Here at IAM, we ensure that all long-term foreign volunteers have sufficient time to learn Dari, or whichever local language is used in their respective project area in Afghanistan.
Currently, our projects are in primarily Dari speaking areas, and as such, current staff have all been through or are currently going through language and cultural training in Dari. This usually looks like a six-month course, focused primarily on spoken language. After that, projects pay for three hours of weekly language learning, in which expatriates are able to choose their focus. This might mean continued work improving their spoken language, learning to read and write, or focusing on a specific kind of vocabulary for professional purposes, and so forth.
We value language learning and see it as an important part of our work. So, why do we do it?
Perhaps the most practical reason for learning a local language is for work purposes. When we speak the local language, we can more fully understand different situations: what is going on within communities, what people are really feeling, and when there are hesitancies or various cues from people that may be difficult to pick up on through a translator. There have certainly been development projects that have failed because of the lack of local knowledge, as well as what is going on at the ground level.
However, there are other reasons why we value learning the language here, that go beyond the immediate practicality of being able to work in the local language.
Life Long Learning
One core value at IAM is “Life Long Learning.” Language learning helps us to start out our work in Afghanistan by recognising that we can always be learning something new–a new word, a new phrase, a new way to express ourselves. Language learning is something that never finishes, and helps us to remember we can always be improving and learning, in every aspect of our work.
One beautiful aspect of language-learning is the humility and patience we must learn while also learning a new language. It means that all of the expatriate professionals that come to work here are forced to need others first, and thus come to respect and be interdependent on local people. We are aware that there can be a tendency to come into a place and assume that, because of professional background, we know all of the answers.
In the process of language learning, we become children again, as we struggle to formulate cohesive thoughts and sentences. Looking to others for help reminds us that we don’t know it all–in fact, in a different culture and language, we don’t know much! In this way, we learn right away to come alongside local people, and approach development from a place of humility, asking questions about how we can help and grow from one another.
Love for All People
Learning a local language also increases accessibility to our projects and programmes, allowing us to reach different demographics. While more and more people here are learning English, particularly in city centres, they are still a minority. One of our core values at IAM is “Love for All People.” We truly want to enact this value, and as such, we aim to hear from everybody possible about the things that they need–which means we need to be able to speak in the local language, and in doing so, to the many people who have not had the option of learning English.
By learning local languages, we also continue to act out our value of “Love for All People” by speaking to them in their mother tongue. People love speaking in their mother tongue! By speaking local languages, we find that we can make immediate connections with people. We have also found that our Afghan friends and colleagues, and even random people on the street, are quick to encourage us in our language learning and speaking. In this way, we are also able to connect to our local colleagues on a much more personal level, beyond the necessities of work.
A Beautiful Language
Lastly, Dari itself is also a wonderful language to learn. A rich and historical literary language, Dari literature is full of beautiful poetry and stories, which enable us to reach back in history and experience the culture in new ways.
Each of these reasons adds up to one overall take away–we love to learn local languages! We believe that learning local languages is beneficial in so many ways: professionally, culturally, emotionally and socially. If you are working abroad and wondering about learning the local language, we strongly encourage you to go for it – it will be enriching in so many ways.
Want to learn more about who we are as an organisation? Find more here.
The above article was written after having an interview with a linguist who advised IAM’s Language and Culture Programme for a number of years.