I am sure that this article will turn into a political flamewar nightmare, but I really appreciate these kids trying. I live in much better circumstances and I am not sure I could stick my neck. By comparison, my reasons seem silly.
I know some Gazans like elsewhere in the Arab world, but I have never asked them what internet connectivity is like in the Strip. Things are so bad with infrastructure stability, I could not believe they had functioning internet during routine bombardment and military operations, especially enough for startups.
Very interesting article, but I have one pet peeve. The word is halas, it is routinely translated khalas or 5alas (from خلاص). I have studied Arabic now approaching ten years, and I have never seen this mistake before.
What is funny is that, when mocking expats and foreigners trying to integrate culturally and linguistically in Arab cities (I was a target of this of course), this is like always the first word (then maashi, ok, then in shaa allah, God willing) every expat who spends time in the MENA region sprinkles into their speech. Almost always is it used in the incorrect context, with moronically extreme overuse.
The journalist could have easily Googled this: halas tells you nothing on Google, while the first result for me for khalas is Yahoo Answers, where someone asks how to use that word.
Interesting point about khalas. Romanization of "ha" is problematic, "kh" is often used as you state (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E1%B8%AA%C4%81%CA%BE). But for speakers who don't normally use this sound, e.g. English, this can lead to mispronunciation, where it is replaced by a "k" using backformation based on this transliteration. For example khan is usually pronounced as kahn in the US (as in "The Wrath of ..." or for a more recent one: Khaleesi) which is quite off. In this case using "h" would have been better perhaps.
As the Wikipedia page mentions some IE languages also have this sound, but in this case it is generally transliterated as "ch", not "kh", e.g. Loch Ness, which adds to the confusion.
I know some Gazans like elsewhere in the Arab world, but I have never asked them what internet connectivity is like in the Strip. Things are so bad with infrastructure stability, I could not believe they had functioning internet during routine bombardment and military operations, especially enough for startups.
Very interesting article, but I have one pet peeve. The word is halas, it is routinely translated khalas or 5alas (from خلاص). I have studied Arabic now approaching ten years, and I have never seen this mistake before.
What is funny is that, when mocking expats and foreigners trying to integrate culturally and linguistically in Arab cities (I was a target of this of course), this is like always the first word (then maashi, ok, then in shaa allah, God willing) every expat who spends time in the MENA region sprinkles into their speech. Almost always is it used in the incorrect context, with moronically extreme overuse.
The journalist could have easily Googled this: halas tells you nothing on Google, while the first result for me for khalas is Yahoo Answers, where someone asks how to use that word.