Further Adventures In Arabic
David Adesnik wants to know how to say "Israel" in Arabic. Turns out that the two best-known introductory Arabic textbooks published in America fail to mention the name of the country that separates the Meditteranean from the Jordan River. If these Arabic books were published in Syria, for example, I wouldn't be surprised. But there's no reason for American publishers and academics to go along with the Arab world's juvenile habit of playing dumb to Israel's existence.
Nevertheless, this reminds me of one of my many faux pas in learning Arabic. We were learning country's capitals, and how to say one place was "in" another place. "Parees bi Faransa," "New York bi Amerka." It was boring at the time, too.
Finally, the teacher asked, "Wayn Quds?" (Where's Jerusalem?) Without thinking, I answer, "Quds bi Israel!" That was not the right answer. "Quds bi Falasteen," she snapped back, glaring.
Comments (3)
i think the same point can be made for the english geography books i studied from that didn't have "gaza" and "west bank" in their middle east maps.
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