This post is just to recommend another blog entry, “How to read effectively in a foreign language.” It was brought to my attention by one of our team members, and it’s chock full of useful tips. If you’re pressed for time, read under the headings, “How to deal with words you don’t know” and “The six-step reading process.”

While we’re at it… The blog post assumes that you have access to “fun” reading material like fiction. I know that most of us don’t have access to that kind of material. So, let me make a standing offer to purchase books for you if you’re not near a good bookstore. We have a great bookstore in Mazar. and it has a large variety of fun books.

• Children’s non-fiction books—nicely illustrated

• Cookbooks

• Iranian short stories

• Professional books (psychology, medicine, engineering, etc.)

If you’re interested in any of these, send me an email; we can work out the transportation and the cross-charge. I also recommend that every reader have a copy of the Farhang Moaser Persian-English Dictionary (by Suleiman Haim).