Jad (جاد) our fantastic driver in Amman, Jordan is extremely endearing.
Just about every time I get in the car he asks me “Ms. Maria will you be going to BOLO today?” His English is impeccable and I know he means POLO but it’s not his fault. There is no “P” sound in Arabic and therefore all “P”s get turned into the nearest sound of “B”.
Just imagine in the states how it must have been for a native Arabic speaker to see “PUSH” on all the doors, for they read it as “BUSH”. They must have thought we Americans were really patriotic J
Cheesy jokes aside, in practice though even if “Pakistan” is spelled “Bakistan” in Arabic, the speaker will pronounce it as “Pakistan” given that the sound/word in this case is widely recognized.
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