hi kiifak ca va?
So. Let's just say that the arabic I learned at Michigan does not really help at all on the streets. I knew this was the case, but I was really in denial. I would say that studying both classical and colloquial Arabic is equivalent to studying Spanish and French. They are seriously that different.
Colloquial Lebanese is really a trip. All the young people speak fluent English and all the old people speak fluent French on top of their local dialect. People like to joke about the standard Lebanese greeting, "hi Keefak ca va?", which incorporates english, arabic, and french. I spent the first two weeks at the Language Center learning how to say goodbye:
First person: ba-kha-trak
Second person: ma-a salaame
First person: allaysalmak
Then I realized that nobody actually says this (even though it is technically colloquial). They ALL say "yulla bye." yeah. There are a few key words that you need to get around Beirut. Here they are:
Marhaba: hello
Keefak, keefik (to a girl): how are you
yulla: hurry, ok, let's go
yanee: I mean, you know, like, ummm
khallus: finished, ok, no more, enough
bukra: tomorrow
la: no (you can also make a clicking noise)
eh: yes
shoo: what?
muzahira: protest
sooreya: Syria
However, my favorite word is "wasta" and it means connections. To do anything in Lebanon you need a wasta. I used to think that it was really funny to joke about it, but people are totally serious and defensive about their wasta. My friend made the mistake of telling our history professor that her parents don't have a good wasta because they are professors of japanese history at UC Berkeley. Then, because she insulted the wasta of professors, he had to defend his own wasta by telling us that if we wanted to go to Jordan he could get us a really good deal on a hotel... and he was serious.
A lot of words sound alike too, which makes things really difficult especially when I have to pronounce them. For example, I told my teacher yesterday that I have vegetable eyes instead of green eyes. It took her about 5 minutes to compose herself before she could explain my mistake. But things are funny to us too. For example, I find it endlessly hysterical that the word for husband, jawiz is also the word for walnut. he he.
Yulla bye!
Colloquial Lebanese is really a trip. All the young people speak fluent English and all the old people speak fluent French on top of their local dialect. People like to joke about the standard Lebanese greeting, "hi Keefak ca va?", which incorporates english, arabic, and french. I spent the first two weeks at the Language Center learning how to say goodbye:
First person: ba-kha-trak
Second person: ma-a salaame
First person: allaysalmak
Then I realized that nobody actually says this (even though it is technically colloquial). They ALL say "yulla bye." yeah. There are a few key words that you need to get around Beirut. Here they are:
Marhaba: hello
Keefak, keefik (to a girl): how are you
yulla: hurry, ok, let's go
yanee: I mean, you know, like, ummm
khallus: finished, ok, no more, enough
bukra: tomorrow
la: no (you can also make a clicking noise)
eh: yes
shoo: what?
muzahira: protest
sooreya: Syria
However, my favorite word is "wasta" and it means connections. To do anything in Lebanon you need a wasta. I used to think that it was really funny to joke about it, but people are totally serious and defensive about their wasta. My friend made the mistake of telling our history professor that her parents don't have a good wasta because they are professors of japanese history at UC Berkeley. Then, because she insulted the wasta of professors, he had to defend his own wasta by telling us that if we wanted to go to Jordan he could get us a really good deal on a hotel... and he was serious.
A lot of words sound alike too, which makes things really difficult especially when I have to pronounce them. For example, I told my teacher yesterday that I have vegetable eyes instead of green eyes. It took her about 5 minutes to compose herself before she could explain my mistake. But things are funny to us too. For example, I find it endlessly hysterical that the word for husband, jawiz is also the word for walnut. he he.
Yulla bye!