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From The Times
November 28, 2005

Self-taught linguist to have study sponsored

By David Charter in Washington
THE life-saving odyssey of Basira Jan has also changed the world of the 22-year-old interpreter who accompanied her from Jalalabad to Indianapolis.

By the time that Ajmal Maykhel returns to Afghanistan, he hopes to have a university degree from the University of Southern Indiana.

Mr Maykhel, known as AJ, is a talented linguist who speaks seven languages and has translated for US forces since the invasion in 2001.

While translating for Basira and her father during their stay in the US, he won a place to study for a French and German degree and the Indiana National Guard has pledged to raise the $23,000-a-year cost.

“My hope for the future is to study more languages here so I can go back to Afghanistan. But it might not be safe for me because I have been working for the US Army for a long time,” Mr Maykhel said. “I would like to be a journalist in the future and it will be really cool to know more languages.”

Captain Steve Fippen, of the Indiana National Guard, said: “He is an amazing young man. He is more or less self-taught in seven languages — German, French, English, the Afghan dialects and Urdu. AJ has taken the lead in fundraising. He is a local celebrity.”

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