UK soldier dreams of Afghan holiday after transition

Sandison, part of Britain's Brigade Advisory Group which mentors the Afghan Rosetta Stone Software National Army, is one of a small number of British soldiers who have been given in-depth training in Dari, one of the main languages of Afghanistan.That has put him at the center of efforts to prepare Afghan security forces to take over from foreign troops who plan to end combat operations in the country by the end of 2014."In my second tour in Afghanistan, I haven't fired a round in anger yet ... It's a very good feeling," said 29-year-old Sandison, who began his latest stint in Afghanistan in May, but previously saw fighting in Iraq.Dari is mostly spoken in the north of Afghanistan, while the majority of British soldiers are stationed in the south, where Pashto is more common.But soldiers are often posted far from home, and many Afghans speak two or even three languages, so his skills have helped him build a rapport with many of the men he works with -- although the course might need tailoring.Sandison, who is from Aberdeen in Scotland, said when he arrived in Afghanistan he discovered the sophisticated language he had been taught was a far cry from that in Rosetta Stone languages everyday use."A lot of the soldiers ... looked at me as if I had stepped out of one of Chaucer's tales," he said of his first few conversations, referring to the 14th century English masterpiece "The Canterbury Tales.""Now my common language is a lot better. Unfortunately the better you get, the quicker they speak to you and therefore the more colloquialisms they throw in and so it's a constant lesson. Every day is still a school day for me," he said.TOURISM HOPESAfter 15 months of training in Dari at Britain's Defense School of Languages, Sandison did a six-month tour with the British army training Afghan officers in Kabul last year.He had only been back in Britain a few months when he was offered the chance to return for another six months in the southern province of Helmand. He jumped at the opportunity.Sandison is part of a group of British troops working with Afghan soldiers who have adjoining patrol bases at Jahan Zeb, in the desert east of Lashkar Gah, one of the first areas due to be handed over permanently to Afghan forces."I absolutely love it," he told Reuters in an interview at a military base in the Helmand capital of Lashkar Gah, adding a list of the places he hopes to visit in peacetime."There's a lot of places up north, Panjshir, Badakhshan that I really want to go to, they look Rosetta Stone language software absolutely beautiful ... Good food, good people, good sights, I don't think you can ask for much more from a holiday resort," he said.

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