Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4650 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English
| Message 57 of 152 12 July 2013 at 2:48pm | IP Logged |
Quite a lot of Arabic going round my FB. A Tunisian friend posted a pic of Nelson Mandela along with an Arabic caption, and I was able to understand that he's 94.
New words
Mabruk مبروك congratulations
Ramadan karim happy ramadan
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Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4650 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English
| Message 58 of 152 06 August 2013 at 4:38pm | IP Logged |
While on hols with my parents, I noticed that a solar shower (a plastic bag with a black side to absorb sun rays and heat the water inside) has a description in Arabic, among other languages.
Cue me trying to read it, expecting the شمسي - sun (adj.) to show up. After 5 minutes of head-scratching (why does it look so weird?) I burst out laughing.
Do you know what the reason was?
The name of the shower was يسمش مامح.
"Hammam shamsiy", all right. But written left-to-right.
I wanted to take a photo and show it to my Arabic friends. Alas, my parents had to tape it up a bit and the tape covers the text :(
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Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4650 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English
| Message 59 of 152 20 September 2013 at 7:27pm | IP Logged |
I went and wrote Sarah about the caption on the solar shower, she cracked up.
This was around 2 months ago.
Sarah got back in touch a few days ago. As did the Tunisian friend, Aida. So I'm hoping not to let my Arabic rust.
Also, thinking of enrolling in A1 Arabic course at uni (starting MA studies now) but I don't know whether I'll be able to afford it (no free language lessons for MA students, alas).
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Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4650 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English
| Message 60 of 152 04 October 2013 at 8:09pm | IP Logged |
I didn't enroll in the Arabic course. I decided to save the money for an intensive summer course or a sign language course.
Still hoping for an Arabic-Polish dictionary for my birthday (the 18th).
Aida posted a pic on FB I commented on, learning two new words in the process. No clue how they are pronounced, however.
New words
Ajmal ? more beautiful
? قرينة wife
? زوخ husband
Any help?
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Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4650 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English
| Message 61 of 152 05 October 2013 at 11:56am | IP Logged |
Dug out Acapela Text to Speech from my huuge pile of bookmarks for this:
My Tunisian friend Anis shared a Polish friend's post on FB, therefore I could guess its contents even before running it through Aratools:
فتاة صغيرة من بولندا مصابة بمرض السرطان ، حلمها ان تتلقى بطاقات تهنئة من مناطق مختلفة من العالم بمناسبة عيد ميلادها الموافق ل 27 أكتوبر. ربما بكلمات بسيطة يمكن
ان تزرع الامل في نفسها و تساعدها على تجاوز محنتها . العنوان :
New words
Al-amal الامل the hope
Al-aalam العالم the world
Al-saratan السرطان cancer
Basitat بسيطة simple
Bitakat بطاقات cards
Fatat فتاة young girl
Hulm حلم dream
Manatuq? مناطق areas
Marad مرض illness
Masabat مصابة afflicted, wounded
Muhanat محنت trial, ordeal
Muhtalifat مختلفة various
Tatalaqa تتلقى she received
Tahittat? تهنئة congratulations (بطاقات تهنتة postcard)
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Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4650 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English
| Message 62 of 152 07 October 2013 at 4:34pm | IP Logged |
I am incredibly happy because there's a new Yemeni girl at university, in year 3.
So I already surprised her by knowing:
a) what Yemen is
b) some Arabic
c) giving her my mail and telling her to write if she wants anything
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Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4650 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English
| Message 63 of 152 24 October 2013 at 5:30pm | IP Logged |
It turns out there's more Yemenis at the university - not only Naiz, but also three boys - Ashraf, Saleh and the third one I've seen in the corridors but I don't know his name.
To make me even happier, I've got a course with Niaz & Ashraf and another one with all three - Niaz, Ashraf and Saleh.
Yesterday Niaz came into the classroom with only a few minutes to spare and immediately started writing something in her notebook, so I asked her:
هذا واجب؟
To which she replied:
لا هذا واجب
... so I was glad I hadn't forgotten any homework.
Today I received a Polish-Arabic dictionary (a late birthday present). You can guess how happy I am!
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Luso Hexaglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 6060 days ago 819 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, French, EnglishC2, GermanB1, Italian, Spanish Studies: Sanskrit, Arabic (classical)
| Message 64 of 152 24 October 2013 at 7:57pm | IP Logged |
Zireael wrote:
The name of the shower was يسمش مامح.
"Hammam shamsiy", all right. But written left-to-right.
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I've witnessed a similar phenomenon with tattoos. People write their own names left-to-right and, in addition, they spell the letters separately. The result is quite strange (not to mention wrong).
Another popular trend is changing the orthography, just to have better-looking tattoos. A guy I know is called Nuno, but he tattooed his arm with "nana", just because the "artist" told him it would look better. Go figure...
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