The words that come out of your mouth belong to a language, unless your banging your keyboard in desperation, now, thats just universally understood! LANGUAGES. Yes, that has been a topic that has occupied some, not all, of our conversations on Tribune. We all speak different languages and there are approximately 6909 languages that are currently spoken worldwide and Mandarin tops the league board! So, how many languages can you speak, read, write or understand? What is your favourite language and why? If you were given the opportunity to learn a new language, which one would you choose? Imagine everyone spoke the same language? That would make our world a less interesting place, for sure!
IT would be EPIC if everyone spoke Arabic.
...
Then id have a genuine reason not to have understood what the fudge they said.
Back in BLACK
ahh the universally understood language. JAzakAllahukhairan for the mention *wink
and i want and will inshaaAllah learn arabic and speak it like no tomorrow.
but i also want to learn malay (Malaysian language) no idea why tbh
some languages are jsut a pain in the backside and it feels like whoever invented it did it on purpose: primary example the beloved French language.
BUT in defence of the french, when used well and when someone's good at speaking it its AMAZING.
i love english. its so simple and straightforward but not too simpleton. no wonder it became quite thee international language.
esperanza, heard of this?
we talk abt languages a lot on trbby? since when? i just learnt that Bengali family relation names an dmauritian ones are very similar and because im in a colgle thats 99% bengali ive become accustomed to using those terms. that's ALL! I DIDNT MEAN TO MAKE ANYONE FEEL CRAPPY!
but ithink its amazing to have different names for different members of the family. my socio teacher once said it was because some relations are seen as inferior hence why in english, where everyone is "equal" there's just aunty and uncle. i say: ROLL ON THE FLOOR LAUGHING UNABLE TO SPEAK. just coz they're too lazy or dont have awesomely big familes they use their excuse of "equality" which isnt even real. ive been reading this amazing article abt "the otherness in us". it's mind bogging, i'll get back to you on that though
Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?
So, at the moment, how much do you know? English and French, no Creole? And you want to learn Arabic and Malay, interesting!
Well i can understand English, Urdu, Gujarati and I'm learning Arabic. I know bits and bobs of 'Bengali' and Mirpuri. Thats all. My dad can speak Chichewa and the only thing he's taught me is: 'Mula Baan-gee', i think it means 'How are you?'
Btw, you didn't make anyone feel crappy, not me, anyway! And i love your last point!
I wish i knew more languages.
So far it's just English and Bengali, i understand urdu and hindi but i can't speak either languages to save my life, i end up mixing everything up lol.
Definitely want to learn arabic, working on it. Oh and i understand a bit of Japanese, wouldn't mind learning a bit more purely for reading and watching mangas and playing japanese games
I love that there are many different languages but the more i learn about arabic it just outshines the rest, simply beautiful
Lets reunite the ummah under one flag LA ILAHA IL ALLAH MUHAMMADUR RASULULLAH
+1 I have to agree on that one! Sounds beautiful even when you sometimes can't understand a word of it. No wonder Allah chose it as the language of the Quran!
Others have passed on this historical pre-Qur’anic Arab bias that Arabic is superior to all languages and therefore true religious expression can only be in Arabic and that to translate it would lose the meaning. When we look into the prominent comprehensive Arabic dictionary “The Tongue of Arabs” by Ibn Manthoor in volume 6 under “عجم” we see that the word which is used to mean non-Arab by language or ethnicity originally meant—and I am quoting— “الذي لا يفصح ولا يبين كلامه” which means one who is not eloquent and cannot express their speech clearly!
As someone who has been blessed with a certification of mastery of Arabic with a daily intimate relationship to it in my research, sure it is a beautiful language with deep meaning. That being said, as a lesser qualified student of English poetry and oratory eloquence, they were quite arrogant about their love for their language. The truth is that outside of the Qur’an and Sunnah (prophetic tradition) which are pure Holy Scriptures of divine expression, Arabic is a language like any other with its own unique qualities subject to human influence.
The focus is on memorizing Qur’an, remembrances (dhikr) and supplications (du`a’) in Arabic and most American Muslims have no idea what much of it means. This greatly hinders the spiritual depth and knowledge in our community. As a result of this, most Muslims cannot explain their faith to others whether it is to their own children or non-Muslims. Many youth spend hundreds of hours—in many cases by force—memorizing the Qur’an and supplications in Arabic. Many of them forget most of these later in life and the vast majority of them who remembered them as adults have almost no idea what they mean. Similarly many people feel compelled to try and learn some Arabic to solve this dilemma even though circumstances dictate that most likely they will never have the time or ability to learn enough Arabic to give them special insight into the revelation. So they spend hundreds of hours trying to learn Arabic while it is an unrealistic goal. Essentially, they have wasted hundreds of hours building a superficial meaningless attachment to Arabic. Had they spent that time seeking knowledge in English and memorizing Qur’an and supplications by translation then they would have much more spiritual depth and knowledge. No doubt in English there is a minute fraction of Islamic literature compared to what’s available in Arabic. That being said, how many have completely researched the wealth of information available in English? Most people aren’t aware of the breadth of high quality knowledge available in English especially over the last 10 years. Believe it or not, there is some critical knowledge available in English not available in Arabic.
Excerpts from http://www.suhaibwebb.com/society/dawah/the-language-argument/
"How many people find fault in what they're reading and the fault is in their own understanding" Al Mutanabbi
but arabic got to be amazing though... i mean. wife has two names. one is used for when the "roles" of marriage are fulfilled and the other when they arent. how amazing is that?! but course its quranic arabic
and then the word love adn seed are from the same root
the word precious and self too.
this language is just SO deep. i dont know any other language that is like that... so simple yet so complex.
Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?
I wish I could speak Arabic and Persian, Persian sounds really expressive, no wonder there's so much poetry written in Persian. I would say that French is the European equivalent of Persian, that sounds good too, except their raps sound a bit funny
french rap (with no music for me) is amazing. because french language is so amazing. but its like they made this language so that no one outside of it can get it/learn it easily. french is a flipping hard language.
Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?
Isn't it your mother Tongue? :s If so, how why do you still find it hard?
"How many people find fault in what they're reading and the fault is in their own understanding" Al Mutanabbi
i didnt say i found it hard (to myself) ive seen others learn it, ive tried teaching others.
Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?
You're not the only one, i can speak just enough bengali to carry a conversation with family. Lol
Lets reunite the ummah under one flag LA ILAHA IL ALLAH MUHAMMADUR RASULULLAH
Yeh, I know what you mean. I just said that cuz Lilly went to school in France too so she would've obviously spoken french and so knew french pretty well.
I think I know my mother tongue quite well but I understand it better than I can speak it. And I'll slip in english words in sentences, also when talking about something which uses technical terms I find it hard to translate (to either language)
But I want to get better at my mother tongue cuz I want to pass it on to my kids. I feel it's an important part of my identity and culture and I'd be sad to let it go. Plus being bi-lingual is way better than just knowing boring old english
I did a bit of french at school, but chose to carry spanish onto GCSE. I like Spanish.
I want to learn arabic, like most Muslims.
I want to not be shy and attempt to have proper conversations in urdu as I can understand it but think I'd sound like an idiot speaking it, and the words don't really come out when I try, even though I know what to say :/
"How many people find fault in what they're reading and the fault is in their own understanding" Al Mutanabbi
My youngest sister can't seem to understand a thing in my home language! She just acts all confused and blocks her ears from even trying to understand. She might genuinely not know whats being said, or she's doing it on purpose! In our house, our home language is hardly ever used, its very rare. I think thats probably because we all know English and so can my parents, so we don't really see the need. The only time i need to speak the language is to the generation of grandparents (and even they have picked up English terms, so you can have a decent conversation in English!)
I predict that in about two decades, the language will literally die out because no one seems to want to speak it and neither is there a need! Obviously it's good to know more than one language and thats what the education system wants to promote, but kids just don't have an interest in it! I don't know whether theres a factor of embarrassment in there, that they don't want people hearing them speaking in their home langauge, yet they are absolutely fine with learning another European language! There must be a deeper reason behind it!
When i was younger i was a really fluent speaker. Now i can understand it totally, can't read or write, and i can say a few sentences but they obviously have many mistakes and i might just confuse the person im talking to! I don't know why, but there was a time when i used to get really really annoyed when my mum spoke to me in my home langauge (whilst still being in the house). I'd tell her to stop it and stop acting like she didn't know English. I always thought she did it to annoy me but at the end of the day, the real reason must've been to pass on the langauge to me, so that i can benefit from it too! If only i understood the reason behind it then! I guess its never too late!
You're fortunate your grandparents know English, but I find it sad when grandparents can't talk to their grandkids because of the language barrier.
"How many people find fault in what they're reading and the fault is in their own understanding" Al Mutanabbi
Pretty sad i know! But you can always tell your parents to be the interpreters? Or you could put in the effort to learn their language or teach them English!
Learning their language is the best option I think. It's much easier for a child to learn a new language or even two languages at once than an old (or just older) person to learn a nee language after spending their whole life just using one.
"How many people find fault in what they're reading and the fault is in their own understanding" Al Mutanabbi
Yeah i guess that IS easier.
Un homme qui parle trois langues est trilingue.
Un homme qui parle deux langues est bilingue.
Un homme qui ne parle qu'une langue est anglais.
A man who speaks three language is trilingual.
A man who speaks two languages is bilingual.
A man who speaks only one language is English.
- Claude Gagnière
LOL, the English seem to be best at that!