Miss Fira sits in a tiny blue plastic chair and holds an oversized picture book as seven children 5 and under line the wall. 

She reads slowly but clearly and turns the pages with the help of Maddie, a blonde girl. But then Miss Fira stops reading abruptly and turns toward the head teacher. 

"What does 'parlor' mean?" 

Fira Litman is not only an educator but a student. At the age of 82, she attends three English courses each week, trying to master the dominant language of her adopted homeland while struggling against her own doubts. 

"I can catch one or two words, but sentences I cannot understand. I think it is about my age," said Litman. "Any person can study English excellent - but not me." 

Litman and her husband, Yefim Beylim, are two of dozens of refugees, immigrants and exiles trying to pick up a new language and understand a new culture in their golden years. They attend free language classes through Salt Lake County Aging Services and supplement their study through private support groups. 

Litman says this latest challenge is just one in a tough life, which began with the horrors of World War II. 

At 17, Litman was preparing o start medical school, but instead found herself and her family fleeing the Nazis. They left Belarus, taking trains deep into Russia. When they returned at the end of the war, their homes were destroyed. Her dreams were not. 

She completed her schooling in Moscow and worked for decades as an epidemiologist. Her husband was shot on the Ukrainian front as he fought on behalf of the Soviet Union. After the war, he became a building engineer.

But the persecution of their fellow Jews didn't end with the defeat of Hitler's army. Anti-Semitism persisted in Belarus. 

"The government don't like the Jewish people," she said. 

Litman says political leaders closed synagogues and Jewish newspapers. They banned Yiddish. Fearing for the safety of the family, Litman, Beylim and their son finally became refugees seeking safety in the United States. 

In 1992, they found themselves in Brooklyn, insulated in a mostly Russian Jewish neighborhood. And it was there that she began learning the English alphabet.

Two years later, they followed relatives to Utah. And in 1999, they became American citizens, mastering the language well enough to pass the exam. 

"We admire America," Litman said. "We like America because America gives us free medicine and helps us with apartment and helps us with studying language." 

Litman and Beylim are now foster grandparents who spend one hour each week in a county-run English class and 19 hours in a day care center helping children. Litman regularly plays musical chairs and duck, duck, goose. She gets on the floor and does the same stretches they do. She eats with them at their kids-sized table and she gets them ready for their nap before her shift ends. 

For their efforts, they get a small stipend. But Litman says it isn't about the money.

"I lost my heart to children," she said. 

Litman's teachers consider her one of their prized students. 

"Of course she speaks with a lot of mistakes and its hard for her to express what she feels, but she's doing her best," said Galina Bakina, an English teacher with the private Jewish Family Services, who also speaks Russian. "She speaks what she needs." 

Debby Stone from the county English as a second language (ESL) program says Litman "has so much confidence. She knows how to joke with me now." 

For seniors, confidence is key, experts say. 

"Younger people almost always learn more quickly than younger people do and that applies particularly to language," said Rick Van De Graaff, a professor at the University of Utah's English Language Institute. "Learning a language is like a muscle that has not been used for a long time." 

Not only do elderly students need to remaster the basics of learning but also overcome their own egos. 

"We don't like to look stupid when we are older," Van De Graaff said. 

The county program focuses on "survival English," where the lessons are geared toward normal interactions at the grocery store, pharmacy and the doctor's office. For those like Litman, who are foster grandparents, Stone teaches nursery rhymes and children's terms. 

This strategy makes each lesson relevant to the daily lives of the senior students. 

Lessons tend to focus more on how to speak than on grammar or punctuation. 

"It is demeaning and it is frustrating to change a fine point of pronunciation and grammar," said Hedy Miller, the county coordinator for the senior ESL program. 

Van De Graaff said many times, children who speak fluent English tease their parents or grandparents about their accent or their vocabulary and after a while the adults feel uncomfortable talking publicly. 

"They get really shy about it," he said. 

Battling this lack of confidence is the main challenge for educators. 

Andres Bernal is a 66-year-old Cuban exile who has lived in Utah for only a year. He also takes a class from Stone and is a foster grandparent. After months and months of studying, he has learned about half of the alphabet. 

"I'm old," he said through a translator. "It's very hard for me to learn, but I'm trying." 

He recently had car trouble and felt helpless, not knowing where to take it or who to ask for help. And he tries to avoid conversations. 

Still, he loves his new life. "Even though I'm poor, it is very easy here." 

The choice wasn't hard, move to an unfamiliar land or stay in Cuba's Communist system. 

Bernal is not a fan of Communism. He says he and his male relatives were forced to live and work in a government camp for 10 years, separated from their wives and children.

That ended in 1982 and then he worked the sugar fields until he fled with his wife and two of his four children. 

"You work and you don't have anything," Bernal said. "You pay it to the state and you get no food, no medicine." 

He promises to stick to the English lessons even if he learns only a few letters at a time.

And his motivation goes beyond being able to get his car fixed. 

"I want to learn English because I want to be involved in the society of Utah."

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