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Arabic brownie points
Dec. 15th, 2005 01:15 pmI love it when I actually know something in Arabic.
I was just working with a student who had written, in a draft of her paper, something about الربع الخالي. "Don't worry about that," she said. "I just have to look up what it's called in English."
"The Rub' al-Khali?" I said. "We call it 'The Empty Quarter.'"
She looked at me in shock. "How did you know that's what I wrote?"
Hah. That almost made up for an excruciating morning of ِArabic. How I hate the letter ع. (It was rather embarrassing to learn that my mispronunciation of the name "Abdul 'Aziz" turns it from "Servant of the Powerful" into "Servant of the Weeping." Sorry, Dr. Aziz!)
I was just working with a student who had written, in a draft of her paper, something about الربع الخالي. "Don't worry about that," she said. "I just have to look up what it's called in English."
"The Rub' al-Khali?" I said. "We call it 'The Empty Quarter.'"
She looked at me in shock. "How did you know that's what I wrote?"
Hah. That almost made up for an excruciating morning of ِArabic. How I hate the letter ع. (It was rather embarrassing to learn that my mispronunciation of the name "Abdul 'Aziz" turns it from "Servant of the Powerful" into "Servant of the Weeping." Sorry, Dr. Aziz!)
