Uzbek-I-Can

During the second week of school, a new student came to my class. “Welcome to class!" I gushed enthusiastically. "We are so happy to have you here!" She stared at me so blankly that I felt like I was looking at a Mormon who has been asked to brew coffee (this has happened to me, so I know). "Do you know English?" I asked. No response. Hmmm... "Can someone tell her hello and welcome?" I begged my students. They shook their heads sadly. "She is not Turkish, she's from Uzbekistan," they informed me. "No one can talk to her."

Obviously, it has been a challenge teaching Spanish under these circumstances and at times I have found myself communicating one word at a time, through an online dictionary. One day, as I was giving up all hope, I asked the class if they remembered how to say "yellow." My charming Uzbek friend raised her hand and I thought, "what the???" I called on her and she said something along the lines of "amafhjlo" (for amarillo). As I grinned in amazement, the class broke into applause and began a brief celebration. As most of them are immigrants, they understood that they had just witnessed a multinational victory.