Young people in Germany are using more and more Arabic words without perhaps knowing what they mean exactly. In the news magazine “Der Spiegel”, the Syrian columnist talks about the meaning of the most common expressions and what they say about Arab culture.
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In the course of the waves of migration, new Arabic vocabulary has entered the language in recent years, especially among young people. Therefore, I would like to shed light on some of them here – and the meaning of the terms behind them.
I have noticed that many people know the Arabic expression Alhamdouli’llah. Germans like to use it when talking to a person of Arab origin. Sometimes it is even shouted at us when Gerd [co-author of this column] and I are late for a meeting. Maybe some think that the term translates as “finally!”. That is certainly not wrong, but it falls short.
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Young Germans are also increasingly using another Arabic word that I often hear in the schoolyard: “Mashallah”. They use it as a strong expression, as a “Wow!” or ” Brilliant!” or simply as a filler word. Courrier International