The things that happened to me today and what I am/have been thinking (recently)...
*My dearest English teacher from Ireland at my high school days seems to have finally gained her happiness! (Or be getting?) Anyway, I really hope all of those who I know live their lives as they want to. In these days, I have been thinking like this, seriously.
*Looking back on those days in Syria and Kuwait, I recently have realised again that the Arabs are strongly based on their mercantile mind-set. Although I am not going to generalize them all at all, I do not want to stick with my certain experiences and I am always talking in general, (1) they think things in a quite positive way (thus sometimes they do not tend to pay an attension for self-examination), (2) they also tend to count on and seek a favor in return in an obvious way (meanly, they do not care others' current positions, conditions and feelings if they want to ask a favor of others, especially when they strongly believe that they have already done enough for those people and they have rights to be given a help, which is mostly and generally considered in the West or at least in Japan to be completed by themselves, (3) they do not tend to hesitate to say to others whatever they want, compared to the other cultures that I know.
Even from only these 3 points, you can arrive at some results. I have stayed in Iran just 8 days, I do not have any knowledge of Persian and I have never compared which language is used on the Internet or books more, Persian or Arabic, but
I really love how the Arab think and their culture of course (indeed I felt falling in love with them), but the Persian culture or their way of thinking excite my sympathy more than the Arab do.
*I would like to welcome or at least accept any criticism and survive any kind of it. I hate those who pretend to be tragic heroines. When I see those persons who have the opposite tendencies and characters from what I prefer, I try to be back to the basics and I reassure that I am not that bad.
4 comments:
English^^
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*My dearest English teacher from Ireland at my high school days seems to have finally gained her happiness!
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Congratz!
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*Looking back on those days in Syria and Kuwait, I recently have realised again that the Arabs are strongly based on their mercantile mind-set (...)
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I dont know much about them but thanks for letting us to know.
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but I feel that there are more information on the Internet and books in Persian than in Arabic. I do not think this is warranted, but at least I can say that there SEEMS to be Persian cultural and educational stuffs (the info and books, etc) many enough to convince me that it could be more than in Arabic. This fact is especially related to the reason (1). (if someone finds the data, please share it with me)
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Hm no data by my side, however Persians are known for their advanced intellectual & literatural levels. In 1600s and 1700s Ottoman State, Persian was the language of literature. At this age, most of the talented Turkish poets wrote their best poems in Persian.
However, Persians have disadvantages. First of all, their population is relatively love. More than the half of today's Iran is not Persian. Rest of the country speaks Persian as a '2nd' language. Next, its works are highly polluted by the current nationalist and religious ideologies of Iran state OR the counter-sides -opposition-.
Honestly, I do not have any Persian 'friends'. Just met a few or talked for a few minutes. Today's Iran is not an Islamic state -dont mind the name-, and they like to claim everything in the history as "Persian achievements".
To make it more clear, when I was searching for sources about the first Islamic Turkic states; I've seen that Persian writers, 'always' claim that all those people were Persians. Not just Turks, but they think much of the Arabic and Kurdish history were also 'Persian'.
That somehow made me dislike (umm not dislike but.. Im not a fan of them) Iran and Persian culture. Not because they're Shia, but because.. hm.. I think their path is not the right one.
Anyway, to summarize, when I consider the Arabic states such as Egypt and being the original Islamic language; and that many speakers or learners of it around the world; it sounds not very possible that there could be more Persian sources than the Arabic ones.
Also, I think -just a thought- a high percentage of today's Persian books are -could be- ideological..
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I really love how the Arab think and their culture of course (indeed I felt falling in love with them), but the Persian culture or their way of thinking excite my sympathy more than the Arab do.
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However, Persians have a glorious non-Islamic past. Arabs rose after Islam; but Persians were already a high civilization before they became Muslims. That might be what you were intended to say, I dunno. I think, nomadic cultures were pure and I simply love nomads. Both Turks -nearly all of them- and Arabs -not the whole Arabic society- were nomads and that kept them pure; away from city-corruption, merchantile-worries, bureaucracy.. I can say the same -purity- for Japan for some stances. Argh, Im lost.
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*I would like to welcome or at least accept any criticism and survive any kind of it. I hate those who pretend to be tragic heroines. When I see those persons who have the opposite tendencies and characters from what I prefer, I try to be back to the basics and I reassure that I am not that bad.
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nope, you are not :)
-TraditionalCommenter
om om but still west and east are different. For the West, an apple is round and red; for the East it is juicy and sweet :)
>>Marlow
Thanks.
>>To nobody
Talking of Italy, I remeber that a Prof said "Italian is easy. Please master it in 2 weeks and come to the seminar whose theme is reading Machiavel" at an ad. He always says like that. "Please master German in a week, Latin in 3 weeks...etc" To my surprise, not a few students who DID it come to the class every semester.
>>Kerim
BTW, Nabil at facebook was talking with a Turkmenistani boy, an Afgani boy and a Russin girl quite easily as I remember. I really envy him. I cannot speak with non-Japanese in a native level in his/her mother tongue. I should have been born in multi-language state.
Thanks for...everything. I really understand you.
To make a brief,
*yeah, I can empathize with Persian culture, literature or etc from the pre-Islamic one to the contemporary one. (I do not have enough knowledge on them at all, though)
*I wish I had a good command of Persian, though, more than 20% of books published in a year in Arab states in Arabic are on religious themes, according to the UNDP report in 2005 (maybe) reported by Arab staffs, and a great part of them is not worth much, meanly, are not well-organised and sensational (ideological). In addition, from what they said, this ratio (20%) is surprisingly high, of course in a negative sense. From my experience, their Academic level on Humanities (since I cannot understand science) is, sadly and unfortunately, quite low, even from the number and the quality of books published in Arabic. Then, do they write in other languages? I do not know, but I cannot think so.
One of the reasons that I posted this theme this time is that I often find Persian materials on the Internet and libraries when I am looking for something in Arabic, in spite of the fact that there are not Arabic one on that theme and word! What a shame.
Ah, of course, the total number would be more in Arabic than in Persian, but what about the ratio? The ratio of number of copies (books published)to the population?
I hope someone will give me the data...hahaha
The change of mentalities from pre-Islam (jaahiliiya-I do not know how you call in Turkish) to post-Islam in Turks, Arabs and Persains...would interest me. Ah, I must NOT spend time on these things....law,law,LAW!!
Good luck to you on that :)
Yes, Nabil is an Ozbek, that means he can speak Uzbek language and Russian by default; plus English; and also being able to understand Turkish. I also admire Central Asian Turkic nations for that reason (multi-language). Bosnians are also advanced at that.
Jahiliiya (ar)=Cahiliye (tr) We use both "Cahiliye" and "Cahil" (Jahal?) in Turkish (and cehalet -jahaled?- blablabla)
Rest of this week is holiday here, H1N1 alert + Republic day. Sis is coming to visit me, I should greet her *run run run* (and law :/ )
-same
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