Gingi, There are muchas languages en Australia.

That my friends is a three language title inspired by our adventures yesterday. Here's a translation:

Gingi= Aboriginal for hello
There are= there are in English
Muchas= many in Spanish
Languages= languages in English
en= in, in Spanish
Australia= Australia

The full translation= Hello, there are many languages in Australia. I didn't know how many of my readers needed help with the English parts, so I included them as well. You're welcome. De nada.

What inspired the my multilingualism? Is multilingualism even a word? Yesterday after the Mt. Warning AM club presentation the guys minus Beth (see the Moo blog for Beth's location) went first to the Murwillumbah Museum, the equivalent to a county historical society. They had quite the collection. Then we traveled to the visitor center where we all loaded up on Australian souvenirs . I completed my niece Sophie's shopping at that stop...or so I think. Then we went to an Aboriginal Museum in Tweed.

Joining us along the way was Boia (pronounced BOY-a), a Rotary Youth Exchange student from Brazil. Boia's full name is Luis Fernando Fakih Amellei Furquim. You see why we call him Boia. Being Brazilian, he speaks Portuguese and Spanish. Beth and I have had a chance to practice a little Spanish speaking with him, he practices English with us. I always tell people "Hablo un poquito Espanol" meaning I speak very little Spanish. But Boia tells me my Spanish is good and I should change my phrase to "Hablo un poco" meaning I speak a little, not very little. He tells me my pronunciation is dead-on and that it is "Vury good" in his accent.

At the Aboriginal Museum, our tour guide Marley took us on a tour of the museum and told us about the culture of the native Australians. There are still over 360 tribes of natives in Australia, and even more dialects of the language! Much like the Native Americans, these people have no written history. Theirs is an oral history passed down from generation to generation and more and more is being lost every day. Marley was quite the character and taught us a few aboriginal words. The only problem with this language, like many languages, is that the meanings of the same word change from place to place.

Here are a few words we learned:
Gingi (JIN-jee) = hello

Jarjum (Jar-JUM) = kid, child

Moogle(MOO-gull)= silly

Nin-gan-nar (Neen-gone-ARE= Shut up, stop doing, or Please be quiet

Koala= No drink...because koalas apparently don't every drink water, they get it from eucalyptus leaves

Kangaroo= What's that? see below for the "legend" story...I'm not sure if I believed this one.

Nar-loo-waliya (Nahr-LOO-Wah-lee-ah)= good bye

The kangaroo story is this. An Englishman was inquiring an Aborigine about what certain things were called and was writing the translations down. The man spotted a kangaroo and asked the Aborigine what it was. The kangaroo proceeded to hop away out of site as the Aborigine was turning to look. When the Aborigine saw nothing (the kangaroo had hopped away) he told the white man "kangaroo". Kangaroo translated to English means "What's that?" The white man, not knowing any better, wrote down kangaroo. And the name stuck.

Right now I'm waiting for my host Anne to come pick me up to take me to a book binder in Queensland. So it is time for me to ninganar and say narloowaliya. (Shut up and say goodbye)