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01 April 2009

And the word for this in English is "explanation" and it is spelled e-x-p-l-a-n-a-t-i-o-n

I feel morally obligated to explain a certain joke that I've taken to using quite often recently, so I shall do so in this post. Hopefully, many of you already know who Sheikh Darwish is, why he says what he does, and why Spell Check always gets mad at his name (the word for this in English is "transliteration" and it is spelled t-r-a-n-s-l-i-t-e-r-a-t-i-o-n), but there are undoubtedly several of you who don't. I started saying it a while ago, but the first written record of it is fairly recent. At the time, I expected it to make a one-time appearance on Only At IA; those who understood it would laugh and move on, and those who didn't would just move on. In my opinion however it is too funny to pass up, so it soon returned. I really like it, so I'll probably be using it more in the future, and I feel I should bring everyone in the loop (the word for this in English is "inclusion" and it is spelled i-n-c-l-u-s-i-o-n). Here goes:

As a junior in IB1 English, you read a book (sorry, a novel) called Midaq Alley. It is translated from Arabic, and it is about a community of people living in their own secluded alley hidden in the midst of Cairo. Each character goes about his or her business, and it gets more and more complicated from there. I really enjoyed it; it was really interesting and made for some good discussion. Anyway, one of the characters is Sheikh Darwish, a former teacher of the English language who is now homeless. He appears to enjoy flaunting his knowledge of English by informing everyone in his presence of the English word for any idea that comes up, and how it's spelled. And the word for this in English is "show-off" and it is spelled s-h-o-w-o-f-f. So I started saying it at school to those who would get it, then I started saying it at school to those who wouldn't get it, then it made its way here. And the word for this in English is "slippery slope" and it is spelled s-l-i-p-p-e-r-y-s-l-o-p-e. So now that that's over with, I can continue using it as much as I want without fear of excluding people. The only trouble is, it's more fun the more fancy the English word sounds, and I have to remember to make sure that I know how to spell them before saying it out loud. And the word for this in English is "embarrassing" and it is spelled e-m-b-a-r-a-s...ummm...s? Ah! No!

OK, that's about it for now. And the word for this in English is "end" and it is spelled e-n-d...

1 comment:

Abby S. said...

Heh heh. Finally I understand! And the word for this in English is comprehend, and it is spelled c-o-m-p-r-e-h-e-n-d! Cool

Word verification: virapoic

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