Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Cultural Language

"Amin, I see you as someone incredibly unique. You're not 100% Iraqi, and you're not 100% American," says a good Iraqi friend of mine as we drink tea in front of his restaurant in the Gaslamp. "I feel like you don't know your identity, yet you can control yourself very well in both cultures, it's different."

"I think me not being able to fluently speak the language isn't the problem, habibi," I tell him. "I think if you want to live in America, you have to be American. I just don't want to forget the endeavors my parents have gone through."

We watch the young and drunk people across the street mingle with each other, making little Iraqi quirks and jokes about how this guy probably smells bad or this girl probably didn't change her underwear. At the same time, we question how American culture works, and soon we start opening up to each other about sexual life in America and in Iraq. "Back in Iraq, I had to drive thirty minutes to see my girl friend once a month, and I would only be able to see her for an hour. So in that hour, we would have to do everything. Talk, eat, and foreplay. If someone found out about us, they would force us to get married, or they would leave us both out on the streets," my friend tells me.

"It's not a whole lot different for me growing up here," I tell him. "My parents still restricted me from going out, drinking, and having girlfriends, but after a while I definitely learned the language that I can use to talk to girls here and talk to my parents the same way."

We kind of stand there for a second, and then he finally asks, "What do you mean?"

"Well, in Iraq, we have a beautiful language filled with simple details. If you want to say something is beautiful, then we would have to pick something to describe about that beauty, and put it into our explanation," I say. "We don't just say 'aeyouneha jameela (Her eyes are beautiful)', this is too simple. We have to say 'aeyouneha hadeya min al rabi (Her eyes are a gift from my lord)'. Get it?"

He shakes his head in disagreement, as we both kind of laugh about the concept. At this time there were two girls walking by, and I decided to hail at them in order to put my example into fruition. "Excuse me ladies," I say, showing them a friendly smile and body language for them to be comfortable. "My friends and I are talking about world cultural languages. Let me ask you, in America, what do guys usually say when they think you're pretty?"

The girls look at each other and one of them says what I wanted to hear, "Guys usually just say you're freaking sexy, or some kind of profanity."

"Exactly, that's the cultural language here. If I were to say, 'Your eyes are a gift from my lord', would you think it's weird?" I ask.

The girls looked at each other again, laughed at the saying, and said "Yeah, it's weird, only because we never hear anyone say something like that."

I look at my Iraqi friend and smile, telling him "You see habibi, girls in Iraq wouldn't like to hear 'Your eyes are a gift from my lord', because that's something they always hear, but if I were to use the same concept in American English, then I would garner interest because I say something different."

My friend smiles at me, and we drink our tea. The girls kind of stood there for a little while longer, and we ended up scaring them both off by asking them overly sexual questions that normal perverts would ask. I think we only did this to scare them off, not to get some play.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all

Previous article

Thanksgiving Lunch Cruise, The Avengers and Zeros ‘77, Small Business Saturday In Escondido

Events November 28-November 30, 2024
Next Article

Now what can they do with Encinitas unstable cliffs?

Make the cliffs fall, put up more warnings, fine beachgoers?

"Amin, I see you as someone incredibly unique. You're not 100% Iraqi, and you're not 100% American," says a good Iraqi friend of mine as we drink tea in front of his restaurant in the Gaslamp. "I feel like you don't know your identity, yet you can control yourself very well in both cultures, it's different."

"I think me not being able to fluently speak the language isn't the problem, habibi," I tell him. "I think if you want to live in America, you have to be American. I just don't want to forget the endeavors my parents have gone through."

We watch the young and drunk people across the street mingle with each other, making little Iraqi quirks and jokes about how this guy probably smells bad or this girl probably didn't change her underwear. At the same time, we question how American culture works, and soon we start opening up to each other about sexual life in America and in Iraq. "Back in Iraq, I had to drive thirty minutes to see my girl friend once a month, and I would only be able to see her for an hour. So in that hour, we would have to do everything. Talk, eat, and foreplay. If someone found out about us, they would force us to get married, or they would leave us both out on the streets," my friend tells me.

"It's not a whole lot different for me growing up here," I tell him. "My parents still restricted me from going out, drinking, and having girlfriends, but after a while I definitely learned the language that I can use to talk to girls here and talk to my parents the same way."

We kind of stand there for a second, and then he finally asks, "What do you mean?"

"Well, in Iraq, we have a beautiful language filled with simple details. If you want to say something is beautiful, then we would have to pick something to describe about that beauty, and put it into our explanation," I say. "We don't just say 'aeyouneha jameela (Her eyes are beautiful)', this is too simple. We have to say 'aeyouneha hadeya min al rabi (Her eyes are a gift from my lord)'. Get it?"

He shakes his head in disagreement, as we both kind of laugh about the concept. At this time there were two girls walking by, and I decided to hail at them in order to put my example into fruition. "Excuse me ladies," I say, showing them a friendly smile and body language for them to be comfortable. "My friends and I are talking about world cultural languages. Let me ask you, in America, what do guys usually say when they think you're pretty?"

The girls look at each other and one of them says what I wanted to hear, "Guys usually just say you're freaking sexy, or some kind of profanity."

"Exactly, that's the cultural language here. If I were to say, 'Your eyes are a gift from my lord', would you think it's weird?" I ask.

The girls looked at each other again, laughed at the saying, and said "Yeah, it's weird, only because we never hear anyone say something like that."

I look at my Iraqi friend and smile, telling him "You see habibi, girls in Iraq wouldn't like to hear 'Your eyes are a gift from my lord', because that's something they always hear, but if I were to use the same concept in American English, then I would garner interest because I say something different."

My friend smiles at me, and we drink our tea. The girls kind of stood there for a little while longer, and we ended up scaring them both off by asking them overly sexual questions that normal perverts would ask. I think we only did this to scare them off, not to get some play.

Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Invasion's End

Next Article

Friday Night Rant

Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader