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, which is to say that the world sounded like a radio between stations. At lunch he wanted to say, "I am hungry." Instead, he told the lunch lady, "I am a sandwich." She gave him a long look and a pickle.
Every evening Yusuf learned five new words and stuck notes on things in the apartment: door, window, spoon, kettle. Soon the whole place was labeled, like a very small museum. 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 was learning too, and one morning she proudly said "good morning" to the whole bus.
After two months the teacher announced that on Friday every child would speak for one minute. Yusuf practiced in front of the bathroom mirror until the mirror knew his speech better than he did. 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, and that this was a different thing altogether. 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.
