Editor’s Note: This is the first of a series of stories chronicling international students in their experiences at OU and in the United States.

Speaking English and communicating in the United States isn’t a problem for international student Muhammed Faraj. However, he believes speaking Kurdish, his native language, and communicating in Kurdistan, his home, might be a problem someday.

Faraj, University College freshman, said he has not found anyone who speaks Kurdish to converse with since moving to Oklahoma this semester and fears he might lose his native language during the next four years.

He began learning English in the fifth grade while attending school in Kurdistan, an area in northern Iraq. When he was 15, he spent a year studying as an exchange student in Tucson, Ariz., where he first experienced the American culture and was forced to speak only English.

“I knew English before I came, but you have to be in the culture before you understand the language,” he said.

When he returned to Kurdistan, Faraj said he had a difficult time remembering Kurdish words and spoke mostly in English with his friends.

“My friends made fun of me for forgetting words, but I helped them with their English,” he said.

When Faraj returned to the United States this semester to study engineering at OU, he said it was like coming back to a second home.

Over the past four months, Faraj said he has begun losing his accent again, which happened while studying in Arizona, too.

“I was talking with my mom the other day in Kurdish and she said, ‘What is going on with your speech?’ There was English rhythm and inflection to it,” Faraj said.

Faraj and his roommate, Hasan Ali, often hold conversations in two different languages.

Ali, a University College freshman from Baghdad, speaks in his native language, Arabic, to Faraj.

Faraj then comprehends what Ali says in Arabic and replies in English.

“It’s kind of funny because [Faraj] fully understands [Arabic] but he can’t speak it,” said Ali, who has also spoken English since fifth grade.

Although all of his classes are in English, Ali said he speaks Arabic about 75 percent of the time and has found other students with whom to converse.

“You have to work on English, but it’s kind of easier for me than it is for other people,” Ali said.

He said he spends time helping friends who don’t understand the language.

“Saturday night I helped a friend from Kuwait who doesn’t understand English really well,” Ali said. “I just tried translating for him so he can make sense of it.”

For Wenyu Zhang, geology sophomore, living with three American men has helped him with the English language.

Originally from China, Zhang said he now speaks English half of the time and his native language the other half.

“I’ve spoken English for about five years, which is not that long, so I still have a problem with accents and vocabulary,” Zhang said.

Whenever Zhang doesn’t understand something, he said he visits his professors during office hours to discuss it.

Although all three studied English before coming to the United States, Faraj, Ali and Zhang agreed they have been confused when they believe a word means one thing but the U.S. has a different interpretation.

“When I was living in Tuscon, my host mom kept saying I was spoiled ... I thought she meant I was dirty and rotten,” Faraj said. “It took a really long time before I realized spoiled means a family pays a lot of attention to you.”