Oh Arabic, how you humble me.
I clearly remember my first day of language class when my dear teacher taught us the alphabet. I clearly remember learning that there were two "T" sounds, two "S" sounds (three "S" sounds in this country's dialect), two "D" sounds, two "H" sounds, three "K" sounds (K, KH, Q), etc etc, I could go on. I also clearly remember looking at my teacher as if she was crazy. I have a hard time hiding my feelings, you know.
I started singing "I've got the love of Jesus down in my heart...Where?" song the other day while on a road trip with two girl friends. And then I started singing it with my own Arabic translations. I just love playing with the Arabic language by singing familiar tunes to my own improvised (read: really bad or just outright wrong) translations. My national friend looked at me real quick and laughed, "What, you've got a mouse in your dog??!" Apparently, I wasn't pronouncing and emphasizing my H's, A's, and Q's correctly. "Andi faraH fi Qalbi" is what I should have really said. Not "Andi fara fi kalbi." Oh, for shame.
Joy in my heart, mouse in my dog, same difference?
