Speaking in Native Tongues
Wednesday 16. April 2008 — 08:24What is the name of this thing?
I am sitting here this morning eating a grapefruit for breakfast and musing on that word. Guess what the word for “grapefruit” is in Arabic.
Come on, guess.
See, my rule for language acquisition is this: if I don’t know the name for something and how to ask for it, then I can’t have it. It is less of a rule and more of a self-imposed limitation to overcome, I know this. However, it serves me well as it gives me incentive to learn things. I have a logical loop that I run on myself before I leave the house every morning or make a phone call. I will give you an example:
Situation: I am going to buy light-bulbs and the local light-bulb shop. Taken as given: Knowledge of daily interactive words (Hello, How are you?, Goodbye, etc.), knowledge of numbers related to money.
Query: What words/phrases do I need to be able to say to complete this transaction?
Output: light-bulb, fluorescent, compact, how much are they?, too bright, not bright enough, how many watts?
Query: Which words do I know already? Which which do I need to obtain?
Output:
Words known: lamba (light-bulb), bi kam? (how much are they?), Sagheer (small/compact), kam Watt? (how many watts?)
Unknown words: fluorescent, too bright, not bright enough
Query: What are possible responses to my questions? Do I know the words for these responses?
Output: I don’t have those (mafeesh), how many do you want? (‘aayz kam?), numbers for prices (this is a given)
Now I go to the dictionary or phrasebook—Lonely Planet is the best for this, if you are coming to Egypt, buy it—and accumulate these words. So today we find: neeoun (fluorescent), mushri` kiteer (too bright), mushri` shwaya (not very bright). I also could say "flooreessant" for fluorescent.
And there it is.
Whenever it is something that I feel like I should know before going out, the word in common usage ends up being a loan-word from English. Whenever I say to myself, "Nah, I'll just wing it," the word end up being something like 'umla ma'adaniyya (coins).
So, when I went to buy this grapefruit that I am now enjoying, I didn't know the word and so resigned myself to not having it until I went home and figured it out. Stacey said, in her wisdom, "Just ask the guy what it's called." Of course! I asked him, "We want this, but what is it? How do I say the name of this?"
"Greeb," he replied, looking at me like I was an idiot, "greeb froot."
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J: “What’s that?” (pointing to the ground)
“It’s an ant! aa-nt!”
Exactly.