The other day when we went to the park, Mike and I were people watching and heard this lady say to a little girl "aboo-ha ishtara-ha" Which, we translated as her father bought her. Hmm....that seemed like a strange thing to say. What would that mean exactly. So we asked the other guy that was with us that has been here longer then we have an is in a semester ahead of us, and we all tried to figure out if this was some kind of saying here. Maybe it is like saying she is from the gypsies and her parents got rid of her, or she was adopted, or who knows. It seemed like a strange statement. So the next day in class I asked my teacher and she said that it meant, "her father bought IT" not her...... Ahhh...that made so much more sense. In arabic words can be masculine and feminine, so when you are saying "it" about something, you can be referring to it as he or she (him, her) This little girl was hogging the swing at the park and didn't want to share it so one of the mom's sarcastically said, "Her father bought it"
So, I have come to the realization that we are understanding a lot nowadays, but it can be dangerous right now because we can quickly assume we understand. Oh, the joys of learning a new language.
2 comments:
I had so many mistakes when I was first learning Hebrew. The one I remember the most was when I was sitting around talking to my roommate and I wanted to say (Lishtot) to drink and instead I said (Lahashtin)to pee... We cracked up laughing so hard that day.
Hi Heather and Mike! I'm so glad I found your blog on Rachel and Jarod's site. I'm really enjoying the little stories of your lives. Caleb and Judah have grown so much and Mason is absolutely beautiful! I hope it won't be too long til we can visit again....until then our love and prayers are with you!
Dana and Bruce
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