Fluent Season: Group Help for Learning Languages
Express from The Washington Post, DC -  December 23, 2007
Humayun K. Marufkhail, 32, who organizes the 18-member Pashto Language & Culture Meetup Group, started the group in August to gather support for the nonprofit Global Pashtun Institute for Peace & Democracy (which he founded two years ago to raise American awareness of the Pashto culture that originated in Afghanistan and Pakistan).

Native Pashto speakers, non-Pashtun Americans learning the language, and a diplomat who uses Pashto on trips abroad are among the individuals who have found the group online and come to monthly meetings at Fairfax's Panera Bread…

Experts say language skills, whether gained through meetups or formal classes, can be a particularly valuable leg up in the competitive working world. So, learning and practicing a new vernacular — or even brushing up on that rusty high school French — is a smart idea.