Foreign languages

My ambition to learn urdu has lead me ask, how much here knows more than one language quite well?  The asians would be the most skilled at this as they have different languages.

I'm looking at learning Hebrew at the moment. I've always had an interest in Semitic languages. It's got a lot of similarities with Arabic and Aramaic, quite interesting. Both Hebrew and Arabic work on the concept of root words, unlike in English. Reading and writing Arabic however, is much, much more difficult than Hebrew. Hebrew there is just upper and lower case, and one does not connect the letters. Whereas in Arabic, the letters are different when isolated, at the start,in the middle or at the end of the word.

Zuhair would have a decent grasp on reading Persian, Urdu and Arabic as they are written with the same Arabic alphabet, but with slight differences with some letters to account for different sounds, etc.

In saying that though, just because one can read English doesn't mean they can understand Italian. They are totally different languages. That's why, like for Zuhair, learning from a young age meant he picked up on the languages with minimal difficulty.

Khair means good in Arabic, is that where the word comes from in Urdu?

Yss Mikey - khair means good - and Urdu has adopted this word from Arabic only. I go to a proper German language learning center and it is a full 20 month course. 

I did French to "O" Level at school and know a little Afrikaans , but nowhere near as much as I should after 29 years in South Africa !  My excuse is that science's international language is English and I've always worked in institutions where English ruled the roost. A poor excuse really , but at heart I'm rather lazy and have many interests that don't tax me like learning a foreign language would!

English is spoken by practically everyone in SA mate , only some very small rural areas won't use it.   Quite amazingly most black South Africans can speak all the languages of the country - 13 in all !

From what I understood, English is virtually spoken by everyone in Africa, but only by about 10 or 15% as a first language. So that would make Sledger one of the minority who speaks English as a first language. South Africa is a very multilingual country, unlike Australia, quite normal for people to speak a few languages. That's the big shame about some of these Western nations. India is another country where people tend to speak quite a few languages as well!

Is it right Sledger that English is the language of instruction in most universities in SA?

Originally posted by Mikey Is it right Sledger that English is the language of instruction in most universities in SA?

It's the language of instruction in all universities now Mikey and has been for quite some time. 

Originally posted by Mikey Salam 3aleyk Zuhair!! Keef 7aluka?

Walaekum - ana bakhair

We have the Syrian one as the most common used. I agree Egyptian is quite different

Is Salam hello Zuhair?  What about Assalamo Alaikom? 

Salam means 'peace' in Arabic Spin, and is used by Urdu speakers as many are Muslims and "Salam aleykom" (meaning Peace to you --- by the way aleykon is plural) is a Muslim greeting (although equally used by Christians and Jews in the Arabic speaking countries). In fact, Shalom, which means peace in Hebrew is the same word as Salam. The letter 'shin' in Hebrew is equivalent to 'seen' in Arabic, and hence the difference in pronunciation.

Lol, funny stuff here.  So what is the word for if I want to say "hello" to someone or better yet, when i'm answering the phone and wants to say hello?

Zuhair or Sam, how do you pronounce the "ai" for example in alAIkum, is it pronounced as "Lay E Koom" or just "Lay koom".  Also in kAIsy, is it "Kay-e-say" or "key-say"?   

Does Urdu retain the 'ayn Zuhair?
In Arabic it is Salaam AaaaaaLAYYkom. You need someone to show you how to pronounce this 'ayn for you to know what I mean.