Host Family

During my first two weeks in Tajikistan I was surprised by the generosity of my host family, and by how rapidly my spoken Persian improved.
 

I had studied Iranian Persian – Farsi – for one year when I arrived in Tajikistan in mid-June. Tajiki is a slightly different dialect than Farsi, with Russian loan words and different colloquialisms. To make matters more difficult, the emphasis of my studies had been on reading and writing rather than speaking. Thus when I found myself being introduced to my host family, at 5 a.m. after two days of flights and layovers, I was unable to muster much more than a few semi-recognizable phrases of appreciation in Farsi. Speaking Tajiki, or even Farsi, felt unnatural to me during the first few days of my stay. Indeed, the only person I was not embarrassed speaking with was the family’s 6-year-old. At meal times she was excited to ask endless simple questions and repeat herself over and over. During these first few days I became concerned that I was not prepared for a summer in Dushanbe.
 

My classes, which began the following week, improved my situation. They were very helpful in dusting off the Farsi I had learned the previous year. They also challenged me to acquire new vocabulary, to perfect my grammar, and learn the Cyrillic alphabet used in Tajikistan.
 

Even more helpful was the experience of being forced to maneuver through daily life in Dushanbe: taking taxis and public transportation, learning quips to make while negotiating the price of something, explaining to strangers that I was a student and not a wealthy businessman, etc. I needed to build a set of stock phrases, ready to go at a moment’s notice. This solidified the material I was learning in class into something practical. Soon I found myself able to improvise, rather than reciting from memory, within this limited range of daily phrases. During this time my host family was patient and supportive. They were always happy to engage with me in conversation, regardless of how long it took me to express relatively simple phrases, and they were happy to teach me the local Tajiki words that were used instead of the Farsi words.
 

By the end of my two weeks of classes In Dushanbe my confidence with Tajiki (and Farsi) had improved dramatically. Two weeks (and some change) was all it took to take the bits and pieces of vocabulary and grammar I had learned in the previous year and use them in a cohesive way. I had brought a case of American chocolates as gift for my host family when I arrived. Rather than thrust this gift at them and babble out a few words in Farsi upon arriving, I had elected to keep it until I could better express myself. After two weeks I presented the chocolates explaining that they were a token of thanks for the room, the food, and their support. I explained that I had wanted to give them to the family when I first arrived, but I hadn’t been able to say anything at that point. That got a laugh. A few days later my host mother told me that my Tajiki was getting much better and I was like one of the family now – their surname was now my surname as well.

At least I think that’s what she said. My Tajiki gets a little shaky when the conversation veers out of the spectrum to which I am normally accustomed. Nevertheless, my experiences in class, in Dushanbe, and with my host family have helped me go from essentially zero speaking ability to a comfortable level of survival Tajiki in a sort time. I’m looking forward to adding another degree of sophistication to my speaking during July and August.
 

 Eric Dahlbom is studying Tajiki in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.