Years ago, I was teaching English as a Second Language to newcomers in one of the major urban centers in North America. As usual, I started the first session of one of these classes at the intermediate level by introducing myself very briefly; what my name was, where I had originally come from, when, what my first language was, and finally, what other languages I knew. I wrote the information on the board to make it easier for the students to provide me, and other class members, with the same information. It turned out that several students were from Iran; they all spoke Farsi (Persian) and were from major centers of Farsi-speaking regions. This activity took us well into the first break, at which point I stepped out to get coffee.

On my way to the cafeteria, I heard someone calling me from behind, ‘Aghay Shexoleslami’ (Mr Sheyholislami), in what I perceived to be a Kurdish accent. When I turned around, I saw a nervous and disturbed woman, one of the women who had introduced herself as a Farsi speaker from Iran. I couldn’t help but think that she was Kurdish but didn’t want to say it, for whatever reason, in class. I stopped to see what she wanted. In Kurdish she said that she had to apologize for lying to me. I assured her that I could not think of any reason as to why she was apologizing to me. Furthermore, I told her that she must have had a very good reason for her action, and that it posed no harm to me. She insisted on explaining. She said that she was Kurdish and that she spoke Kurdish perfectly, which was obvious to me at the time. I said that I was very happy to know that I had a Kurdish student in my class. At that point, I was hoping to end the conversation and have a chance to get my coffee before our break was over. However, she insisted that she had to tell me why she had lied. I agreed reluctantly as I noticed she had shed a few tears during her attempt to be permitted to justify herself.