When I think of Egypt, images of the Sphinx, the pyramids, the Nile, or even Mubarak come to mind. But never, not once, does Spongebob appear. Yet I discovered today that it's the latest craze in Egypt. Almost every other store front had TONS of Spongebob memorabilia to a degree of fanaticism I never even saw in the US. I'm not sure if it's trendy or the equivalent of the US obsession with Hello Kitty but it's bizarre.
But on a positive note - I had my first full conversation in Arabic where I understood EVERYTHING! It was pretty exciting (: However, it seems important to point out that my conversation wasn't an esoteric discussion of Egyptian perspectives on secularism. It was a much more banal. I went to the local market, grabbed a bottle of water, asked how much it was, heard how much it cost, then said no I want two. End of conversation. I'm still pretty happy, though. My recent acquisition of numbers has been particularly helpful. Although Arabic numerals are still widely used, the numbers posted as prices on 90% of things are these: ٠ - ١ - ٢ - ٣ - ٤ - ٥ - ٦ - ٧ - ٨ - ٩ (0-9). Once I learned those and how to say them it became kind of surprising how much more I could understand in conversations. I was also successfully able to instruct a taxi driver on how to find my apartment without him having to stop for directions. Another friendly taxi driver spent the ride teaching me the words for straight, left, right, behind, in front, etc and they helped immensely!
But on a positive note - I had my first full conversation in Arabic where I understood EVERYTHING! It was pretty exciting (: However, it seems important to point out that my conversation wasn't an esoteric discussion of Egyptian perspectives on secularism. It was a much more banal. I went to the local market, grabbed a bottle of water, asked how much it was, heard how much it cost, then said no I want two. End of conversation. I'm still pretty happy, though. My recent acquisition of numbers has been particularly helpful. Although Arabic numerals are still widely used, the numbers posted as prices on 90% of things are these: ٠ - ١ - ٢ - ٣ - ٤ - ٥ - ٦ - ٧ - ٨ - ٩ (0-9). Once I learned those and how to say them it became kind of surprising how much more I could understand in conversations. I was also successfully able to instruct a taxi driver on how to find my apartment without him having to stop for directions. Another friendly taxi driver spent the ride teaching me the words for straight, left, right, behind, in front, etc and they helped immensely!
