Now that Salva was learning more than a few simple words, he found the English language quite confusing. Like the letters “o-u-g-h.” Rough . . . though . . . fought . . . through . . . bough—the same letters were pronounced so many different ways! Or how a word had to be changed depending on the sentence. You said “chickens” when you meant the living birds that walked and squawked and laid eggs, but it was “chicken”—with no “s”—when it was on your plate ready to be eaten: “We’re having chicken for dinner.” That was correct, even if you had cooked a hundred chickens.
