The past couple of days have been brutal- tests galore (my crazy weekend is coming back to bite me...) and everyday I have something to go to after class. Last night I went to a really good talk on mummification by Dr. Salima Ikram (she's on the History Channel quite a bit, and is one of the best in her field) that was great. The day before I did an art expression thing, and the day before that went to a photography show. All of this is rather distracting to the real reason I am here- to learn Arabic. But all distractions aside, I have managed to learn more then I thought possible. To honor what I have learned (and to postpone my homework a bit longer...) I will share some of my favorite words, sentences, and mistakes.
Mumtaz- excellent! I use this word more then any other, much to my chagrin.
Inshallah- My second favorite word. It means "if god wills it" and is used like "I will be in class on time, inshallah" or "I will see you tomorrow, inshallah". It's a great way to say yes when you really want to say no.
Ana mish khawaga!- "I am not a stupid foreigner!" This one came in handy at the pyramids, or when men decide to be pigs and make stupid comments.
Getting to school is also quite an adventure. Most of us have to take a taxi, and this can lead to some rather funny misadventures. For example-
Egyptians call the pyramids "haram". One of my classmates got in a taxi and asked the driver to take her to the "harem" which means forbidden. She thought she was going to the pyramids, he thought he was getting some- it took awhile to sort that one out, let me tell you....
Another female student thought that she was saying "stop here" (bass hina) but mistakenly was saying "buss hina" which means "kiss me here". This driver was kind enough to explain it to her rather then go for it.
I've had some serious issues getting to school. First, I was saying "midan tahrir" (the square my school is on) all wrong, and then I started saying the name of the school wrong. You can't just say "American University" you have to say "Gaa'ma Amerikiyya". I kept saying "Ga'mi Amerikiyya" which means "American Mosque". I ended up in the strangest places, none of which were school. On the plus side, I have seen a lot of mosques.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
lol. It's sad that Chinese doesn't have cool words like "Inshallah." I just have to settle with "I'll be there if I wake up on time..."
On the other hand, saying things like "It's on the People's Road" is pretty cool.
Or, "It's located in the People's Park, comrade."
Or, "The theme of tonight's presentation is 'fly like a phoenix, become like a dragon.'"
Or, "Your going to wear red to the phoenix boat races. Lucky red. China red." Hell, you could probably say "people's red", and no one would care.
"What kind of tea would you like?"
"People's tea."
You know what the unit of money is called? Renminbi. Translation: The People's Money.
Lol. Let me combine languages:
"After Liberation, the people were given freedom. Inshallah, they will keep their freedom."
LOL... I can't wait to see you again Comrade Laura... inshallah we will talk on the phone. These are the PG 13 mistakes you should hear the non-PG13 ones....
I still need to go and get me a People's Microphone so we can do that. Inshallah, I can find one tomorrow afternoon.
Chuck Norris has the greatest Poker-Face of all time. He won the 1983 World Series of Poker, despite holding only a Joker, a Get out of Jail Free Monopoloy card, a 2 of clubs, 7 of spades and a green #4 card from the game UNO.
Post a Comment