By way of example...

One of the things I like about books on foreign languages is their example sentences. Sometimes these are obviously constructed: it's been pointed out that every single google hit for "John sent Mary" is an example sentence... But the better books have examples which tempt you to try to reconstruct the context that has been stripped from them; the Basic Dictionary of Japanese Grammar includes sentences that feel like soap-opera plot summaries, as well as examples to demonstrate the all-important distinction between "X is not manly" and "It seems that X is not a man".

Anyway, this weekend I picked up (for the princely sum of 25p) the Manual of Egyptian Arabic, purely for the quality of its example sentences. This book was published in 1926 and presumably the sentences are ones the authors felt would be useful for a gentleman of the Empire in the streets of Cairo. So where most books would start with "Hello, my name is X" this one begins with "boy, be off with you!".

( Other handy phrases... )

PS: woot!

Got notification from Yamasa this morning that I have been approved for a student visa. Tuition money/accommodation money (about 4500 quid) transferring as we speak, and then they'll send me the bit of paper I need to take to the Embassy to get the actual visa...