Wazzup? Keif? Musta?

i've always dreamed of having this special power of conversing in many languages. like Jason Bourne. he just speaks spanish, french, italian, whatever the language is spoken by the person he is talking to.

how do i do that when i don't even know a single dialect? i've always envied my college friends who speaks their province dialects. it seemed a nice 'secret' language in the company of many people.

so in this quest of mine, i would like to start with arabic. yeah, i know. i've been here for five years, and i've only thought of doing this only now? why? beats me! but i guess, it's never too late to start.

i bought an arabic book, with tapes which i usually play when i am driving so that it goes into my subconscious. it helps since my memory anyway always fails me. it's been 2 weeks, and i think i'm learning quite a bit:

welcome - marhaba! or more formal saalam mulaykum
reply - zain or bikhair or mulaykum maaslam
kumusta - keif halak? (to man) keif halik (to lady)
what's your name - shu ismak?
do you understant arabic/english - tefam arabi/inglesi?
no - la
yes - na'm or aiwa
i don't have money - ma andich fulus
no problem - ma fi mushkila
big problem - mushkila kabeera
Filipino - filipini


just like any skill, it has to be continually honed. i have to, so that i can move to the next level-- french! ;) wow, what a dream! haha! and i also would like to learn sign language and one pinoy dialect... one by one tetch... one by one...