It’s MUSTAHEEEEEEEEEEL

3anjad ra7 amooooot min al logit al 3arabia. (It’s IMPOSSIBLE!! Gosh, I am going to die from the Arabic language). I am just never going to learn it well enough to do and say and discern what I want. I give up. Even if I studied until I die, I am just not EVER  going to be FLUENT!!!!

I had the most amazing interview with a woman recently. We had a half hour chat on the phone initially, in Arabic, in which I stumbled over a few phrases but for the most part got it. We decided to meet over the Eid, and as she gave me directions to a very far locale, it dawned on me that I may be getting over my head. As I was driving there, she used words I have NEVER heard of. At one point, I was supposed to turn left where I saw chickens.

“Dajaaj matt oo dajaaj ayish?” I asked her, asking if they were dead chickens or live chickens.

“Ayish?” I had obviously used the wrong word for ‘alive’

“Ah, dajaaj “HIYYA”. Hiyya means alive, to me it means ‘hello’. So, yes, turn left at the living chickens.

So after 6k’s, no sign of chickens. Saw some chicken crates, the kind they live in just before they cease to be ‘hiyya’.

I called, it answered but no sound. She called me, same thing. I must have been out of Orange territory. I had to drive back to a place I could call, yes, it was turn left at the chicken crates. The chickens had been ‘hiyya’ when she drove by last, bas ‘matt’ (dead) by the time I got there. I ended up getting there, a beautiful area, where migrating eagles gather.

We felt like we had known each other forever, but quickly realized that between her limited English and my limited Arabic, we were gonna have to go reaaaaaaaaal slow. We were both tripped up by having fairly good accents and good base knowledge of the normal convo stuff, but getting down to the nitty-gritty of our topic was tough. We stopped every tenth word for clarification, she taught me the concept in Arabic, and I told her in English.

Whew. It was a hard-won victory, that interview language tussle.

So just when I was ready to give up and speak Arabizi the rest of my time in Jordan, hubby found a new English-Arabic dictionary site. Guess I better stick with it. Here it is, for those who haven’t given up yet:

http://www.babylon.com/define/98/English-Arabic-Dictionary.html