Mal ,'Safe'
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
Okay, anyone got any theories about why my very nice but completely unintelligible Chinese next-door neighbor just tried to give me a box of instant oatmeal?
I'm vastly amused by the way she speaks to me so earnestly, and yet clearly has to know that I don't get a word she's saying. This must be what it is like to have American tourists in a non-English-speaking nation.
considers
I am your Chinese next-door neighour. Only less generous with my foodstuffs. And more given to profanity.
Now I am picturing Fay as the Chinese guy from Deadwood because the only colloquial English phrase he knows is "cocksucker" Well, at least, I can entertain myself after all.
Ibna Kelba.
(Arabic for son of a bitch. Which is very, very, VERY offensive indeed. Slightly less offensive is Ibna Kelb, which means son of a dog.)
Fay Jay! A cab driver said insh'allah (sp) to me yesterday and I knew what the hell he meant!
(I'd said 'have a good day' or 'hope the weather breaks' or somesuch)
Ojala in Spanish means about the same thing...one of the lasting leftovers of the Moorish influence in Spain.
Cool!
Salaam alecum (Peace be upon you) is a most excellent multipurpose Hello/Goodbye phrase to employ in such circumstances. And the Arabic word (well, at least in Egyptian Arabic) for yes is "Iowa".
I get a kick out of seeing young Muslims online, discussing the Prophet and putting "PBUH" in parentheses, after. It took me a while to realize that was essentially religious l33t for "peace be upon him."
I learned 'sweetheart' in arabic a while ago. Now I'm up to, like, four words.
And because of all the fiction set in the 'hoods of the world I read, I know that the thing to say back is "Aliechem salaam"
Heh. On a S1 episode of Without A Trace, the imam of a Manhattan mosque gave the FBI agents a definitely ticked-off 'salaam aleichem' when they finished questioning him about a suspect that he thought wouldn't have been a terrorist in about a hundred years. He'd previously had to ask them to step outside when they'd walked in wearing their shoes. I like that this show often gets some cool details right without beating the viewer over the head with exposition about them.