One of the biggest obstacles to operations here is the language barrier.
Although it is somewhat common to come across an Afghan who speaks at least some English, the majority can barely speak a word of it.
It's always a bit odd when you're carrying on a conversation through an interpreter. The delay in the translations always makes the smallest of conversations drag on. But there is also a surreal moment that happens in most group conversations when you listen to all of these people say things to each other and you wonder how -- after 60 hours of language class and lab at Ft. Riley -- you ended up here not understanding any of it.
I've picked up a few words and phrases in Dari -- the primary language here -- and thought I might teach the blog readers a few of them.
The word I use most is "tashakur," which means "thank you." As I've mentioned before, Afghans are hospitable people and are always going out of their way to do something for you, so "tashakur" is always on the tip of my tongue.
"Lutfan" is the Dari word for "please," but I don't use it that often because Afghans rarely allow for me to request something, they just offer it.
"Baleh" is "yes" and "ney" is "no." "Eenja" is "here" and "oonja" is "there."
"Salaam" is "hello" and "baamaane Khudaa" is "goodbye." "Subh ba Khayr" is "good morning" and "shab ba Khayr" is "goodnight."
"Sefer, yak, doo, sey, chaar, panj, shash, haft, hasht, no, daa" are the numbers zero through 10. Volleyball has taught me "yaazdaa, duwaazdaa, seyzdaa, chaardaa, paanzdaa" the numbers up to 15, the winning score.
I've already told you about "jum'aa" the Dari name for "Friday." "Shambey" is "Saturday" and "Yak shambey" is "Sunday" followed by "doo shambey, sey shambey, chaar shambey, panj shambey" and then back to "jum'aa."
If you've been reading this blog, you already know about "naan" (bread), "chai" (green tea) and "kabob" which pretty much means any meat cooked on a grill. "Aw" is "water."
You get the point. The language is not like ours at all. Even the sentence structure follows the reverse of ours with the verb and subject coming at the end. The written language goes from right to left and individual Dari letters look nothing like themselves when they are put together to form words.
It's a good thing those we work with speak the same language when it comes to peace, security and progress for this country.