“Pashto? You want to learn Pashto?” I looked at my 11-year-old son in astonishment. He has just sat his 11-plus exam but even if he gets in to the local selective day school, Pashto is not on the curriculum. Pashto is the senior of the two state languages of Afghanistan, article 20 of whose constitution states that the Afghan National Anthem “shall be in Pashto”. So why does Cost Centre #3 suddenly want to learn a language that he has never heard spoken before? Because he believes that Britain will still be sending troops to Afghanistan by the time he is old enough to serve his country – and he wants to be ready.
「普什圖語？你想學普什圖語？」我驚訝地看著11歲大的兒子。他剛參加完小學畢業考，但即使他進入當地的精英私立走讀學校，課程表上也不會有普什圖語。普什圖語是阿富汗兩種官方語言中地位較高的一種，該國憲法第20條規定，阿富汗國歌「將採用普什圖語」。那麼，「成本中心3號」爲何突然想學一門他先前從未聽別人講過的語言呢？原因是，他相信，直到他到了足夠效忠國家的年紀時，英國將仍在向阿富汗派駐軍隊——而他想做好準備。