[18:23] nlsthzn: Re Arabic: Been hanging out in #arabeyes for a while. [18:23] Asked the guys, where is an Arabic tech channel. [18:24] ... so I could listen and learn Arabic. [18:24] There is none! [18:24] Ouch... [18:24] Even in #arabeyes they speak English. [18:24] I guess then the LoCo has got to pull up its socks and get people in here helping :) [18:24] But I eventually found a forum. But since then I haven't had the time yet to get my head into it. [18:25] Yeah, but it seems it won't happen in Arabic, though. [18:25] I had once an interesting discussion with a Arab life guard at Mushrif park swimming pool. [18:25] I asked him some stuff in Arabic and in the beginning he didn't understand me. [18:26] 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. [18:26] :) [18:26] He said even the locals would speak English, because for them it meant they will project themselves as educated people. [18:26] It's kind of sad. [18:26] Because it's really a beautiful language. [18:27] 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. [18:27] It's a content programming language. [18:27] ;) [18:27] Not sure about that... beauty is in the eye of the beholder ;) [18:28] Do you speak it? [18:28] Nope [18:28] I do you at least understand it? [18:28] Nope [18:28] Where are you from? Which languages do you speak? [18:28] I already speak 2 languages... that is enough for me (English and Afrikaans) [18:29] Oh. :) Cool. [18:30] 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. [18:30] Lots of people have a thing for languages... I guess I am not one of them :p [18:30] 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. [18:31] So when you have the word for writing for example, you can built writer, the written (book), correspondancfe, etc, using very grammitcal rules. [18:32] :) [18:32] 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. [18:33] And you can easily create a word for a new idea, but deriving meaning from another word you already know. [18:33] It's really cool. I wished I had the time to properly learn it. [18:33] ... and in the end the same thing is achieved... communication... [18:33] Anyhow... ;) [18:34] It is good to have a passion... something that makes us excited... I hope you get more time to explore it further :) [18:35] 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. [18:35] Not so on Linux. [18:35] You might argue both are just operating systems. [18:36] But one quite limits you in your communication with the machine and the other doesn't. [18:36] This sounds a bit like apples and oranges to be honest... [18:36] Comparing two operating systems? [18:38] comparing arabic the language vs english to windows vs linux ;) [18:39] No, but I felt your "... and in the end the same thing is achieved... communication..." is like apples and oranges to me. [18:39] ;) [18:40] 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. ;) [18:45] Probably better talked about in person. Need to bring my daugher to bed. Was nice speaking to you. :) CU [18:45] Well, I will take your word for it ... I am happy to click around in english :) I will use the terminal in Linux however [18:45] Miriup: cheers