Student life
My daily life has been consumed by hanging out at the University, which is not too bad. Its really cool to be surrounded by people my own age, especially when they all speak Arabic. Of course, everyone wants to try their English on me. I'm a native speaker, which is really exciting for them. But, since some of them aren't very good at English, Arabic is what mostly goes on.
I'm getting more confident not only being around other people, but also starting to speak a little Arabic around them. They all laugh when I do it. They're not really used to hearing non-native people speak Arabic. But, I'm almost to the point where I can have some sort of basic conversation, if not just adding little comments to discussion or peppering my English with Arabic words.
The guys that I'm hanging out with said that they're sure that by the end of May I'll be really good in Arabic, and will have forgotten how to speak English. My deterioration has already begun. I was writing an email yesterday, and when I was typing the word "depth" I spelled it d-e-b-t-h. It is funny because in Arabic there is no "p" letter, so whenever they have a word that needs a "b" sound (mostly words in English that are transliterated) they use "p." For example, the Arabic on the Pepsi bottles says "bebsi." I recognized my error right away, but still...
I'll try to get some pictures of what the university is like, and all the students, etc. Most of the kids are pretty similar to those in the United States, except for boy-girl relations, of course. The way boys and girls interact is so hilarious. Like middle-school in the US.
My one friend talked to a girl yesterday and asked her out to lunch. It took like 45 minutes just to get him to talk to her. So, today, me and another guy are going with him to eat lunch with her, I believe because he's too nervous to do it by himself.
At lunch yesterday I was telling my friends how boys and girls interact in the US. Of course, the only idea they have of the US comes from the movies, which is not very good (because its mostly bullshit). I was trying to convey the idea that often boys and girls would be "going out" just to be in a relationship, and wouldn't have any intentions of getting married. It seems like all anyone thinks about with boys and girls is marriage. The girl my friend asked out is two years older than him (he's a freshman and she's a junior), and he was already saying that he probably couldn't marry someone who was that much older than him...
Culture is so strange.
I'm going to Amman tomorrow for the weekend. Updates again on Sunday.
I'm getting more confident not only being around other people, but also starting to speak a little Arabic around them. They all laugh when I do it. They're not really used to hearing non-native people speak Arabic. But, I'm almost to the point where I can have some sort of basic conversation, if not just adding little comments to discussion or peppering my English with Arabic words.
The guys that I'm hanging out with said that they're sure that by the end of May I'll be really good in Arabic, and will have forgotten how to speak English. My deterioration has already begun. I was writing an email yesterday, and when I was typing the word "depth" I spelled it d-e-b-t-h. It is funny because in Arabic there is no "p" letter, so whenever they have a word that needs a "b" sound (mostly words in English that are transliterated) they use "p." For example, the Arabic on the Pepsi bottles says "bebsi." I recognized my error right away, but still...
I'll try to get some pictures of what the university is like, and all the students, etc. Most of the kids are pretty similar to those in the United States, except for boy-girl relations, of course. The way boys and girls interact is so hilarious. Like middle-school in the US.
My one friend talked to a girl yesterday and asked her out to lunch. It took like 45 minutes just to get him to talk to her. So, today, me and another guy are going with him to eat lunch with her, I believe because he's too nervous to do it by himself.
At lunch yesterday I was telling my friends how boys and girls interact in the US. Of course, the only idea they have of the US comes from the movies, which is not very good (because its mostly bullshit). I was trying to convey the idea that often boys and girls would be "going out" just to be in a relationship, and wouldn't have any intentions of getting married. It seems like all anyone thinks about with boys and girls is marriage. The girl my friend asked out is two years older than him (he's a freshman and she's a junior), and he was already saying that he probably couldn't marry someone who was that much older than him...
Culture is so strange.
I'm going to Amman tomorrow for the weekend. Updates again on Sunday.
posted by Aaron Berdanier at 7:37 AM Permalink
