This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 at 3:50 pm and is filed under Africa, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
A few more arabic classes down the way and the reading thing is getting easier by the day (pops fat head). Besides a multitude of new and entertaining sentences that I can now construct – such as ten different activities that a donkey might perform in a car (a really useful trick for when I.. um… nevermind), I have also learned the word for dog. Kalb, in this case, marks a special point in any language course, you see.
Much like learning to count, or give your name, learning the word for dog in a language seems to be some kind of secret marker that you must pass – usually in your early lessons. Cat, if it comes at all, is usually much further on in the learning. Grouped together with other nonessentials like (in this case) the word for person, or even colours, the weather or basic directions. Nope, we have to get good old dog in there first. Go dog.
June 3rd, 2009 at 7:10 am
perhaps I could suggest you peruse this book in celebration.
http://www.amazon.com/Go-Dog-Beginner-Books/dp/0394800206
congratulations on kalb, btw. and donkey?
June 3rd, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Hah, ironically this is true for Japanese, too. The character for dog (犬) is essentially the character for big (大) with one extra stroke, or person (人) with two. Whereas the character for cat (猫) is a little more complicated. How odd, huh?
June 3rd, 2009 at 3:16 pm
@Nichola – Perhaps cats are just complicated creatures? :) Though using that logic would mean that people would be less complicated than dogs. Although, comparing some people I know to one of the more neurotic breeds (whippet anyone?) might not make it an unwarranted theory.
@Eileen – Donkey was “himar” I believe. Not knowing the word for person, we ended up describing whole cities filled with donkeys. It is amazing what those creatures can do when forced to drive cars and run hospitals. That book, btw, looks like a pretty accurate summary of where our class is at the moment :)
June 4th, 2009 at 10:06 am
you have to read David Sedaris’ short story “jesus shaves.” You simply must. You’ll love it. If you’re not offended.
oh, here’s an audio, even better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5apZmwR9UI
June 4th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
I laughed so hard. I think I may even have snorted in places :) Roman bells would never be able to find a job in France!
June 4th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Glad you liked it! I take it you weren’t familliar with him before? He’s home grown in the U.S.A. but I think he lives with his partner in France now, where I hope he currenly has a better grasp of the language. He mostly cracks me up, though some of his stories are a little creepy.