say what

I’ve finally found a tutor to start teaching me the local language which is Dari - a dialect of Persian. Over the years in this line of work, I have come across a number of brilliant people that speak four or five languages, they move from English to Arabic to Kiswahili without missing a beat. These people are a blessed and talented group, unfortunately, I ain’t one of them! Learning languages has always been extremely difficult for me so I have always quietly supported that “English first” initiative.

But seriously, I think that it is an important sign of respect to at least be able to say a few sentences in the local language. People usually really appreciate that you have gone to the effort to learn their language and are very willing to help you. Plus it provides important moments of comic relief that endear you to your hosts, for example when I think that I have just said “you have a beautiful home” when I have actually just said “your house green tomorrow”.

So whenever learning a new language I keep it as practical as possible and focus on the words and phrases that are important to my everyday life. As a rule I usually start with the following two phrases that have served me well all over the world:

1. Where is the bathroom?
2. I would like another cocktail.


Nami man ast Frederick.