Translation and Transliteration Problems

Arabic is classified as one of two of the hardest languages for English speakers to learn, the other being Mandarin Chinese.  The same is true for Arabic speakers learning English.  It is quite admirable that so many Egyptians have learned at least some English.  Please don't misinterpret this post as somehow making fun of the efforts of all those who are making our lives easier.  We are truly grateful for these people.  Nevertheless, it can be amusing when the translations don't work out quite right!

Most things on the menu looked fine, but I might only order #84 for a bridal shower...

Sounds vaguely cannibalistic, I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable sending a child there!

Seems pretty bossy...

At first we thought they might be selling lighters, but we realized after thinking about it that they were renting 'bikes'. 

The words 'lamp' and 'light bulb' are identical in Egyptian Arabic.  While it seems this would be somewhat confusing for them, it definitely leads to translation problems for us.

Ignore this one if you aren't a grammar nerd.  Egyptian Arabic is a 'slang' version of Arabic.  As such, they use a lot of short cuts.  The most common one is to use participles instead of regularly conjugated verbs.  When translating word-for-word the result is... less than ideal.  


We also find amusement in the fact that Arabic does not have the sound for the English letter 'p'.  Usually English-speaking Egyptians substitute the letter 'b'.  The results can be quite confusing as happened yesterday when a guy talking to my husband referred to his 'iBad'.  We are also often thrown off by phrases such as ' beberoni bizza' and being asked if we want to 'bay now'.   Here is an excellent example of this problem being over-corrected: