It's cold but my kids need to go to school. We decided to purchase tights for Sophea and Sobhan to wear underneath their pinafore. After buying the tights, I remember reading Sophea's school diary about notebooks for test. I told abang to go and buy the book. Instead, he prefer to take care of Shahmey. Since the stationery shop is just few steps away, I went by myself (with the 2 girls who surely expect to buy more than books...)
After choosing the right notebooks (while Sophea and Sobhan are busy choosing the B@rb1e stickers), I went to the counter. The cashier (Sudan guy) talked to me in Arabic. I talked to him in English. The more I talk in English, the more he talked in Arabic. I betcha, if you looked at us, it seems that we understand each other. But actually, I don't understand even a word. I think he was trying to compare me and my kids coz he did mention 'thalatha' which means 3. he said 'saghir' - small... okay... saghir is small.. and then what? he said, you, small, then pointed to my kids... then he said, small... beautiful. I showed him my confuse expression.
He kept talking and talking, in arabic though. Then, he went to the dictionary section (remember, its a stationery store), tried to look for the right word in English to explain to me. Nope! he didn't find it. Then he said, tomorrow... (what? tomorrow?) he wanted me to come back tomorrow so that he can say whatever he wanted to say in english? hmmm.. may be not, I thought. I just said, Insyaallah. After saying thank you, I left.
After the incident, I know that I need to learn arabic. I think it's a waste being in Saudi but can't manage to speak arabic (broken pun takpe la kan). My mission now is, I need to go to the market or store more often and try to converse in arabic. 1 word a day... 10 days - 10 words. 365 days - 365 words... yeah right!!! (By the way, the kids managed to convince Shahril and get the stickers)
6 sugar & spice:
molek lah belajar arabic, opportunity yang datang tak patut dilepaskan. May be boleh join the activities yang community kat sana organized?
I wonder which part of saudi you are in, kalau tak boleh ssaing nga kak elisa di al-khobar..go visit her blog..in efx2 pun ada, in blogspot pun ada..insyaAllah she'll make a nice friend for you.
onee - dia dah datang melawat pun.. :) I met her during one of the makan2 dengan melayu itu hari :)
neeza, I duduk sini dah 3 years, only tahu Sabahul Khair (good morning), Khaifa haluka? (how are you?), Toib (good), Syukran (thankyou), Khalas (Done/Finish), Mahfi (tak ada), fi (ada), Sakini Hena (I live here), dziarah (visit)(these 2 selalu guna kat gate compound), the numbers (itupun kalau dia jadi belas2 or puluh or ratus I get confused), Yalah (hurry), Shuey Shuey (sikit sikit), Kabeer (big), saghir (small), Haza (there), Ma haza? (where?), Jameelah (pretty), Azizi (dear), zawji (husband) and the latest phrase I learned - "Zawji Mohandis" (husband engineer).
heh heh
SOme melayu2 in aramco ada organize kelas arabic with the ustaz yang ajar tajweed, but it's during weekdays so leceh sikit kitorang yang duduk kat luar nak attend. I usually learn from shopkeepers and the ladies I meet on the bus. Maybe you can learn from Pakcik Ahmed (or his wife)?
tq elisa. masa i pergi dammam x tau pun you ada sana. my colleague ada mentioned about you (elisa xmcc -resign engineer ikut husband pergi saudi) before i left. I kerja mcc tmpat you belajar dulu. cuma nama and program dah tukar skrg. lps tnya gee (after the makan2 tu), baru tau you ada sana. then i baca your blog. kinda salute someone who used to work tapi tau so much pasal kerja rumah esp masak2 ni...
kak OO pun sama gak kan. pandainya la masak. my husband selalu gak encourage me to cook tapi somehow selalu je tak jadi la..
neeza, sekali tak jadi jgn serik nak cuba - kat dapur kak OO pong bukae-nyo sokmo buat tu jjadi terus!
Kak OO, Insyaallah, neeza akan terus cuba dan cuba sampai lah anak2 neeza tak cakap macam ni lagi...'ummi reti tak buat tomyam mcm kat kedai tu.. tomyam ummi lain la. yang kat kedai tu sedap...' sedihnya laa
betul... dalam blog memang lah cerita yang berjaya aje.. mana ada cerita masakan2 yang tak berjaya.. :)
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