Tunisian Tongue
Yesterday was my first official day of work and if I have learned one thing it is that learning Tunisian is a must. If you have never worked in a foreign organization you may not have any idea of what I am talking about. In the beginning I was told by my supervisors and my co-workers that it surely wouldn't be necessary as everyone was fluent in French and many spoke English too. In fact, when we first arrived, learning Arabic seemed like a good self-improvement activity that we could do just so we wouldn't look like total tourist in the market spaces.I have since learned a couple of things that I did not know. First, People here don't speak Arabic; they speak Tunisian. Tunisian uses the Arab grammatical structure, shortens many words, and throws in a bunch of French and some old Latin words. It is a hybrid of all the occupations during their history. Tunisian is a dialect, though, not a language, as it has no written form. All writing and reading here is done in Classical Arabic. So if we want to be able to understand people around us, we need to know Tunisian and if we want to be able to read the documents, street signs and literature we need Arabic. Also, if we travel anywhere outside of Tunisia, Tunisian won't be understood. Everyone will understand Arabic, but not if it is spoken...
At first we figured that learning Arabic was our best bet; we could learn to read and write and for everyday communication we could continue speaking French. Yesterday, however, I sat through a 3 hour meeting that was entirely in Tunisian. You see, in one on one conversation everyone is content to speak to me in French, but with a few Tunisians and only one Canadian, they revert to Tunisian. Now I think learning Tunisian will be the great priority and Arabic can come later. If I don't have Tunisian, I'll find myself less involved and less usefull. And bored to tears during 3 hour meetings.
posted by tiaraletourneau @ 11:03 a.m.
3 Comments:
Oh my dear, amazing friends: It sounds like everything is bizarre and challenging right now - everything from the language to the roads. But I'm confident that you're going to find a wonderful grove in which you're comfortable, happy and successful. Give it a couple of months - I prrromise you that! After all, you are the Tiara and Loren I've grown to love, respect, and admire - together you'll be able to make a happy home anywhere.
sending you my love...
hello loren and tiara,
i have never used this blog stuff, i wonder if this will work... anyway, just thought that i`d say hi and let you know that i`m trying to remember to check your blog although i must admit i find it easier to check my email!! it is fun to hear about the adventure of languages. graham and i will be illiterate and mute soon too!! we will be in china in about 4 weeks getting ready to start teaching english!! we have started to learn characters but i don`t know about the whole speaking part!
keep telling us all about your adventures and take care,
-ruth and graham
Wow! That sounds like fun! Well I suppose that I can sympathize a little...I've joined this intermediate-advanced German class where only German is spoken...very very quickly. I have a German essay due tomorrow of 400 words and I'm still working on counting to ten...(well not really, but the comparison to my classmates is adequate). So I open up my two German books simultaneously in the hopes of finding some mysterious saving piece of grace...only to find many fairly incomprehensible charts in German's four different cases...This is great, when you know how to use them; it doesn't explain that...*sigh* I am so glad that you are both well and still excited a few weeks later. I will just have to swim over some day: I submitted my EDC application today-very exciting-and if I get it most likely I will be taking some time off to go to Europe...and Tunisia would certainly be on my list of places to go! I'll keep you updated on the status of the EDC thingy; I think I stand a good chance seeing as how my major competitor will be eliminated based off of the fact that he's not taking a full course load-kinda evil on my part to revel in such things, but I deserve it gosh darn it! I send you both bone-crushing hugs and I look forward with eager anticipation to hearing about your further endeavors and exploits!
"Words fail, to tell a tale
Too exotic to be told
Each night's a deeper night
In a world ages old" :D
Your bro,
Nathan
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