Play on Words

مرحبا

كيف حالك؟

Marhaba

Keef Halik?

Hello!  Well here in Jordan obviously the dominant language is Arabic.  That is why I am here in order to become better at the language or as some people call it squiggles.  My Arabic learning does happen in the classroom, but the Arabic that I am going to remember the most is the Arabic I hear on the streets and amongst the locals.  I titled this post a "play on words" because the fact that to translate some things to English there are multiple Arabic words that can be used.  A good example of this is "afwan"( عفواً).  This word in its most literal translatio means pardon me.  It also could mean various other menaings such as you are welcome, excuse me, and thinking nothing of it.  Another example of this would be the english word of "good."  In Arabic there are many ways to say good to include: 'ged' ( جيد), 'taeb' ( طيب), 'salah' ( صالح), 'ouke' (أوكي ), and 'mashee' (ماشي).  The last one on the list being more of a local dialect that is really only used here in Jordan. 

Well the examples above do make sense because the words are somewhat related.  Well the next will be a good example how a play on words can be quite entertaining for others.  So my name is Zachary, correct.  I usually introduce myself as Zack though.  That makes sense it is just shorter.  Well there is a word in Arabic that correlates with my shorter name.  Plus this word everybody figured out because it was used one day during orientation.  The word is 'Zacki' (زاكي).  Once my peers heard this they looked at me and said that is going to be my nickname.  This word translates to mean 'delicious' and is used when describing food.  It is a local word but not just for the younger generation because my host parents do say that to me too. So when the locals hear that word being addressed to me they look at us like we are crazy Americans.  Thankfully my Arabic professor uses another nickname (simply, Zack Zack) in class.  Still though when I see my peers there is a select group of people who always call me 'Zacki.'

It is the end of the week today after classes, and than am meeting with my peer tutor.  Will probably head downtown this weekend to study at one of the local cafes and than on Sunday there is a field trip.  It's actually more of a community service event but it is about an hour and a half outside of Amman.  The study abroad program here has adopted a school and we are going to help fix up this school.  Will give more details after the event sometime next week.  Right now though have to go take a quiz.  Will write sometime next week.  In sh’Allah.   ( إن شاء الله).