That is "Hallo world" in Arabic. I haven't the foggiest how to learn the language, so I'm sticking with google translate for now. I have listened to it, transcribed it in our Roman alphabet characters on paper, enlarged the Arabic and had a go at copying it down, right to left of course. It is annoying being such a beginner. I don't even know where to start a letter or how to do the little vertical bits, as I go along or added afterwards.
I really want to be able to read Twitter. At the moment the only words I can spot instantly are Allah Akbar, which is a good place to start, and Libya.
The next obvious place to go is YouTube for some video of people writing slowly!
I just clicked on a link for the Nature Journal now published in Arabic (I really don't know why...). It did not immediately trigger the translate tool on this browser. So I looked at the first word on a photo and sounded it out to be 'merhaba'. Hmm, that's vaguely familiar. I typed that into search and Wiktionary told me it means 'Welcome' or 'Hallo'. That rang a distant little bell, so I looked here and lo and behold it is the beginning of 'hallo world'.
ReplyDeleteI can now read that phrase and understand it. It is correctly spelt.
ReplyDeleteI read most of a tweet a few days ago. My original reason for learning Arabic.
I have tweeted for real about 4 times now, for things and people I care about, so I am fantastically proud of myself.
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