Moroccans as a whole are really terrible at speaking to non-native speakers in darija. I think that, as an English speaker, I'm used to talking to people who speak poor English and so I know how to talk such that they can understand me; I talk slowly, clearly, and if they don't understand I try a different sentence construct or use different words.
Moroccans rarely do this. A great example of this is the guy next to me on the bus on the way to Chefchaouen. We talked a good bit, all in Arabic, but it was the most painful conversation I've ever had because this poor guy just could not get his point across, but it was mostly his fault.
Example: After about an hour after we had been stopped, he starts saying something to me. At first it's just a blur of words (only a few) so I ask him to repeat. He repeats again in the exact same manner (unhelpful) so I ask him to repeat slowly. He does so (awesome!) and I isolate the 3 words in the sentence. I still don't understand what he's saying, so he starts repeating this one word, "ouzad" (or something, I forget exactly what). This is clearly the most important word in the sentence. I say that I have no idea what "ouzad" means so he repeats it a few times. I still don't get it, so he helps me out by saying it slightly louder and slightly more insistently. He says "ouzad zwiina?" (is ouzad nice?) to which I say "I don't understand the word ouzad". He explains what the word ouzad means by saying "ouzad! ouzad!"
I say I still don't get it and he laughs exasperatingly.
It's been about 2 minutes so far and we've gotten nowhere. I explain again that I just don't understand what the word ouzad means. Then he gets the idea to try and explain the word ouzad. He says,
"ouzad... medinat tanja. madinat rabat. madinat fes. madinat ouzad!"
"medina" means "city" so I immediately understand that "ouzad" is the city that we're stuck in. Awesome! Why did that take two minutes?
Moroccans rarely do this. A great example of this is the guy next to me on the bus on the way to Chefchaouen. We talked a good bit, all in Arabic, but it was the most painful conversation I've ever had because this poor guy just could not get his point across, but it was mostly his fault.
Example: After about an hour after we had been stopped, he starts saying something to me. At first it's just a blur of words (only a few) so I ask him to repeat. He repeats again in the exact same manner (unhelpful) so I ask him to repeat slowly. He does so (awesome!) and I isolate the 3 words in the sentence. I still don't understand what he's saying, so he starts repeating this one word, "ouzad" (or something, I forget exactly what). This is clearly the most important word in the sentence. I say that I have no idea what "ouzad" means so he repeats it a few times. I still don't get it, so he helps me out by saying it slightly louder and slightly more insistently. He says "ouzad zwiina?" (is ouzad nice?) to which I say "I don't understand the word ouzad". He explains what the word ouzad means by saying "ouzad! ouzad!"
I say I still don't get it and he laughs exasperatingly.
It's been about 2 minutes so far and we've gotten nowhere. I explain again that I just don't understand what the word ouzad means. Then he gets the idea to try and explain the word ouzad. He says,
"ouzad... medinat tanja. madinat rabat. madinat fes. madinat ouzad!"
"medina" means "city" so I immediately understand that "ouzad" is the city that we're stuck in. Awesome! Why did that take two minutes?
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