I received an e-mail from a lady who is moving to Kuwait soon and she would like to learn Arabic. There are several places that you can do this and I think it is great to learn.
Just keep in mind that Kuwait's dialect is WAAAY different than what you will learn in school. "How are you?" in local dialect, par example, translates in English to "What's your color?" (mood). Anywhere else in the Arab world people would 1) immediately recognize you as having lived in Kuwait and B) Look at you and say, "WTF?"
Because she is nice and I consider her a new friend, I sent her the Desert Girl Listing of Common Terms and Insults.
I have had an internal debate raging since then - should I publish it on my blog in all its glory (vulgarity - some quite extreme that might shock younger readers and might get me in trouble); or should I just offer it to anyone who asks?
I think I must do the latter.
So, if anyone would like my personal favs, please send me an e-mail with "DG Academy for Arabic" in the subject line and I promise to shock and awe you. Plus, if there are any phrases that I have left out, please feel free to ask. Bunny helped me and I think he did a fantastic job; however, he is going to wait to go to the diwaniya and ask for their assistance later which may bring in better results.
The FREE DG listing includes a section for "Practical", "Romantic Shit" and "Insulting/Vulgar" [for example, "Fart" and "Fart (silent killer)" are explained] - plus as a bonus, you receive a variety of cleaver ways to say, "FU".
No postage or tuition fees apply! Write NOW to receive your free copy!
The characters represented here are not Kuwaiti. They are from the UAE hit show, "Freej"; however, they provided the look of shock I was going for.
Hope you added the ever famous "K. I." which is highly inappropriate for me to type :) However, it's my favorite of all Kuwaiti insults! And perhaps the most vulgar.
ReplyDeleteWhile you are at it, perhaps you can add a section on some of the looks that you might get/see and their meanings. I still havent figured them out yet except for the,"What the hell does she think she is wearing" look
ReplyDeleteD - Do you mean "Your mother's vagina?" Yes. I did include that one.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - There is no way to do that. Kuwait is a land of stare-ers. That's what they do. Little kids stare. Their mother's stare. Sometimes their father's stare. People stare. Your ass gets hot because people stare at it. Just look at them and get all goofy, "HEY! How y'all do-in today? Great! Nice ta see ya!" Then they just think you are mental and they leave you alone and stare at someone else. Works for me.
By the by:
ReplyDeleteRESPONSE TO THE DESERT GIRL ACADEMY FOR ARABIC HAS BEEN OVERWHELMING!
I hope that I have sufficiently shocked and awed. If I have missed any of your personal favorites from the list, please drop me a line and let me know.
Woo hoo! Yes, "Your mother's vagina" is the one I was referring to. It took 2 years before anyone would tell me what that meant! I constantly got the "You're a woman, we can't tell you that" response. Now that I know I love to play the pretend-I-dunno game, and use it as often as possible.
ReplyDeleteThis has got me wondering how you managed to compile such a comprehensive list. You are quite the proficient field researcher... perhaps you should write a book.
ReplyDelete