I grew up in Ukraine and Belarus and when I was 12 years old my parents and I moved

as refugees from the Soviet Union to the United States.

These days the news is no doubt full of heartbreaking stories about Ukrainian refugees.

But Lyra Boroditsky came to the United States as part of an earlier wave of Ukrainian refugees,

escaping the Soviet Union.

And they arrived, Lyra and her parents didn't speak much English.

I really was determined to speak English well.

I had been a very verbal kid and it was very important for me to be able to make a joke

and to be able to express myself clearly and I just felt so trapped inside my head when

I couldn't speak to other people, couldn't communicate what my personality was.

She saw learning English as a necessity.

Lyra was what would enable her to understand the culture of her new home and to share her

personality with her peers.

In other words, it's what she thought would allow her to move forward in her new life.

So Lyra made a plan.

To me it was extremely important to get going in the language and I told my parents I wouldn't

speak Russian for a year until I learned English and that's exactly what I did.

I just switched completely to English.

Here the first year my English was pretty similar to the way that it is now.

This early experience sparked Lyra's love for the study of languages.

Today she teaches cognitive science at the University of California in San Diego and she

studies how language affects the brain.

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