It was the first day of class. Two of her new ESL classmates wanted to know where Tara was from. They were both from Iraq. Because Tara looked Iraqi, one of the women asked Tara, in English, if she was from Iraq. Tara replied, "No, I'm not." Then the women took turns asking Tara if she was from Iran, or Syria, or Jordan. To each question, Tara responded1 with a simple no. Laughing, one woman said to the other, "She's not from anywhere!" The two went to their desks, talking to each other in Arabic2.
The next day, the teacher divided the students into groups of four. The students in each group asked introductory questions of each other. A student in Tara's group asked her, "Where are you from?" Tara answered that she was from Iraq. The two women wh
