Asma Balfaqih
Joyful learning
From Mukalla to a Swiss living room
In Taiz and Mukalla I taught large groups. One teacher, many children, little material. You learn to work with your voice, with pauses and with repetition. Those are still my most important tools when I write.
In Switzerland I now often sit on the sofa with two children. The setting is smaller and the questions are different. My sons are growing up between two languages and two everyday worlds, and they ask about things I never asked about as a child.
My books grew out of that difference. They carry the clear language of the classroom and the questions of a child growing up here. For me the two belong together, and I write both of them in the same simple Arabic.