My Friends - Foreign Language class

Hello All,

Welcome to my Blog!

I would like to share few significant, memorable incidents that occurred in my foreign language center. 

I am living in a prominent country in Europe. As you all know, most of the countries in Europe have their own national language. So, when I shifted to another country in Europe, I had to learn the local language. I joined an integration course; it is basically a crash course.

Day one was funny. We were almost 30 students in our language class and people aged from 65 years old to 23 years old. They were from different parts of the world. Our class had people who spoke 18 different languages in total, only a few like me spoke English.

Our teacher knew little English, but to us from Day one she spoke only in the local language. She was doing full facial expressions and hand moments to make us understand, but never spoke in English. We were all smiling at each other, nodding our heads, but we were all confused about how to communicate to each other because no one knew others language.

But during the self-introduction round, we mentioned how many languages we can speak. So, that gave us a sense of who can communicate to whom. I easily got friends because I too followed sign language/actions like my teacher. One of my friends was an old Arab who cannot see properly, so he sat near me to take the notes and ask me what the teacher dictated.

He had a sad story of coming as an evacuee. He told one of his three kids drowned in the water, his wife, and a toddler still in his country. When I asked what had happened, he told he did not have enough money to pay for a good boat. So, people like him took the small boat but the boat was overcrowded. Half the way in freezing winter waters, the boat cracked, and all the people fell inside the waters.

Since the water was freezing few old people and kids were not able to make to the shore. His youngest son who was short got drowned when he was helping another old man swim. It was heartbreaking. I helped him as much I can in his studies, but he was not able to make to the next semester. He left to a new language center allotted by the administration, and I never met him.

There was a couple, Arab doctors. They bolted their country with their children leaving all their richness to dust and just to live in peace. They wanted their language certificate to work here. Another man was an Arab too but from a different country, he told he was an agricultural engineer and his wife was a doctor. They had triplet toddlers.

The story of their evade was terrifying. They came here with their cousin brother. They were wealthy, so they sold all their assets, took a cab to cross their city. If they get caught on the way, they will never body check women. So, they planned all their important certificates and passports totally sealed in plastics covers, will be hidden in his wife’s robe. He, His wife, and cousin brother carried each one baby and a backpack with essentials like milk, food, a spare dress for the toddlers.

They had to pay heavily to the cab driver, they started their journey in the midnight. Half the way as they expected they heard humans and they had to switch-off the car engine. When they planned to restart the journey, they saw them in front of their cab. They questioned and inspected them. My friend had told he was going to meet his old parents in next city, but they have seen many similar excuses and evading. So, they were instructed to go back home.

After they left, my friend told to drive towards the frontier. But Cab driver was so scared, that he dropped them halfway and he left. But they cannot stop in between, one it was midnight, second forest area, third they must cross before dawn, and finally, they must reach the boat on time. If they miss the boat, they were not sure when there will be a next chance.

He told me the greatest challenge for them was the toddlers. They prayed that toddlers should never wake up and cry till they reached the boat, and without further checking on their way. But with so much anxiety, obscuring and moving among the bushes they made to the boat. They again paid a big amount to the boat guy to get seated. They were not allowed to speak until they reached the middle of the waters.

After reaching the frontier here, they walked several miles for a week. On the way their money was ransacked by evacuee’s negotiator. They starved, but they made to frontier security. They had safeguarded their passports, so they were legally allowed inside after the document verification and were provided with home, food, medical care etc

I am sure you all would have read, heard, or seen people like them. They do not want anything other than a life full of serenity.

Comment if you know someone like my friends and they are happy now.

Note: 
Most of my friends from my class cleared with high score. Few friends got jobs, few doing their masters here to get good jobs. Ours was a cheerful, friendly group J. I have lots of memories to carry with me in this life.