Tongue-Tied: The Silent Struggle of Losing Your Native Language
The sound of silence is a precious commodity on the streets of Cairo, where the official soundtrack is a symphony of car horns in F (as in the expletive) major. And yet, in all the taxi rides I shared with my Cairo-based sister during a visit last spring, I was instructed to remain silent. If I talk, she warned me, the driver will recognize my broken, foreign-sounding Arabic and scam us. She’ll give directions, negotiate fare, and handle any small talk.
I welcomed being quiet, invisible