#ubuntu-ae 2011-10-03
<nlsthzn> o/
#ubuntu-ae 2011-10-04
<Miriup> nlsthzn: Re Arabic: Been hanging out in #arabeyes for a while.
<Miriup> Asked the guys, where is an Arabic tech channel.
<Miriup> ... so I could listen and learn Arabic.
<Miriup> There is none!
<nlsthzn> Ouch...
<Miriup> Even in #arabeyes they speak English.
<nlsthzn> I guess then the LoCo has got to pull up its socks and get people in here helping :)
<Miriup> But I eventually found a forum. But since then I haven't had the time yet to get my head into it.
<Miriup> Yeah, but it seems it won't happen in Arabic, though.
<Miriup> I had once an interesting discussion with a Arab life guard at Mushrif park swimming pool.
<Miriup> I asked him some stuff in Arabic and in the beginning he didn't understand me.
<Miriup> When he realised I'm talking Arabic he told me he was so unprepared for that, that he just didn't recognise what I said.
<nlsthzn> :)
<Miriup> He said even the locals would speak English, because for them it meant they will project themselves as educated people.
<Miriup> It's kind of sad.
<Miriup> Because it's really a beautiful language.
<Miriup> So grammatic, that I think if you want to teach a computer understanding language it'd be much easier to do it with Arabic than with Englihs.
<Miriup> It's a content programming language.
<Miriup> ;)
<nlsthzn> Not sure about that... beauty is in the eye of the beholder ;)
<Miriup> Do you speak it?
<nlsthzn> Nope
<Miriup> I do you at least understand it?
<nlsthzn> Nope
<Miriup> Where are you from? Which languages do you speak?
<nlsthzn> I already speak 2 languages... that is enough for me (English and Afrikaans)
<Miriup> Oh. :) Cool.
<Miriup> Well, both of them are indo-germanic. Even if you were speaking Urdu or Hindi, which are indo-european (parent family of indo-germanic), you'd be pretty much speaking the same language with different words.
<nlsthzn> Lots of people have a thing for languages... I guess I am not one of them :p
<Miriup> But not so with Arabic. It's completely different. You have very few basic meanings and then you have grammar to derive detail from it.
<Miriup> So when you have the word for writing for example, you can built writer, the written (book), correspondancfe, etc, using very grammitcal rules.
<nlsthzn> :)
<Miriup> So with a handful of word-stems you can express a density of information in a single word that you need whole sentences or paragraphs in English.
<Miriup> And you can easily create a word for a new idea, but deriving meaning from another word you already know.
<Miriup> It's really cool. I wished I had the time to properly learn it.
<nlsthzn> ... and in the end the same thing is achieved... communication...
<Miriup> Anyhow... ;)
<nlsthzn> It is good to have a passion... something that makes us excited... I hope you get more time to explore it further :)
<Miriup> Well, with the communication. It's like Linux and Windows. Yes, you can click your way around. But eventually if you want to express something with a deeper meaning, there's not much the console would provide you.
<Miriup> Not so on Linux.
<Miriup> You might argue both are just operating systems.
<Miriup> But one quite limits you in your communication with the machine and the other doesn't.
<nlsthzn> This sounds a bit like apples and oranges to be honest...
<Miriup> Comparing two operating systems?
<nlsthzn> comparing arabic the language vs english to windows vs linux ;)
<Miriup> No, but I felt your "... and in the end the same thing is achieved... communication..." is like apples and oranges to me.
<Miriup> ;)
<Miriup> So I tried to nail it down to a comparision that limits communication in the same way and would be on-topic on this channel. ;)
<Miriup> Probably better talked about in person. Need to bring my daugher to bed. Was nice speaking to you. :) CU
<nlsthzn> Well, I will take your word for it ... I am happy to click around in english :) I will use the terminal in Linux however
<nlsthzn> Miriup: cheers
