Typical Ukrainian Family (informal letter)

Dear Jared,                                                              
It was really great to hear from you. I got your letter yesterday and decided to write back straightway. It was interesting to hear that a lot of our stereotypes about American people are groundless. I was asked about our life. As I understand you’re interested in a life of typical Ukrainian family, aren’t you? I’ll tell you everything what I can.



As you know, I love quotes, proverbs and all the jazz. I’m sure, that you have heard about Mother Teresa. She said wonderful words: “What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.”  From the old days, Ukrainians are famous for our family relationships. At the period of history when our country was a part of different empires such as Russian Empire and Austro-Hungarian Empire young people whom got married lived with groom’s parents. Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law took care about men in the family but with the lapse of time daughter-in-law needed to do everything and mother-in-law made her bow. So young woman look after old. It was like a repayment. Parents were heedful when children were small and then children were worry about aged when they became infirm.
At our nowadays people love and protect their families. There are a lot of full-fledged families with two or three children. But very often we are faced with one-child families and single parent families. It’s normal because more and more people think about economic prosperity. I live in full-fledged family with young sister. We have a lot of relatives for instance aunt, uncle, cousins, and grandparents but we are living separated. My parents look after my sister and me but also I need to do some of household task such as washing dishes, cleaning my room, going for a walk with my sister.
We don’t have joint meals like Americans or British because we have different orders of the day. But at the evening we try to gather together and discuss our  problems and so on.  We always support each other and it’s really important. If there’s a holiday we try to spend it in the bosom of our family. We can go to the park or forest and grill sausages or make family dinner with tasty cake and fragrant tea. I appreciate such moments and thank God that I have a family.
Well, that’s all from me. Write back soon, telling me what you consider about differences between our families.

Sincerely yours,

Nacy