STUDENT Success Stories
LCBC Student Tamara Zhykh
Tamara Zhykh is Ukrainian from Belarus and is currently working with a Russian tutor at the Literacy Council of Benton County. They have worked together since August 2020 through Tamara’s introduction to English letters, sounds, words, sentences and now, her American citizenship. All of this while 19 members of her family, her daughters, grandchildren, sons and mother, are hiding and living in basements during the Russian bombardment of Ukraine. “Oh. I cannot think,” Tamara holds her hands to her face.
When Tamara enrolled at LCBC she knew very few English words but started keeping spiral notebooks, inches thick, of English sentences, vocabulary, notes, all color coded and transcribed in Russian with the help of her tutor. “We understand each other,” Mikhail says, “and she takes meticulous notes. She has made tremendous progress. Tamara is an excellent student.” So good a student that she applied for and passed an ESL assessment at the local community college.
Tamara has attended Northwest Arkansas Community College ESL class for a semester and has earned NWACC Honor Society status. “Tamara had a testing problem at the college,” her tutor confides. “Her answers to questions were too long and consequently, she incorrectly answered the questions. We’ve had to learn to be concise, use a smaller vocabulary, less wordy. Answer the question and go on,” Mikhail says. Tamara is adjusting. Concentrating on English allows her to not dwell on what’s happening in Ukraine and in Belarus where she’s from.
“Now is citizenship,” she smiles. “And this will take time,” Mikhail says, “Tamara passed her driver’s license and before attending LCBC, tried to test twice on the citizenship test but it didn’t go well. She was not ready. Her English will still take time.”
Tamara doesn’t mind. “It keeps my mind … my focus. I was in Belarus last year, September and November, and visited family from Ukraine. My English is my focus. Better to think good things.”
Tamara Zhykh is Ukrainian from Belarus and is currently working with a Russian tutor at the Literacy Council of Benton County. They have worked together since August 2020 through Tamara’s introduction to English letters, sounds, words, sentences and now, her American citizenship. All of this while 19 members of her family, her daughters, grandchildren, sons and mother, are hiding and living in basements during the Russian bombardment of Ukraine. “Oh. I cannot think,” Tamara holds her hands to her face.
When Tamara enrolled at LCBC she knew very few English words but started keeping spiral notebooks, inches thick, of English sentences, vocabulary, notes, all color coded and transcribed in Russian with the help of her tutor. “We understand each other,” Mikhail says, “and she takes meticulous notes. She has made tremendous progress. Tamara is an excellent student.” So good a student that she applied for and passed an ESL assessment at the local community college.
Tamara has attended Northwest Arkansas Community College ESL class for a semester and has earned NWACC Honor Society status. “Tamara had a testing problem at the college,” her tutor confides. “Her answers to questions were too long and consequently, she incorrectly answered the questions. We’ve had to learn to be concise, use a smaller vocabulary, less wordy. Answer the question and go on,” Mikhail says. Tamara is adjusting. Concentrating on English allows her to not dwell on what’s happening in Ukraine and in Belarus where she’s from.
“Now is citizenship,” she smiles. “And this will take time,” Mikhail says, “Tamara passed her driver’s license and before attending LCBC, tried to test twice on the citizenship test but it didn’t go well. She was not ready. Her English will still take time.”
Tamara doesn’t mind. “It keeps my mind … my focus. I was in Belarus last year, September and November, and visited family from Ukraine. My English is my focus. Better to think good things.”