Amir & Will on laptops

Over the past 5 years I have watched my son Will grow up through his teenage years. In Iran, Feri’s sister has done the same with her youngest son Amir who, coincidentally, is just 1 month younger than Will. Common stories of untidy bedrooms, homework started and finished at the last minute, football, too many hours on computer games etc etc were shared between us in the UK and her in Iran. It was clear that these two adolescents were very similar but, growing up in very different environments, I wasn’t prepared for the”common  language” of teenagers to surpass their knowledge of each other’s actual  language when they were thrown together on our recent trip to Iran.

Knowing that Will can’t speak Farsi, and Amir speaks no English I was of course a little concerned that our holiday in Iran would be marred by this barrier…