So my son calls me and says: "min al'iijiliziat 'iilaa alhaditha sabah

[panader0]

alkhayr ya binay. kayf haluk alyawma."
He's studying Modern Standard Arabic as part of his Special Forces training. He became a
Green Beret in April after over a year of intense (mostly) physical training. Now six months of
Arabic and then off to who knows where.

[irisblue]

1. May all and any divine ones keep him and his compatriots safe. May it be so Amen

[niyad]

3. MAy it be so.

[snowybirdie]

2. Be safe

They'll never tell you where and what they did. My son still won't after several years.

[viva la]

4. Does that mean he loves you?

Best to him! And congratulations to him for getting that beret!

[panader0]

7. It translates as "Good morning father. How are you today?"

[spooky3]

5. Very very cool. I understand it is a difficult language to learn.

You must be so proud!

[DFW]

6. My nephew studied Arabic for years. It's not easy.

He studied in both undergrad and grad school. So where was his first posting with all that intensive training in Arabic? The Hausa-speaking area of Nigeria, of course.

[panader0]

8. In the Special Forces, your area of assignment is determined by your language courses.

African assignments are generally studying French. So my son will be somewhere in the Middle East.
He says none of the locals speak Modern Standard Arabic, but it (MSA) is fairly universal in the Arab
world and is the language of most writing, newspapers, etc.
The guys that were assigned Spanish get South America and told him, "While you're over there
with all the women wearing burkas we'll be where they wear thongs."

[DFW]

10. Where my nephew was

The men wore dashikis and the women hid from Boko Haram.

He is diplomatic, though, not military. We don't have any boots on the ground (officially, anyway) in northern Nigeria. From what he told me about the area, we are probably better off without anybody in that area (Kano, Abuja).

[Brother Buzz]

9. What school?

[panader0]

11. Ft. Bragg

His teacher is an Arabic woman. He said that all of the (intense) hardships he went through
before these classes were easy in comparison to learning Arabic.