"I want you to learn to read. The most convenient thing would be for you to tell me how you learn best and what kinds of help you need." 

How does she learn best.

Doesn't everybody learn things about the same way, really? You have to watch, and you have to do, and with complicated things that can't be directly observed - she doesn't think writing is the right sort of complicated thing - sometimes people also need to explain some parts to you, all of which Élie is doing. Within that, people catch on faster or slower; some are smart, and some are stupid; some are inattentive and lazy and some are focused and diligent. She thinks of herself as smart and focused and diligent, but - oh, maybe that's what he's asking, whether to expect her to be quick or slow at learning?

"I can handle more."

"Alright, then. Keleshite letters – sorry, Osirian, it's the same system – look different depending on whether they appear at the beginning or middle or end of a word." He'll demonstrate.  

She watches very carefully, tries to absorb it all at once, and does not ask questions.

"..it took me a long time to get all this straight. It'll be easier when you're more used to reading. Here, I prepared some sample sentences – " 

They're simple, the kind of thing you'd expect to see in a children's primer. "The dog chases the cat," "The tailor lives in the green house," "The people rise up against the wicked king." 

She stares at the sentences with intense focus, and, again, doesn't say anything.

Having only been seriously exposed to the Osirian writing system... once, or so, she cannot actually remember how the sounds match the symbols well enough to make any real sense of them.

"Do you need more time? We can go over the sounds again."

Unlike the writing, this, she supposes, she really can't practice alone. 

"Hearing it again would be helpful."

Then he'll repeat them again! If he's disappointed in her for being a slow student, there's really no indication of it. 

She doesn't think that a normal person can memorize that many pieces of information in one go - or two goes - which does make offering her the sentences a bit weird. (It doesn't occur to her for a second that she might be meant to do the exercise incompletely, picking out the parts she can without being able to so much as imperfectly stumble through the entire exercise.)

How do you learn to do anything else. By watching someone who knows how to do it. And then trying, of course, but once you can do it, however imperfectly.

"I think it might be useful to hear you read some sentences, if we're going to work on sentences," she says, after a couple more minutes of staring at the samples.

"Oh – of course." It's occurred to Élie that he's probably doing something wrong. Unfortunately, he barely remembers learning how to read, and he's entirely certain that he wouldn't want to replicate it. He'll read the sentences, slowly, enunciating as clearly as he can and indicating the letters as he goes. 

In the last twenty minutes, she apparently has picked up enough familiarity with the letters that this no longer parses as a kind of mundane magic; she can see the which parts of many of the words correspond to the sounds, though not all of them.

"Could I watch you read some more?"

"Of course!" At this point he's run out of sentences and can pull out an actual book. "I do apologize, it's fairly dry, I borrowed it from Jacques and he only owns books on Ancient Osirian brick-making, but there weren't too many alternatives in Mut." 

"Ancient Osirian brick-making is perfectly fine."

Then he can (slowly, carefully) read aloud on the subject of Ancient Osirian brick-making! 

Is Naima going to interrupt him with any questions? 

Nope!! But she's going to stare at the page over his shoulder very, very intently.

....at some point Élie is going to get genuinely enthusiastic about the subject of Ancient Osirian brick-making and speed up a bit. 

Still staring very intently! In some parts she can almost follow along for multiple entire words!