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The song, sweet and mellifluous, is about love.
�There is really no other way to describe it because it means different things to everyone,� said Elena Velikanova, a member of the Russian Club, one of the many organizations available to students of the ethnically diverse Niles North High School.
The Russian Club�s members are mostly children of Skokie�s burgeoning base of Eastern European or former Soviet Union immigrants, the largest group of new Americans to move to the village in the past ten years. The club serves as a place for Russian students, many of whom have been in the United States for five years or less, to gather and celebrate their culture. It also provides them support and guidance in their oftentimes overwhelming transition to American culture and society.
�Many of our students do not speak English as their first language and they�re still struggling with the language,� said Betsy Holman, a faculty sponsor of the International Club, the general body from which the more specific ethnic clubs branch out.
�Picture what it would be like to go through your entire day reading, writing and thinking in a language that is not native to you,� Holman said. �It�s exhausting. So there�s a real reason to support the fact that the Russian kids want to hang out together. A lot of it is language based.�
The Russian Club meets every other week with members, often in their native languages, discussing everything from the mundane � how trivial that day�s ESL lesson was � to the germane, such as how their parents cannot find jobs worthy of their education and what that is doing to the morale of the family.
�We hang out here and discuss stuff that happens,� said Aleksandra Denisenko, 17, a Russian refugee who has lived in the United States for almost three years. �Not just things in the world, but our problems, our personal life.�
Today, the discussion turns to how Russian youths, young men in particular, are often perceived as recalcitrant and antagonistic because they have difficulty adjusting to their new country�s societal conventions. Joyce Sacks, the club�s faculty sponsor, recalls a Russian boy who was kicked out of the room while taking the ACT because he would not put his food away. He could not understand why there was no eating in the testing room.
The students chime in with stories of friends getting into fights. Denisenko explains that Russian fathers teach their children not to back down.
Indeed, the teens are astounded when Sacks explains that at school, even if someone else instigates the fight, both participants are accountable and both can be expelled.
�When someone punches you, you punch them back,� says an unconvinced Denisenko. �That�s just the way it is.�
Mike Zaturensky, the guitarist, says that one reason Russian boys have aggressive tendencies might be because school is not so structured or strict in the United States as it is back home. Zaturensky moved to Skokie from Byelorussia when he was eight, and he says that his first few years he got into trouble because he was often bored and unchallenged in class.
�I moved here, and the next few years I didn�t learn anything,� he said.
�Well,� he adds quickly, �except for the American history.�
While the students know they have much to learn about American society, the comfort and security provided this close-knit group of their peers appears to engage them.
The club may meet only once every seven days, but for these Russian immigrants, life as new American citizens is a full-time activity.
�To begin it was hard, but it�s getting better,� Velikanova said. �But you get used to it. You still have problems but not as much as before.�
