Since arriving in Malaysia and seeing all these muslims, I've wanted to walk into a shop, restaurant, hotel, etc. and loudly pronounce, "Asalam Wulakium brothers/sisters" so I could hear them respond "Wulakium asalam." Alas, Malays don't seem to greet each other like that. Pretty disappointing to us Arab speakers.
Why am I mentioning this? Well yesterday in KL I got to do something about that urge of mine. I found an internet place that had Arabic on its sign. I decided to check it out. I walked in and who was behind the front desk? An Arab dude. Giddy up, time to step up: "Aslaam Wulakium!" I bellowed. The Arab looked up from the computer and mumbled, "Wulakium asalam" as did a fellow Arab nearby. So they didn't match my enthusiasm; c'est la vie. Mr. Moustache (dude behind the counter) told me to wait a second. When he told me I was good to go, I replied, "Shukrun [thanks in arabic]". He muttered, "Affon [welcome]."
After spending an hour doing my internet thing, I got up to pay. While Mr. Moustache handed my money back I asked, "Min ain anta?" (where are you from?). He blinked and said, "Iraq. Wa anta?"
"Amerika"
"Muslim?"
It literally took me 5-10 seconds to come up with the word for "no." Finally, that real tongue twister of a word popped into my head: "La. Atakulum arabi- shoya" (I speak Arabic- a little). I then asked the other Arab where he was from. "Phillistine" he told me. Shit, two places us Americans haven't treated so well. Guilt came over me. Mr. Philistine made some comment, laughed, and stuck his hand out to shake my hand. After doing so, I jokingly said, "I'm sorry." Mr. Moustache replied, "Welcome." Welcome for what, I have no idea. Nevertheless, I smiled and said, "Masalama" and went on my way.
While that interaction helped alleviate my urge a little, it still is there. Watch out Bangladesh!
And now I'm off to check out some Chinese mansion. I will be posting later about the place I am presently staying. Let's just say I felt like I was in a Seinfeld episode this morning.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment