Ich Spreche Ein Bißchen Dari

The words are elegant script read right to left and I cannot decipher them. I now know well the sound of Dari, the official language of Afghanistan, and have enjoyed music, poetry, and even the traffic officer beyond the Serena who hollers at the cars all day long. We spend all of our days with Afghans, and as the weeks have passed, I have spoken with so few Westerners, I can name them on one hand; thus it has been that I have been immersed in Dari, much to my delight. Many of the Afghans with whom we spend time daily are Mirwais's relatives, including two uncles, Hismatjahn and Faridjahn, who left Afghanistan 25 years ago for Germany, but still conduct business in country. We met the uncles during our early days in Kabul and I learnt straight away that they spoke little English, but naturlich, spoke fluent Deutsch. On learning I had lived in Austria, the uncles launched into a campaign compelling me to talk with them in German. Our family conversations frequently are trilingual, and whilst my head spun early on with speaking or attempting to monitor three languages simultaneously, it is now wholly normal.

Because I began studying a second language quite young, although not particularly fluent or wholly literate in any, I am relatively facile in French, German, Russian, Spanish, and Italian. As I began working in India, I chose to begin to learn the language of Karnataka, Kannada, and now find myself with Dari, which is more or less Farsi. Within days, the fog of unknown sounds began to dissipate, and I found myself picking up a few words here or there. Now into our third week in Kabul, I routinely understand anywhere from 25% to 75% of what people are saying, and both surprise and amuse people with this.

My spoken Dari is still highly limited, but I have made efforts to learn basic phrases of civility such as Salam, which although it means "peace" is the standard greeting. Salam wah lehkum is the appropriate response when greeted first. Nay works for no and Baleh for yes and for answering the telephone. Choi lutfan will get you a cup of tea if you please and Tashakor is the proper way to say thank you. As Dari 101 continues, I note that as with anywhere on this planet, people are touched and pleased that I make the effort to speak even a little of their native tongue. It is only right.