Sucky realization
Today, I have been stuck indoors all day. Although I wanted to go for a long walk to downtown and just sit on the beach, but I don’t know why I was so unmotivated to do so. I think my sister ruined my mood by her constant mockery of my verbal Arabic communication skills.
I cannot speak Arabic well 100% of the time. If I lived in a secluded area with no Arabs, and no Arabic TV or anything, then my communication skills in that language would have depleted completely by now. I cannot help it, but that’s reality, and this is my life.
A lot of people from my blog ask me if I do know Arabic, and some are surprised that I do. It is just not something I communicate with often, because I do not talk to many Arabs much. Once I do, I get pointed out and ridiculed. Like this morning, my awful brat of a sister while talking to my mom on the phone, decided that it was fun to start mocking Mona. My mom knows that our Arabic is bad, but no reason for that brat to make fun of me while I talk. I screamed so loud at her, and mom on the other line demanded to speak to my sister to stop it. Her Arabic is worse, but she just has to point out my problems so she has something to laugh at all day.
Later in the day, the fighting escalated, and I had to shut her up by telling her that I am sick and tired of her attitude towards me. I am almost twice her age! She is almost 14 and I am 28! That’s a big gap, but she treats me like she is my mother. She speaks like her, and treats me like I am younger then her. The girl needs to be slapped silly like no tomorrow. I am glad that mom is far away for a bit so I can teach that brat a lesson to respect those that are older than her!
Now, for the sucky realization. I just realized today that the fictional story that I have been writing is on my dead old laptop. Argh! Now, I either have to remember what I wrote, or make up a new story or similar story. Anyways, I got more contract web programming work also to deal with, and I don’t know if I have time to write. Although I would have preferred to write all day, but I can’t in this small place with my 2 year old niece and that brat of a sister!
Angry, Blah Blah, Confused, Random Thoughts, They said what?, Whatever!
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when your brat lil sister’s mocking you with your arabic tell her, “hey i ain’t speak lebanese. I speak Moroccan!”. That will make her silent. hehe.
Buy some cheap stick memory and do a backup every so often. At least for stories or other large files that are a pain to recreate. I guess you learn the hard way.
Go to sleep tonight dreaming not of counting sheep but slapping your sister xxx times. Just refrain from doing so in real life. Ten years from now she will be your buddy.
Even if your pronunciation is perfect but your dialect of Arabic is different from whatever group of Arabs you are around; you likely will be mocked. Arabs are very critical of each other but hide behind polite phrases to your face. I hope boredom isn’t setting in for your stay in semi-rural Canada.
A tip of my lemonade glass to you. To better thoughts!!!
Hey Mona, can’t you still have your data recovered from your dead laptop? I’ve had to do that before. And my advice with little sisters is to stay mellow when they wind you up so it’s less fun for them and then hit them where it hurts later on. Like my sister’s vain so when she winds me up about the stupid London accent I have now I say “yeah I know” then blank her till she stops. Then when we’re about to go out I pretend not to notice her hours of grooming and say “so are you going to get ready or what?” and her expression is so worth it
haha I’m usually a mature person but something about seeing my sister makes us both regress really badly but at least I don’t have to live with her any more!
Your sister needs to be taught some respect. Abt losing your story; I can feel the pain since I’ve experienced it more than once, which is why I only have three pieces of advice;
-ALWAYS BACKUP
-ALWAYS BACKUP
-ALWAYS BACKUP
Aye, your sister is a 14 year old, probably one of the worst ages ever to exist, good luck teaching her anything
You guys, I did take the harddrive out of the laptop. I just need another laptop so I can take the stuff out. Oh well, no backup this time. I usually email my self everything that I work on. Gmail is great for that, my mini-storage area. Oh well, I learn the hard way!
Teenagers! Hopefully you’ll pass through this because she’s living her age as we do. And the golden rule: BACKUP on external safe drive/dvd even if you store online for any reason.
@Hicham
I got a 2 gig mp3/hard drive. I need to start using that for little things.
It saddens me greatly when diaspora Arabs start losing their language… You should really start reading Arabic literature. A good book: Cities of Salt (Mudun Al-Milh) Trilogy (don’t cheat and read the translation!)
Good movie: Lemon Tree (Israeli-Palestinian film) has one of my fave Arab actresses Hiam Abbas, found and downloaded it easily off torrent
and endless list of Egyptian movies you can find online
Also try talking EXCLUSIVELY in Arabic with ur mom, dad n sis from now on
now get to it
Forgot to mention : MUSIC is also very helpful!!
The legendary Fairuz
Nathem Ghazali
Sabah Fakhri
Ghada Shbeir <— new singer ,amazing voice and sings in the classical style
Being able to speak another language is always an advantage. The question is do you wish you could speak better Arabic or is it something you really don’t care about?
As for your sister, just consider the source! The more you let her know that she gets to you, the more she’ll take advantage of it.
Mona, my brother is 12 years younger than me so I can relate! I was changing that punks diapers and telling him bedtime stories!
In regards to your laptop… if you still have it, you can retrieve whatever is on the hard drive. You just need somebody who knows what they are doing to remove the drive and plug it into another computer long enough for you to copy what you need. It’s actually a fairly easy thing to do. I’ve been doing that every time I upgrade my computer forever. I’ve still got junk on my disk from the 1980s. And I’m not even kidding about that
@Craig
I find it funny that you guys are telling me how to retrieve information from harddrives. I am a computer programmer and a nerd. I know all this crap and this is kid’s joke. I just like to exaggerate things. lol
@Mona
No offense intended! I knew you were a programmer, and suspected you of nerdness! But that isn’t something I would normally expect a programmer to know how to do. I haven’t met many programmers who know much about the hardware side, outside of embedded systems folks. And people who get into it for fun
@Craig
Surprise! I know how to put a computer together from scratch! That’s how I built my entire desktop. I buy parts. More custom and fun. Unfortunately, no one wants to hire me with all the crap I know.
@Mona
I would hire you in a second, Mona
Don’t worry, you will find a company that appreciates your varied skills sooner or later. Small companies especially appreciate people who can wear a lot of hats.
@Mona
@Craig
A programmer who doesn’t know how to put a computer together or mess with the hardware, to me those must go together or you are not able to fully understand the computer – but that’s must my opinion.
My sisters and some of my arabic friends do the same thing with my own arabic language skills. It incredibly frustrating.
what makes it worse is that, I avoid speaking arabic because of them and it’s hurting my ability to speak it at all.