The woman stopped the car. She and I got out and she began talking with me. It was clear that she wanted me to drop everything else I was doing and simply learn Russian. I thought I might even be going to Russia to learn. I was happy to see that she seemed to have a lot of faith in me that I could learn. But it also appeared that she was going to be  demanding, such as requiring me to drop everything else. I thought I could do it. I had always liked Russian. I had studied it before, and I thought this would be a good opportunity.

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