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)
'Lessons'
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.
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.
Is this week's #1 Single the last one?
You really need to stop encouraging me, here, Trudy.
Important (Egyptian) Arabic Words:
Insh'allah (If God is willing - this is in response to ANYTHING where you might say 'yes', 'no' or 'maybe'.)
Al Khamdulaleh - Fantastic! (literally 'thanks be to God!'
Ma'alesh - No worries, dude.
Mufeesh Mushkella - it's not a problem
Ishtah! - Cool! (literally 'cream')
May-ah May-ah - Fantastic! (literally 100/100)
Haram ya lake (m)/ Haram ya lakie (f) - Shame on you.
Shookran - thanks
Ma'a'salema - Good bye
The most important Egyptian Arabic word I learned when I was there was "Imshi" = "go away", useful when small children or grown men are following you around like puppies.
I did like it when I walked down the street to a chorus of "beautiful lady!"