It stroke me that the soldiers and the people of the house spoke in English to each other. I have been in the area, and I think it is easy to find israeli people that speak Arabic, or palestianans that speak Hebrew that to find that they communicate each other in English.
Can anybody tell me if this is true or give an insight about the matter?
Thank you
SO, in which language they talk, since you've been there ?
Director probably just presumed the english (I would too), but it's hard to think Costanzo wasn't sure of the facts he narrated.
I don't know a word either of arabic, or of israeli language, but the only possible case is if hebrew and arabic are similar like italian and spanish (same roots). So, they can speak in their languages understanding the 50/60 % of the other.
Watching this film, it's one of the first things I wondered about.
As I said, they would talk basic Hebrew, or basic Arabic, which not only, as you said, have similar roots and so some words are similar, but they also learn from TV, school, army, etc.
shareHebrew and arabic has the same roots..??
I´m sorry, I don´t know absolutely nothing about these languages, but are you sure about this..??
How is it posible if the language has complete different alphabet with differents characters...???
This is avery interesting matter.....
Oscar from Rosario-Argentina
Ironically the word 'Semitic' regarding ancient peoples means both Jews and Arabs (and others related to that general region...) even though anti-Semitic refers to being anti-Jewish... What do you call a Jewish person who hates Arabs? There's a few out there, unfortunately...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semitic_languages
I had the same dude , Why english..??
Maybe some israeli, paletin, Sirian, or Leban people know if is more common to know english.
It is strange, because the palestin live and work in Israel, the they need to know some basic words.
Oscar from Rosario-Argentina
Pretty much everyone is Israel can speak English. It is a necessity when your language is spoken by a modest number and no other language (besides the dying Yiddish) uses the alphabet. Furthermore, some Palestinians know Hebrew but only the ones that live in Eastern Jerusalem, work in Israel, or used to live in Israel. Many Mizrahim (Jews of Arabic descent) know Arabic but I think a lot of them did not pass the language down to their children. As for English in Palestine, this film revolves around a very well educated family that would know English but I think it is safe to say that many Palestinians speak "globish", like the mother's friend in the beginning that has to talk to the soldiers.
shareThanks you , very much...???
2 more questions.
What is "globish"..?
and..
where you from...??
Thanks again.
Oscar from Rosario-Argentina
I think the poster meant "globish" to represent the homogenized version of English that most people in the world are capable of speaking, sort of a truly international language. Hence, "globe-ish".
But I'm just guessing at his/her intentions.
I found it highly likely that the Israelis and the Palestineans would speak English as a common language, though I have no personal experience with that region.
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There was only one catch, and that was Catch-22
OK, thanks you very much.
Oscar from Rosario City
Argentina
I am American and dont speak Arabic or Hebrew either... however, I have been to Israel and the West Bank (Palestinian territory) twice. I was there for almost 2 months. So, from what I experienced-I can tell you that most people do speak English, especially if they are educated. The children do not usually speak English, however teens start to learn it and if Palestinians go to college then they definitely learn English. Most of the Israeli soldiers I tried to talk to did not speak English very well, but a few did- some are Jews from countries that speak English, like the US. But generally English is the common language for everyone in this area. Remember this is a big tourist area- Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the Dead Sea- this is the "Holy Land" and people go there from all over the world and the only common language is English. All signs are in Hebrew, Arabic and English. Also, many people there told me that Arabic and Hebrew are very similar and they can understand somewhat. Palestinians living in Israel (20% of the population) would learn Hebrew to survive, but Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank would not usually know much Hebrew. Israeli soldiers would rarely, if ever, know Arabic and expect Palestinians at checkpoints in the West Bank to understand them. In my opinion, this contributes to massive communication problems and fear- like we saw in this movie.
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