Homer's Travels: Why Are You Giving Me The Bird?

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Why Are You Giving Me The Bird?

Last week we received our Jordan tour package from our tour group.  It reminded me that we are leaving the country in less than two weeks, something I'd almost forgotten ... out of sight, out of mind.

The Wife and I are really looking forward to this trip.  I'm going to experience several firsts.  First trip over the Atlantic (The Wife has been to Europe several times).  Longest air flight - 12 hours non-stop from Chicago to Amman.  First country with a non-Latin/non-English language and a non-English alphabet (All my travels have been either English or Spanish speaking countries).  First non-Christian country - I'm not religious but it will be outside my normal experience.  I'm sure there will be several more firsts before this vacation is over.

I think the language will be the toughest.  I'm used to being able to read signs and stuff.  The tour package has a couple of pages of useful words and phrases as well as pronunciation aids.  I like one line:
"As for the stress pattern, a good rule of thumb is to place stress exactly where you would not expect to in English."
That  clears things up, doesn't it?

Another good example is with the words Hamam and Hammam.  They look similar but one will get you a pigeon and the other will get you a bathroom.  I will have to be careful.

4 comments:

  1. Haha, a pigeon will not meet the needs in that moment! :D

    I am looking forward to seeing your photos :)

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  2. oh this is so exciting!! I hope you have a lot of fun and I can't wait to hear all about it!! Just think: A whole new continent to put a red mark in for you're "Where I've Been" map :)

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  3. That'll be one very confused pigeon...

    At one of the travel shows I picked up a little pocket visual guide, so that if you didn't know the word you could point to the picture and get your message across. Something you might consider...

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  4. JaG: It might but it would be one pissed off ...err ... on bird.

    I'll have my new camera so I hope to get some good pics to share.

    Miss McC: It is. We're really looking forward to this trip. True, my Where I've Been map is a little limited right now.

    GH: Ha, darn tootin'

    The visual guide would be a good idea. This tour company doesn't really indulge the shopping habit (our Peru trip with them only included one 1 hour stop at an open air market in 10 days) so I'm not sure how much language we'll need but it always helps to have some basic knowledge.

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