AUB student

This is an example of lack of translation of the signs in the south of lebanon. Instead of translation the words from English : (galery fashion palace) the letters were tranlated into their equivalents in arabic so that it would still be pronounced in english. Hence the arabic version would be pronounced as "kalery fashin balace" which is just like speaking English but with an arabic accent.

"No pain no (game) Hit me up in the after (noon) Mary had a little (lamb) My (calve) muscles are a little soar after going to the (gym) I'm really not feeling well I have an awful(cough) We should make this into an internet (meme) Seeing a pretty boy like (wow) Y'all so funny (ha ha)" Each of these letters in the picture is pronounced more or less like the words in between parentheses

This is an advertisement for a company called green field. What interested me is that first of all green field was literally written as green field in Arabic instead of translating it. That is very important to me because it shows that people here in Lebanon are giving their companies/shops/institutions English names instead of Arabic ones.

This is an arabic sentence written using english letters and numbers. It translates to " he careful im on whatsapp and I might open facebook"

This was seen in the protest in AUB. The students used comedy to make the signs. "Shut ub your mouse doorman" was taken from the video featuring the Egyptian woman saying "shut ub your mouse obama".

Was seen in the "stop the tuition increase" strike at AUB last week. The students used comedy in making this sign. The phrase "Shut ub your mouse Doorman" is taken from the video that circulated about the Egyptian woman saying "shut ub your mouse Obama"

Daffaq is a type of ointment in arab countries which so happens to sound like the popular curse word in english "dafuq"

For the past two weeks, I developed this habbit of pronouncing the word burger in an arabic accent which sounds like “berger”. Later on, i started pronouncing words in an arabic accent without even noticing because it became a habit to. This started after I heard “berger” on tv and found the arab dialect funny. All jokes aside, It made me realize that english speaking arabs pronounce things in a different way because some phonetic sounds simply dont exist in the arabic language.

This is a student sharing her opinion about yesterday's protest in AUB against the tuition increase. This student , among others, is very upset at the relatively small turn out in the protest and how the students pretend to be united.

Found in beirut as "the word of the day". It explains the word "ya'bournee" that lebanese people often use in their discourse

Nike's slogan "just do it" is used here in the form "just 'dawwi' it" as a funny way to say turn on the light. It might have been used because do in english and dawwi in arabic are a bit similar and the people responsible wanted it to be funny

This tiny clip was shown in lebanese media. Although the events in this particular video are in egypt rather than lebanon, I have chosen to upload it because of the way the woman speaks english which is the same as the way many lebanese speak. One notices the lack of propper grammar however it is important to note that this weakness in grammar for some english speaking arabs doesn't hinder communication as everything is understood but it just sounds funny.

Seen in the "stop tuition increase " protest in AUB. The students used a mix between arabic and english while making the signs. Morever they used xommon arabic jokes as clever puns in order to make a point

Seen in the stop tuition increase protest in AUB. The sign translates to "I am not an ATM"

Seen in the "stop tuition increase " protest in AUB today and it translates to : my dad is fed up or my dad has had enough using an expression in arabic. The litteral translation however means :daddy got out of his clothing.

Instead if translating kid to "walad= ولد" (the arabic word for kid), it was tranlated litterally to "كيد"