Arabic... A Whole Bunch of Languages.

Arabic is a strange language... It's beautiful, rather poetic, VERY difficult, but strange. There are many different countries in the Middle East and ALL of them have a different way of talking Arabic. It's not the accent, but rather the dialect that differs.

If we take English as an example, a clear difference in accent can be seen between Americans and the English.

Intended Phrase: "I don't think that's a good idea."
Southern American: "Aaah down't thaenk thaet's a good aahdeeuh."
Englishman/woman: "Eye don' think tha's a güd eyedea"

However, Americans and English people also use different dialects of English slang.

Intended phrase: "This is absolutely amazing!"
American: "Yo, this is off da heazy!"
Englishman/woman: "Tha' is way sick!"

I remember when my cousin from London heard that we'd be taking him to an indoor ski resort, he remarked with "Tha' is sick!" and I got a little bit offended. Upon asking him what exactly was so "Sick" about an indoor ski resort, his mother explained that it was meant to be a compliment. Oh. My bad.

Similarly, in the Middle East, Arabs of different nationalities speak in different ways. This is primarily why I began losing touch with Arabic... simply because I couldn't understand a lot of what others said and they found my language ridiculous.

Here are the different ways in which you can say "How are you" in Arabic:

Proper Arabic: "Kayfa haaluki" or "Kayfa haalak" (f/m)
Iraq: "Shlonich!" (Literally means "What's your colour?")
Lebanon: "Keefekk!"
Yemen: "Kefik!"
Egypt: "Izzayyik?"
Other: "Shakhbarak?" or "Shakhbarik?" (m/f)

How to say "I'm fine":

"Kwayyis" or "Kwayyisa" (m/f)
"Tamam"
"Haalee" (Literally means "sweet")
"Murtaah" (Literally means "relaxed")
"Imneeh"
"B'khair"

It all gets so confusing!! I CAN'T KEEP UP WITH IT! AAARGH!