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