"Don't be a fluent fool."

Arabic has many unique sayings that seem very strange to native English-speakers, as most languages do.  Matthew told us in Cairo, "Don't be a fluent fool."  This means that one can be grammatically and vocabulary-y fluent in a language, but that doesn't mean you can use it appropriately in the real world.

Language is greater than the sum of its parts - it's not just arbitrary phonetic symbols and abstract grammatical rules.  It is the medium by which thoughts, feelings, culture, values and customs are communicated.  Language encompasses more than the oral.  Gestures, tone of voice, and even volume all add shades of meaning to the words that are actually being spoken.  And just as grammar and vocabulary are particular to each individual language, these other aspects of communication vary among languages as to what exactly they are meant to convey.  

For example, as opposed to the American ideal of keeping calm in the face of adversary, Egyptians frequently start shouting at each other over just about anything.  Whereas Americans think that to be calm means to be confident and to be over-excited means to be defensive and impulsive, Egyptians believe that to be calm means that you don't care about the subject at hand, and to start shouting shows just how sure you are that you are right.  Both sides make sense logically, sah?  But it's easy to see how being a fluent fool (or just straight up not fluent at all), can cause a lot of intercultural miscommunications and misunderstandings. 

I am not anywhere near fluent.  I am still solidly in the not-so-fluent fool phase, and probably will be for quite some time to come.  Arabic can be quite tricky, especially since almost any daily event has some kind of conventional saying attached.  For instance, when someone is eating or going to eat, you should say "Saha" to them, which literally means "health" and means something like "Bon apetit!" That's not so bad, right?  But then there's the obligatory responses.  If someone says "saha" to you, you should respond with "Ala elbak."  Literally, this does not make sense (it means "on your heart") but it's just the conventional response.  There are many of these comment-response combos that don't make much sense (to me) that even include appropriate comment-responses for after someone gets a haircut.

That being said, I have picked up on a fair share of everyday Arabic phrases that I never would have become so familiar with in the States. Here's a sampling of the ones you're most likely to hear me say:

ممكن

mumkin

"Maybe." Probably my most used Arabic word and the one that will slip out the most when I am skyping with people from home.  There's really nothing too special about this one except the fact that I don't think I have actually used the word "maybe" since January, and mumkin is uttered at least 10 times a day.

إن شاء الله

insha'allah

"God willing."  Probably the most used phrase not only in the Arabic language, but by all Muslims.  Insha'allah is used when discussing any event in the future ("The test will be tomorrow, insha'allah").  It's used to convey the idea that the future is out of humans' hands, which I really like.  Sometimes though, it's used to just mean "hopefully" or "maybe" ("Insha'allah I will do good on my test" or "Will we leave at 10?" "Insha'allah").  They're all sort of interwoven into one meaning that at once is very particular but can also be used in practically any context.  It can be a little frustrating though, when you ask a yes-or-no question and the only answer you ever get is insha'allah! This phrase has worked its way into my daily vocabulary and is slowly replacing mumkin.

الحمد لله 

alhamdulillah

"Praise be to God."  Another all-purpose phrase.  Generally meaning "good/fine" or "thank God."  If someone asks "How are you?" or "What's new?" or basically any question about your or anyone else's well being, alhamdulillah is usually the most appropriate non-committal answer.  It can also be added on to any sentence to convey what "thank God" conveys in English. ("How are you?" "Good, alhamdulillah." or "The test went well alhamdulillah.")

ما شاء الله

masha'allah

"God has willed it." There's not really a good English translation, nor an exact English equivalent.  Arab/Muslim culture is big on the evil eye, and therefore, ways of warding it off.  To express any kind of jealousy or even to hint at envy can invoke the evil eye, so instead of saying, "OMG you have SUCH a nice car!" (because that would actually invoke the evil eye on the car - and make it break down or have some other unfortunate event happen to it - and be incredibly rude) you say "Masha'allah! What a nice car!" The masha'allah, obviously, negates any kind of evil eye action going on.  Also, about 20% of the cars here have a big sticker that goes on the windshield that says masha'allah, assumedly to ward off any evil eye.  Which is ironic because the cars I see it on are usually older cars that no one would covet... 

يعني

yani

"Meaning..." This is Arabic's stutter word, and yet another word I have picked up unconsciously.  You know how often and annoyingly the words "like" and "um" are used in English? That's yani for Arabic.  Unlike "like" and "um" though, it does have an actual definition that is occasionally used.  So in class, we can say "shu yani ___?" ("What does [something] mean?") or we can use it to clarify things ("I live in Swefiyeh, yani, near the Safeway.") or we can just use it to waste time when we don't know what to say ("Did you do your homework?" "Yani.....").

صاح

Sah

"Correct." Nothing too interesting about this one, I'm just listing it because I use it a lot and my friends and family might want to understand what I'm saying!  I usually use it at the end of statements/questions to mean "right?" ("We're skyping tomorrow, Sah?")

عربيزي

Arabizi

"Arabish." Arabizi is the Espanglés version of Spanglish.  It's all of our semi-Arabic, semi-English vocabulary and grammar that is really only comprehensible to other American students of Arabic. 

شكرا\عفوا

shokran/afwan

"Thank you/You're welcome."  There actually isn't a word that just means "You're welcome" in the sense we use it in English, afwan can be used to mean "You're welcome" at times or "Pardon me" at others.  Seems confusing?  That's because it is.  Not because the meanings ever get mixed up, just because I personally, in my American mindset, find it inconvenient that one word would have those two different meanings.  On another note though, we have turned shokran/afwan into English-style abbreviations so that we all say "shokes" and "afs" now instead of the full word.  Funny when we're together, embarrassing when we accidentally use it in the real world. 

ما في مشكلة\مش مشكلة

ma fii mushkila/mish mushkila

"No problem."  I'll make this one my last word since this post is getting long!  This has replaced my every "no prob," "no worries," "meh," "it doesn't matter/it's not important," and "whatever."  It's pretty colloquial, and every Jordanian I say it to either assumes I'm Arab and starts talking at me a mile a minute or is just tickled that an American is using that phrase.  I'm not really sure why, but it is fun to observe, haha.  It goes very well with the laid back attitude of the Middle East (see: insha'allah!). 

It was actually harder than expected to try to explain how each of these words is used/under what conditions they are appropriate.  It's all part of the fluency quest though.  I think it actually is good that I can't fully describe these words in English, it means that the Arabic side of my brain has developed at least to the point where it can stand somewhat on its own!  Since I'm such a language nerd, I'll probably make another post similar to this one in the future, but I'll spare you all for now.