Category Archives: Language

#SELFIE

Language, Music, Rant

I love that the word selfie is in the dictionary.

As Boyfriend always says, one of the great things about English is how it’s always evolving. Now brace yourselves for some language geekery, but I love that because that’s not the case in every language. Arabic does keep having words added to it, as loan words, but they will never really be Arabic because the structure of the language denies new words really being created. English doesn’t, we accept and create and re-purpose words all the time and that’s great.

Now, naturally this post has a point other than me spouting about languages, which is the whole “no make up selfie to raise awareness for cancer”.

NOW. 

We’re well aware I have “views” on things, but I know from the personal experience of my own Facebook wall today that this has been done to death, so I will express my “views” as neat bullet points.

  • If you posted a selfie and didn’t donate you’re an attention whore, go home.
  • No, there is no need to raise awareness of cancer. Everyone knows about cancer.
  • Yes, there is a need to give more to charity to help combat it. However, I’d like to see more going to support charities like Macmillan than to Cancer Research. They get tonnes of funding.
  • No, you do not look ugly without make-up.
  • No, you do not look stunning without make-up. You look normal. It’s fine.
  • Yes, wear make-up if you want. It’s your face. Ignore haters.

So there we are. Have a music video to help. It’s so bad it’s good, I promise.

#SELFIE

 

Sayings

Language, Morocco
I love little sayings. Ones that really mean something, but say it in a concise way. Here are some of my very favourites, in a variety of languages (because that is what I do, after all. If I was a mathematician they’d all be in numbers)Tres palabras,
tres fuegos has heredado:
Vida, Muerte, Amor. Ahí quedan
escritos sobre tus labios.

This is by Miguel Hernández, a Spanish poet, and it is about life, death, and love.

“You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching,
Love like you’ll never be hurt,
Sing like there’s nobody listening,
And live like it’s heaven on earth.”

Everyone knows this quote, which William W. Purkey uses to close his speeches.

Even after all this time
The sun never says to the earth,
“You owe Me.”

Look what happens with
A love like that,
It lights the Whole Sky.

Ok it could possibly be suggested that I’ve slightly moved away from ‘short and sweet’. But this poem by the Sufi poet Hafiz really is one of my favourite quotes ever.

I notice that all three of these little quotes are all about love, so I’ll end with one which is not to do with love at all, and which we were taught a few days ago in class. If you know someone who speaks Arabic, they can translate it for you –

اطلبوا العلم من المهد إلى اللحد

المضارع المرفوع و المنصوب

Language, Life, Morocco, Rant

Predictably, I have homework, which I am not doing.

I should probably stop retreating here every time I get work which I’m not keen on. Today the reason I am not keen on working is fairly straightforward, and it is that I am annoyed about my class (again). I got my most recent test back, and I got 30.25 out of 40. Now as an optimist I look at that and see 75%, which is a 1st by our University grading system. But all the same, I was worried to have missed out on an entire quarter of the marks, so I asked the teacher if he thought I was working at the right level.

He told me I had the second highest mark in the class.

Then later, everyone had their hissy fit about the speed of the lessons once again. Now, I can sympathise, because we are going slowly. But equally, we’re not getting high marks in the tests, by anyone’s standards. This is not an isolated incident, and it seems like some people just need to wake up and realise that until the class starts taking in the material, there is no point in moving any faster. Why work on harder material when we can’t even master the basics?

Consequently I am annoyed with our work today. Our homework is the present tense. The present tense. The tense I am presently using, the first tense which any language student learns in any language. I am finding the exercises quite spun-out, but I know that I am having to think which is good. What annoys me, is that tomorrow, half the class will not have bothered with the homework.

I think I need to sit back and count my blessings again!

Counting Blessings

Language, Life, Morocco

One thing I have realised this morning is that I don’t appreciate the things which I have enough. I felt grumpy when I woke up because it was cold, and 6.30am, and I have class at 8. But after a bit of grumping around, I realised I am being silly.

1) I have a wonderful family who love me and keep in contact most days.
2) I know a nice young man called The Boy who always makes me smile when I need it.
3) I have a great group of friends who want to know what’s going on and brighten my spirits.
4) I have a great host family who make stuff nice for me.
5) I get my own room, with internet access.
6) I’m living in a beautiful flat, in a nice area.
7) I don’t need to worry about food and I’m learning to cook Moroccan.
8) I am on a degree program at a good UK university, and studying at a reputed language school.

And that is before I even get on to how I have water, clothes, food, and a roof over my head, some things which people in parts of the world not far from here would kill for. Really, I’m a very lucky person indeed.

ALSO: I don’t know if the internet knows I am a language student or if this happens for everyone. When I click the ‘next blog’ button (on the bar at the top of the page) I always get blogs in random languages. Today’s language is: Russian!

Back to the long days.

Language, Life, Morocco

It is dark. And by the time my day is finished, it’s going to be dark again.

I had a dream I had to get home to the UK for an exam, and then get back here to Morocco later that day for a wedding. I’d somehow forgotten my passport, and my Mum refused to take me seriously that I needed to get back. We ended up driving around the countryside and ended up at a pub called the ‘A Little to the Left’ which was an old remodelled church. I was horrified, even though now that I’m awake I’m pretty sure the church doesn’t actually exist, I think I’ve just made it up.

Habiba sleeps really loudly.

I was hoping for a shower as well, but I don’t want to wake her. Oh well, sucks to be me this morning. Have a good day, rest of the world.

UPDATE: You know something has gone really wrong in your life (as a student) when you find yourself at school 25 minutes before your 8am class starts. This is the second morning in a row I’ve been early, and it’s getting too cold to be outside this early in the morning. Fail on my part.

UPDATE 2: This is why cats are evil. Fila is making me watch while she tortures a mouse that she’s caught. She’ll hold onto it, then let it go, let it run away and then chase it at the last minute and catch it again. Cruel cat.

UPDATE 3: This post is becoming exclusively updates. I quite like it. I also like reading class, because I feel like I really benefit from it. I do not like the random Americans who loiter outside our classroom, because I feel awkward when I can’t get through, and I’m too shy to ask them to move. And they’re loud. Silly Americans.

Cadbury’s Options

Language, Life, Morocco

Halima and I are watching ‘Question pour un champion’ and drinking Cadburys Options hot chocolate which I brought from home. It’s yummy and calming.

Having options is something a lot of people take for granted. Other people can’t see the options that are right in front of them, and they feel like they have no choice at all. I try really hard to always see the options which life gives me, because I have always been lucky in that I’ve had options, where some people haven’t. I take decisions very seriously, and always believe in the decision I make, but I’m also always open to changing my decision. Sometimes what seems like the right thing at the time isn’t afterwards, and it’s important to know when to drop something and move ahead in a different way.

Something I don’t have a choice in however, is the new maid who is coming tomorrow. I came and sat in the living room while we met her, and Halima spoke in really fast dareeja to both the maid, another maid who had come along, and the scary organising woman who runs what I can only call an ‘agency’ for maids. Our potential new maid is…loud, and quite scary. Which will make me talk, but on the other hand I might have a whole week alone with her, and I’m not sure my Arabic is up to that, especially since I don’t learn dereeja any more. We shall see.

La Villa

Language, Life, Morocco

This afternoon I have helped Halima clean a little bit, and we have watched some crazy french tv. French Countdown is (unsurprisingly) really hard, but then they make it even harder by including a round that looks something like

Solve This ((xy:q233::-xx^23+[4]))

it’s pretty scary. And they can always do it.

Then about an hour ago, one of Halima’s friends came over. I thought she was bringing an 18year old daughter who I was supposed to make friends with – fine. What she actually brought was a 16year old son. He seemed really nice, but not very talkative. Which was only made worse by Halima uttering the words which make any language student freeze up.

Let me explain. As language students, we are constantly being told by teachers, parents and friends to ‘Say something’. It is ridiculous to expect me to come out with a full and awesome sentence in another language on the spot, but people ask anyway. My instinctive reaction now, when people say ‘Go on, say something’ is to freeze up, which makes you look particularly ridiculous if
a) you speak 4 languages (and despite the fact that my Arabic is poor, I technically can speak it)
b) they are asking you to say something in your own language.
Which is what happened earlier. Halima wanted me to ask Umar something so he could show off his English, and I completely froze up and couldn’t say anything. On the upside, I was treated as special for the rest of the night and not expected to speak any Arabic which is good because I am so tired it would have come out as gibberish. I think I need to sort out my sleeping pattern somewhat.

Things you might be missing

Fun, Language, Morocco

Actually, you probably won’t be missing these things.
a) because the first thing is just a regular blog post
b) because the second thing is another cool blog, and it was only a few days ago that I gave you my most recent
c) well, actually you might be missing Zaimisms. Which is why I’m giving you some.

So, there are only two things I hate to eat. Broad beans, because they’re the colour of snot and they taste like gone-off sand, and are just generally horrible. My mum loves them, which is a shame. I was brought up on ‘no-thankyou’ helpings of the things, which is to say the size of helping you get if you say ‘no thankyou’ when they’re offered. Which is a small portion, and much smaller than if you say ‘no I don’t want them, they’re yucky’.
The other thing I hate is blue veiny cheese that smells like feet. I don’t understand why you’d put it on food, particularly pizza. We had pizza for lunch because Halima decided she wanted to show me her favourite restaurant. I was half an hour late getting there because taxis were useless, but I made it in the end, and we had a huge salad between us, and then a four-cheese pizza. Which is fine except for the little lumps of foot-cheese, just waiting to catch me out. They’re so salty and horrible. Other than that, it was awesome though.

You should look here. I loved this before, because the lady who runs it, Adele, used to make pictures around her beautiful baby girl Mila when she was sleeping. Depending on what she was wearing, Adele would alter her idea for the background. Sadly she’s stopped doing that, but the lullaby she has written in the top post is beautiful, so I thought I’d let you guys in on it.

Zaimisms now, because they have been lacking somewhat. If you’ve only recently joined us, you might like to look here, then here and maybe here as well before you try to understand what is going on below.

‘Life will be difficult if you see it with difficult glasses’ I have to be honest, I really like this one. Plus I think it’s the first metaphor where food or drink has not been heavily involved (bar above of course).


‘Honey is sweet. It doesn’t make sense to put sugar in it’ Once again, Si Zaim, you have absolutely hit the nail on the head. I think I might adopt some of these myself. 


And allow me to introduce you to my personal favourite Zaimism ever. No explanation, it is perfectly self-illustrative.

‘The media is media. That’s why they call it media’

Earlier this morning.

Language, Life, Morocco

I’ve just finished translation. It was a blast, really.

I realised what a mess I was this morning. I woke up with the sole intention to post an awesome blog explaining my absence this weekend. Because of that, I managed to not have any breakfast, so I’m presently surviving on a packet of Love Hearts. They have really stupid things written on them, like ‘Yes Dear’. Also I’m having an allergic reaction to them, but I don’t care.

Have I told you my allergy? It’s awesome. I am allergic to red colourant. It’s in most make-up and some pen inks (so don’t write on me or I will beat you) and when I get it on my skin I get a mild rash which burns a bit. It is also in a lot of sweets, especially Haribo. When I ingest it, my nose itches. That is my allergic reaction. For about an hour, I feel as if I walked through a spiders-web and got some on my nose and I can’t get it off.

Aside from not having breakfast, I also managed to shampoo my hair when it was dry, instead of wet, without realising. Which was quite messy. And I got toothpaste all over my face, don’t even ask me how. The upshot of it is that I feel thoroughly unready to go to Ifrane in two hours. Nevermind.