The Sound of Language Read Online Free PDF

ideas about religion and whatever Raihana's ideas were, it was between Allah and her. None of Wahida's business.
    “You have to cover your hair here, cover your body,” Wahida insisted. “You have to show these white people that you are a good Muslim,” she repeated.
    The first few days, Raihana just ignored Wahida's remarks. She didn't want to sit with strangers, people who didn't speak Dari, so she sat with Wahida even though the Muslim talk made her uncomfortable.
    But by the end of the week, Raihana had had enough.
    “If this is all you're going to talk about, I won't sit with you,” Raihana said.
    After Wahida stopped insisting Raihana wear a hijab or an abaya , they struck up a tentative friendship. They were the only two Afghans in the class and they stuck together, at least in the initial days when everyone else in the class spoke a different and stranger language than theirs.
    Raihana was frightened of Sylvia Hoffmann and tried to avoid her. Sylvia Hoffmann would always stop and talk to the students in Danish. Sylvia didn't say much, just asked how she was doing, but Raihana was tongue-tied around her and could barely get the words out. She now knew what to say when someone said, “Har du det godt?” She only had to say “Fini” to respond, but she was too flustered to say anything. So Raihana just nodded, looking around nervously, feeling like a fool.
    It was worse with her caseworker at the Integration Centre. Karina Hansen was young and prone to giggling on the mobile phone when Raihana sat down to talk with her. She used Layla to interpret, and Layla, Allah bless her, always came along to make sure Raihana was not lost.
    “No one helped me, so I want to make sure you have help,” Layla would say. “I had Kabir… you have me.”
    It was Karina who talked to Raihana about the praktik. They were looking for something appropriate, Karina told her, and then answered the singsong tone of her mobile phone, speaking rapidly in Danish.
    “Her boyfriend,” Layla whispered to Raihana in Dari. As if whispering made it less likely for Karina to understand Dari. “She is saying something about some dress and … some party.”
    Raihana felt embarrassed, as if she were listening into a private conversation, even though she needed Layla to translate what Karina was saying.
    Sylvia was stern, Karina was irreverent, and Christina was absolutely wonderful. Raihana felt that Christina cared a lot about her students and worked very hard to teach them Danish.
    For some reason, Christina had taken a special interest in Raihana. She came to her during breaks during the day and asked if she had any questions. In the beginning Raihana had been shy and just shook her head, but after a few weeks she had started asking questions.
    Raihana thought the toughest part was grammar, which Christina assured her was hard for everyone. On Wednesday afternoons Raihana would meet with Christina for one-on-one class in the computer room. Raihana liked the computer room; it was a big room with many computers, all in black. The screens were large and sleek and the keyboards and mouses were wireless, so you could put the keyboard on your lap and type. Kabir had shown her how to access Afghan newspapers. In her breaks during class, Raihana, like all other students, would bring up newspapers from her homeland on the computer and read a familiar language again.
    It was such a delight to find everything on the computer. You could just type a few letters and go back home, even if only for a short while.
    Raihana still had to look for the right keys and envied Kabir, whose fingers moved so quickly and easily on the computer's keyboard. He used to use an English typewriter back in Kabul, he told her; that's why it was so easy for him.
    All the computers came with headphones so that the students could listen to taped Danish conversations. During her lunch break, Raihana browsed an Afghan music website Kabir had shown her and a Hindi movie website