ENGL229

This is the official tumblr of ENGL229, a required course of English majors at the American University of Beirut.. In the Spring 2014 semester we are exploring the idea of languages in contact, especially the Englishes of Lebanon.

[aliceinbeirut-blog]

Featured on The Daily Star

My research that I presented at the Multilingualism Across Disciplinary Borders conference poster session was featured in The Daily Star today. Here is a link to the article. [article] Here is a link to a summary of my research thus far: [research]

[hanaosseiran]

The French Liberte in Lebanon. long dead

[hanaosseiran]

This is a funny meme with a pun on the word “saussure”

[hanaosseiran]

its not “you” its “me”

[hanaosseiran]

this meme would not have been funny if the word “dafen” meaning “funeral” and the words “yen3ad 3lek” meaning “happy holidays” had been written in english. Its funny becayse it depicts how the lebanese share a collective way of saying conventional phrases at certain events. and messing up all the time.

[aliceinbeirut-blog]

An Honest Dictionary Of Words Used To Describe Women

When it comes to talking about women, “saying what you mean” and “meaning what you say” don’t always have much in common. Words like “b*tchy” and “slutty” are clearly sexist and meant to insult, but even seemin…

Language in context ;) 

[aliceinbeirut-blog]

This is a common joke about francophone lebanese. Funny.

*goes to USJ*

Me: bonjour

*nobody answers*

Me: bonjough

Security guy: Bonjoughen

Students: Bonjoughik

Teachers: Bonjouuughh

Cat: meoghhhh

— Tela (@Talasj)

January 24, 2014

[aliceinbeirut-blog]

Saw a restaurant in Manara today that was called “Universe” with the Arabic transliteration يونيمورس There is no “v” in Arabic so they used “m” instead.

It’s also funny because the vowel sounds are very exaggerated. Yooouuneeeeeemmmouuuuurssss

[engl229]

That would be a good photo.

[engl229]

This example of writing on cars was found parked for weeks outside the Boys’ Dorm Gate at AUB. It has since been covered with less vulgar World Cup images.

It certainly fits within the kind of masculine bravura of the sort described by Erica’s 3OUMOUMI project http://ericaengl229.wordpress.com/2014/05/16/3oumoumi-a-journey-on-the-red-plated-cars-of-lebanon/ Is the driver referring to other drivers as a “jacka**” and just misspelling jt, or is there something else I am missing?

[ramyrach]

I saw this hotel next to my gym. The name of it is hotel nine seven however the funny thing is that its written in arabic but has the english pronunciation! It should have been fondouk tes3a seb3a for it to have the proper arabic translation

[ramyrach]

My friend sent me this(they re helping me complete my tumblr). Its another example of mistranslation due to the multi-meaning arabic words. Hamam means pigeon and bathroom clearly this is a poultry shop and thus it would make no sense for it to have a bathroom. Plus whats a baladi bathroom or french bathroom? Beid baladi which means eggs from this country was translated to my eggs. Dick and baladi werent even translated so how would they expect people to understand this!!

[ramyrach]

A friend of mine sent me this, at first i didnt understand what it was about it that was funny but when i noticed the doughnut under donald it hit me. So the owner of this restaurant thought that doughnut was pronounced donald and wrote that above the picture or a doughnut.

[ramyrach]

I just love this video it makes me laugh so hard but at the same time i feel bad for this guy! He calls trying to order Mc Donalds and he says tht he wants a chicken mc chicken because he thinks that mc chicken means burger and that it can be either meet or chicken. Then he says i want the pepsi to be 7up because he means that he wants the drink to be 7up and thinks thats wht pepsi refers to

[seizethacheese-deactivated20160]

A pie chart I found online illustrating why a person has used, Google translate; the standard go to translator for people who need basic translations; however, the amount of mistranslations is hilarious, and the reasons people use it are interesting.

Google translate is an automate service that uses stockpiled words and standardized ways of expression in any language it is very basic and in some cases it is even fails to take account of alternate translations of the words that are typed into it.

[seizethacheese-deactivated20160]

some signs lost in translations, that no doubt cause I’m assuming everyone a moment of pause and confusion. considering that most translations are carried out by automated programs with no actual intellect, as opposed to human translators that can discern if something makes sense to people or not, the errors are understandable if confusing.

[seizethacheese-deactivated20160]

A colleague writes to ask: I read your article ‘Code Switching’ in Sociocultural Linguistics. What I wonder is [why] you didn’t write something about the author Grosjean (1982, Life with Two…

The article deals with the difference between language alternation and code switching. language alternation is alternating between two different languages such as Arabic and English. however, code switching is done for the purpose of contextualizing a phrase in language.

[seizethacheese-deactivated20160]

Five Reasons Why People Code-Switch

Pretty much everyone shifts between different languages or ways of speaking in different context. From hundreds of stories you sent us, here are some of the common motivations behind it.

Code switching is something that many people who know two or more languages do for many reasons, I myself do it all the time, since I’m bilingual and at most time I don’t even notice that I’m doing it, its just reflexive.