talk
Kurdish is the official language and most widely spoken. You will be able to find people to understand basic Arabic and basic English. Also, higher learning institutes produce teenagers eager to practise their foreign language "skills" in many towns and a large number of expat Kurds have returned home, bringing with them languages as diverse as Swedish and Japanese.
food
you can search for every kurdish location in www.kurd-pc.comMeat! As with many other middle eastern people, Kurds are voracious carnivores. Local foods include: Kebab, dolma stuffed grape vines, yaprax assorted stuffed vegtables ranging from onions to courgettes, shila u brinc (the Kurdish national dish, composing rice alongside a soup, which is made from many vegtables such as okra "bamiya", and the infamous gipa (much like scottish haggis.
However, it's not exactly going to be haute cuisine. Be prepared to have a fairly grubby food experience. The shawarma shops are surprisingly tasty, with slicings of meat served in very nice samoon breads - but they aren't exactly A* cuisine. Apart from that, there are a lot of kebab or roast chicken restaurants where you will get some bread, some rice, some soup and some meat.
The less adventurous traveler will be reassured to know that some Western-style food establishments are now open in the major population centres, such as Domino's Pizza and numerous fried chicken and burger joints. However, it's not that easy to find them and they won't be much better than the local food.
the best place to eat in sulimaniyah is a place called 'athena' it was lovely and very clean, the food was brilliant and the manager lived in greece for sometime so spoke some English, however, i did not find anyone who spoke English while i was there, not even in the airport!!
more information
(http://www.traveliraqikur...) is a useful website with practical information and a forum.