I have billed over 100 hours at work last week people. I'm sitting next to another blogger who writes about Iranian politics and we've started talking about the similarities and/or differences between Urdu and Farsi and it reminded me of a funny joke me and my Mian always say to each other.
It started a long, long time ago, probably before we were married. We're both always asking each other questions about the other person's native language. We still do that. M will hear some saying at work and he'll ask me to explain it, or we'll come across something in Pakistan and he'll ask me what it would be called in English. I'll ask him how I would say something in Urdu, or like my Urdu teacher, he'll try to think of ways to rid English words from his speaking and he and his brother and sister-in-law will brainstorm about how to say certain words or phrases in Urdu rather than English.
So some language question came up one day a long time ago, and he asked me how I would say something in Urdu. Instead of one single word, I could only answer with a longer explanatory phrase and he asked me if there wasn't just one single word for that and I said no. He replied, a bit wistfully, I think:
"Urdu is such a rich language...."
Then, just a few days later, I asked him how to say a word in Urdu, EXAMPLES, and he told me that he'd say BLANKS, just with a slightly Urdu-affected accent and I said "Isn't there a word in Urdu?" and he said no. So I, sarcastically, replied
"English is such a rich language...."
Ever since then it's been an ongoing joke. Anytime there's an easy way to say something in one language but not in the other, we bring out this joke all over again. We're always going back and forth with it and it's the first thing out of our mouths whenever these language questions come up with unsatisfactory answers. It's like we have some language competition going on (but of course we don't, it's just a joke.)
It started a long, long time ago, probably before we were married. We're both always asking each other questions about the other person's native language. We still do that. M will hear some saying at work and he'll ask me to explain it, or we'll come across something in Pakistan and he'll ask me what it would be called in English. I'll ask him how I would say something in Urdu, or like my Urdu teacher, he'll try to think of ways to rid English words from his speaking and he and his brother and sister-in-law will brainstorm about how to say certain words or phrases in Urdu rather than English.
So some language question came up one day a long time ago, and he asked me how I would say something in Urdu. Instead of one single word, I could only answer with a longer explanatory phrase and he asked me if there wasn't just one single word for that and I said no. He replied, a bit wistfully, I think:
"Urdu is such a rich language...."
Then, just a few days later, I asked him how to say a word in Urdu, EXAMPLES, and he told me that he'd say BLANKS, just with a slightly Urdu-affected accent and I said "Isn't there a word in Urdu?" and he said no. So I, sarcastically, replied
"English is such a rich language...."
Ever since then it's been an ongoing joke. Anytime there's an easy way to say something in one language but not in the other, we bring out this joke all over again. We're always going back and forth with it and it's the first thing out of our mouths whenever these language questions come up with unsatisfactory answers. It's like we have some language competition going on (but of course we don't, it's just a joke.)
