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Saturday, February 23, 2008
A phrase for any occasion
But now that troops in many regions of Iraq are focused on nation-building more than war-fighting, they are picking up the essentials of Iraqi Arabic.
Here, a partial list of the vocabulary set of an American in Iraq:
- wasta — connection (used in the context of government favors)
- mako mooshkila — no problem
- shlonek? — how are you?
- zein — good
- moo zein — not good
- shway zein — sort of good
- al-hamdoolilah — thank God
- qadaha — cigarette lighter
And, written on a dry-erase board in a Marine tactical operations center: boos teezee — kiss my ass.