hi I'm Alexandria Lloyd a French Canadian who's called Birmingham Alabama home since 2,017 welcome to from where to here the podcast that celebrates the rich diversity of languages cultures and the stories that connect us all each month I'll sit down with inspiring guests from different backgrounds to explore their cultures languages and tackle some fun in our truth there or debunk segment whether you're a language enthusiast a culture lover or just curious about the world you're in the right place let's dive into your next favorite cultural adventure I still remember that day very good and I still remember what I was wearing as well oh yeah yes I was wearing a dark jeans with a um like a tank top and it was blue too um the moment he told us that we're coming to America first I thought he was joking I didn't take it serious until I saw the passport in my hand and I'm like oh we're literally leaving Syria um I wasn't sure what I was expecting all I know I didn't want to leave back then because I was even though there was a war and some conflicts but I was happy like my life was good I had a house that I really loved friends that I really loved and I had a really big family so me knowing that I'm coming to a different country is like a new start and I'm not sure what to expect so I was scared and just a little sad but I remember the day I landed here the first thing I spotted is how big the place was um because America as America like flying over it was really big huge and Syria is I think smaller than Alabama so we're like I came from a tiny place to a huge place and then the moment I landed at the airport the amount of diversity I saw within the 5 10 minutes I just was walking around it was crazy for me cause in Syria like I'm around Syrians or Arabs for the majority but here I saw almost everyone you know like I saw Asians I saw a lot of women I saw I saw so many different type of people and I'm just looking like wow like all of these people at once in one place it was crazy but I was still nervous and I just hearing noises but I wasn't understanding anybody cause you couldn't speak the language no I couldn't I I knew like hello how are you maybe how to count and that was it for me that must have been disorienting yes it was it was more of like isolating because you're just looking and kind of like your only way of understanding is your eyes and that's it everything else you have not even you can't speak and you can't really listen like you're hearing noise was it your dad that spoke the language at the time to none of us no how did how did you navigate that coming here we always ask like helper and then when we hear like you know my aunt helped my dad for the most part but none of us really speak good English even my dad he was speaking like a very basic like he knew how to get himself out of things but he didn't really speak the language was it your dad's work that brought you yeah to America so my dad started working in America at a very young age I think like right when he got married and my parents got married young he was like coming here and going back all his life um so that's why it wasn't easy travel for me because he made it all legally he already had like a good history here so you know the background check all went smooth is very smooth so we didn't really struggle coming to America it was a very very smooth process and that's interesting you said I only have my eyes to kind of connect with people yes and the first thing you said was I even remember what I was wearing that just shows how strong your visual yeah your visual sense was so strong at that time especially yes and when you don't speak the language it get even stronger because you're kind of trying to so you're hearing a word you don't know what I mean but you also looking what people are doing after they say the word you know like I remember one of the very first word I heard when I was in like my day two or three in school somebody say go get it I didn't know what it that mean but I saw the girl running behind the ball and I assumed that that mean like go get the ball and so I was like looking cause I wanna understand what's going on and your eyes is your best bet to to use when you're not speaking anything you don't know what it is you just have to use your only tool I'll say you didn't speak English when you got here but you were learning French yes instead what was it like starting over in a language you didn't know and actually okay so the the school system in Syria you do have to pick a language like English or French and I was going based off what my friends were picking and I think they picked French because it's easier to learn and it's closer to Arabic I don't know how we came up with that but we just decided that it's closer to us so we picked it but even when I picked the French I knew that when you learn any language in school they're really don't teach you to speak it more of like you get familiar with the language and some grammars and things and I was excited to learn French because French always sounds very like cool to me um but I didn't know that I wish I picked English at least knowing a couple phrases to use would have helped I had zero clue that one day I'm gonna make it out of Syria it came like within one months my dad said we're leaving and he actually we we were like you know we sold the house and we actually left and that was to me like wow you had no preparation for anything in fact when I came here I still picked French and I was learning French in English and it was funny people always laughed like why did you pick French cause I've liked it like I wanna speak it hopefully I'll get get back to that yeah have you had a chance to practice it do you get to practice your French trying to keep what you've Learned not really but that was me lacking and I think the thing that even make you keep up with the language is if you watch a lot of TV shows or if you listen to music and sometimes I do try to listen to French to remember or to be like oh I know this word that's my way of connecting with the language um but you know people here mostly speak Spanish and I I've never thought of speaking Spanish too so you know society plays a role like I feel like in release you will see a lot of people who will speak French than Spanish that's that is a good point I like that you're opening your horizon to different languages it's just that you never know where you're gonna land and turns out for you it took a a drastic shift in a direction you didn't expect it to go no and it's crazy because sometimes you pick blindly like you pick based off oh like you don't pick out of seriousness yeah how I'm gonna use this for future you just pick I like the sound of this I'm just gonna use it you know but you really never know what next for you touching back on Arabic you once said Arabic is a very emotional language and you even describe yourself as being an emotional person what do you mean by that and how does it shape how you express yourself yes I love Arabic and I like the sound of Arabic I think it's very poetic like to me Arabic when you listen Arabic for so long it it touches your heart not enough because I speak that language and it's what I started with but to me Arabic bring the tender part of me the soft part of me I feel like I'm more naked when I speak Arabic you're more naked yes hahaha but when I speak English I'm definitely a lot more structured and more organized because I'm aware what I'm I'm saying in English because my brain when I'm speaking English kind of um organize my thoughts and like I have a better structure but in Arabic I'm speaking myself like a lot of time I don't have to think it just comes so that's where the emotions comes because you don't really organize your emotions they come out as of you speaking or you're seeing something you you you know but when what when it comes to English I'm thinking about it before I say it and that's why to me Arab is more like this is me like when I speak Arabic I'm more myself and also people say my voice changes when I speak Arabic and I think that's because I'm more real so you even my voice is more real in Arabic we're gonna get to hear your voice in Arabic during your truth or a dare or debunk segment so I look forward to that yeah and I think people who speak two different languages most of most of them experience the same thing like they experience a different personality in them when they speak a different language yeah I I can see some of that playing along when I speak French I definitely get mad and more emotional in French so I can see that part haha um it's interesting it blends in and then context plays a big role obviously when you said naked do you is this a metaphor to say you feel really raw in terms of your whole being being raw to what it is or literally naked no no no wrong one hahaha like the vision not me yeah yeah yeah um so for me when I speak I'm as a person like as you you mean I'm a very um like I'll say not a mess person but I'm I speak my mind immediately I don't really organize myself and the thing when I speak English it helped me structure myself because I have to think about putting the sentence together to speak it right so it give so that's what add up to my character when I speak English my brain kind of in a process of you know organize your sentence and then say it but in Arabic I've always just the the thought comes I say it and a lot of time I don't even think what I said it comes out whether it's right or wrong whether I should say it or not um just whatever like my brain I speak it out immediately and that's how you know like this is me me like if we're in a argument or if I'm explaining something whatever hits my mind I'm just gonna speak it but in English it's more of like and that's because I've had to learn to speak the language so I've had to learn to organize my sentence so it also add up to my character when I speak English I'm more organized in my thoughts than Arabic yeah so that's why I'm more raw like I'm more of here I say my mind here I'm more aware of what I'm speaking yes okay so the question which I feel like now I kind of know the answer but I'm gonna ask anyway do you feel more yourself in Arabic or English or does it depend on who you're with I think as far as myself in Arabic um because I know how to express myself better in Arabic um but also lately uh English is is becoming I've noticed that now when I journal I journal in Arabic but lately I noticed that I start to add some English to it and that's mean that my my brain also start to like adapt English without thinking too much and to me that's like a good sign like I'm more in tune right now with English than I was um but I think Arabic will always it will always make me like feel different yeah especially that I like I like the sound of Arabic too I really love Arabic and I think I'm blessed that I speak that language um because there's like the different accents and I kind of play a game with it too like I know if someone from Egypt like I I know just the moment they say a sentence or two I'm like yeah I know where you from you don't have to say because I'm very like in tune with Arabic so I kind of know if somebody speak Arabic I'm like you're from Morocco you're from Egypt you're from Lebanon I know like immediately so there's different dialects different yes or there's even different dialects within the same country so like people from Damascus they speak completely different than people from Aleppo and we're both Syrians and what's a a key aspect of that dialect let's say that represent Egypt well or Lebanon so that you your ear can detect it the way they talk they have specific words too like Egyptian is one of the thing I really love like when I love Egyptian too because Egyptians makes me smile immediately first they talk so fast so a lot of time I can't keep up like they talk fast and they're funny like even when they're mad a lot of time I say like when I see an Egyptian person mad and they talk I it makes me more like laughing that I'm like oh I'm mad with you too haha cause they have their own way of talking and it's very very cool um and I think Egyptian like in history it's been there forever like Egypt always been in history you know like old old time ago so their language is rooted um and I will say Egyptians to me they're the funny ones like I really like and I know how to say it a little like but I don't embarrass myself because around Egyptians is kind of hard to to try they will spot me they know I'm not um but I really understand it well and I think that's also because the amount of TV shows and cartoons and things to watch as a kid growing up and I kind of like watch everything so I would like listen to Lebanese songs and also watch this Egyptian movie and always watching Syrian TV shows so that also make me know like when you speak on yeah you're from you don't have to tell me where you're from I know so you've had a really good exposure to all these dialects growing up yes like because I've always asked how we we call it all Arabic but also every every single country has their own words of Arabic and I'm like how we understand all of this like how a Syrian person meet an Egyptian person we technically say in two different words but we still understand like for example in Syria we say a word that means good like I'm good but in Egypt they will say something else that mean I'm good but how do I know that you know like how did where did we learn it and I think the only way I'll think about it is because of TV shows and songs I think that's what make you know because we don't learn it like I'm not sitting in my house learning this is how Egyptians speak but the moment I meet an Egyptian person I know what they're saying oh that's pretty cool yeah I really love that I love how well versed you are in all the dialects the dialects that tie into your primary language really and even more cause you're you know some French and obviously English very well yeah alright so one thing I miss saying in that we say as Syrian people actually in Damascus is that if you ask me something I would say alarasi mean instead of saying yes I'm gonna get it done for you I would say alarasi which mean on top of my head like yeah so it's a very common thing instead of us saying yes like let's say you ask me for a favor like bring you something and instead of me saying yeah I will just say which mean like on top of my head um I know it's hard to like be like what but which mean like I I'm very happy to get it done for you so like it's like you're on top of my head like what you asked me is here oh that's fun okay so did I hear a an R sound yes so Allah hasi Allah Allah rasi rasi yeah Allah rasi and we say that instead of saying yes yeah Allah rasi here you go nice we say that instead of saying yes which means like I'm happy to get it done for you what is yes in Arabic Nam Nam or a we say in in Damascus we say a a a but then I don't say a I say alarasi yes alarasi very cool awesome thanks for teaching me that there is a word that I also love saying um so let's say I hand you this um instead of saying thank you in Syria we say which mean bless your hand what for the receiver to say that yeah so um let's say I give it to you and instead of you saying thank you say which mean bless your hand okay much slower how does that sound this lamb this lamb Edak Edak or Edak for girl oh what is it to slam E Deck E deck because you're a woman yeah giving it to me yes or because I am a woman I think it's for the the one who's saying it to me so like you will say it to me and I'm a woman so you just say it okay yes so for the Islam Idak yes bless your hand okay bless your hand we're very loving like you know something about like you know how I told the Egyptians known for being like very like fast and funny when they talk they have their own vocabulary Lebanese known for being elegant and cute I think for Syrians we're known for being extremely loving like we always throw the blessing word in everything we say like we make sure like you know we really appreciate it you know so that's why we say like I like we're a loving kind of dialect like we make sure you're very like you feel the worms that's beautiful yeah and it shows how the culture sometimes will translate into the language you said it has those words those sentences that bring meanings into what your culture is about yes um and another thing that I've seen too is where there's more ways to say something in a particular language because of the meaning behind so for example you say we're very loving so then you might um you said loving and what was the other word you said we are very warm very warm so you have different ways in the language to show your warmth yes I think it's beautiful thank you yeah we we we love to like use these words to be like yeah like you're you're welcome like thank you we really appreciate what you're doing yeah like and I think it's also crazy that people uh you know it's because of the war we kind of expanded like we went everywhere like in Egypt Lebanon Jordan like you find Syrians everywhere now and I have an Egyptian friend he always ask me what does this mean what does this mean and we use you know a lot like that's instead of thank you like you know how much we say thank you so instead of saying thank you we say but we also the way we say man we say it different so we have our own words so we say instead of saying men like the traditional way we say zelame so say I love us yeah yeah zelame or she heck um but in the in Arabic when we say that people be like oh you're Syrian oh they know yes so could you say Allah hasi at any time yeah OK that's not to replace thank you yeah that's normally when you get any service done you say that okay and it's like a very like I really appreciate it basically so like I'll put you on my head for it before we wrap up I want to bring this back to our listeners what is one Arabic phrase or Syrian saying you'd love everyone listening to carry with them and maybe that's the one you already taught me maybe that's another one um there is one I tell myself when I'm like in a bad situation um it's kind of a long one though we say the SABR which mean patience is the key to relief and another thing we say also that is extremely Syrian we say which mean stretch your legs as far as your blanket goes can you explain the meaning behind it yeah so which mean like you know you kind of have to see yourself in the middle where yes look up and seek opportunities but also look that you are in a place where people are worse than you and so you have to be thankful while seeking opportunities stuck where you always stress over being a in a better place and doing better things um and also don't stuck in a place where you don't want to seek any new opportunities no like be thankful but also look up to be better oh that's a good one I'll take it for myself haha I tend to want to reach higher higher and I need to constantly remind myself to be grateful and it's not that I'm not grateful but yeah just pausing and appreciating so maybe you know journaling all good advice I'll personally take for myself thank you Yumi for sharing your amazing journey with us today and if you are inspired by today's guest subscribe to from where to hear everywhere you listen to your podcast share the episode with a friend and in the meantime keep exploring thank you for tuning in to from where to here if you enjoyed this episode be sure to hit subscribe leave a review and share it with someone who loves discovering new cultures follow us on Instagram at from where to hear pod for exclusive updates behind the scenes moments and a peek at upcoming guests until next time keep learning keep connecting and keep celebrating the beauty of languages and cultures adiós