Yusuf was eleven when he moved to a new country with his mother, who had found a job there. On his first day at school he understood about one word in ten. At lunch he wanted to say, "I am hungry." Instead, he told the lunch lady, "I am a sandwich." She gave him a strange look and a pickle.
Every evening Yusuf learned five new words and stuck notes on things in the apartment: door, window, spoon, kettle. In class, a girl called Mia sat next to him. She talked very fast, but when he was lost, she patiently drew pictures for him. At home his mother practiced too, and proudly said "good morning" to the whole bus.
After two months the teacher said that on Friday every child would speak for one minute. Yusuf practiced in front of the bathroom mirror. On Friday his knees shook. He stood at the front, said his name and then, in simple words: "On my first day, I wanted to say: I am hungry. I said: I am a sandwich."
For one second nobody moved. Then the whole class laughed, and Yusuf saw that they were laughing with him, not at him. It was his first joke in the new language. "Say it again!" shouted Mia. At lunch the lunch lady put a second pickle on his tray. "For the sandwich," she said.
