This is an official governmental stamp
Sad.
28 Jan 10
24 Comments
Posted in Kuwait
24 Comments
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looooool
Damn! That’s hilarious in a sad way. I didn’t even get it from the just the title… but “bublic” explained it.
What’s more sad is that we see this stuff -at all levels- as it happens but the system is geared in a certain way that allows it and often times prefers it. It’s a matter of quality control or a lack thereof and not just spelling I’m sure you agree.
Don’t be so meticulous, you are in kuwait, these things are natural due to various reasons !
It’s just a typo. So frickin’ what?
Quraishi’s right, bending over backwards to get every single foreign word just right in an Arabic speaking community is time-consuming and pointless due to the prevalence of an Arabic-speaking “bublic”.
Besides, it is a completely legitimate mistake, linguistically speaking. Native Arabic speakers have a distinctive difficulty pronouncing letters “p”, “v”, as well as the flap pronunciation of /d/, /t/, and /r/. They also often confuse letters “p” and “b”, which naturally translates into their writing as shown above. I actually found that rather charming. It’s so reflective. It’s so us.
If the typo was in Arabic, however, then I’d get pissed.
So blease don’t mock our second language learners; they’re doing their pest.
Mako 3ether for typos and spelling mistakes! They are like going out kisha, or going out in your pyjamas, or sneezing in people’s faces in the BUBLIC hehehe! They’re just things that we dont do.
Please ya3ne! How the hell did this BUBLIC reach the stamp without being identified as a spelling crime?
Yaarabe if I dont know French I’m not gonna get a job that involves French. And if I can’t spell PUBLIC I wouldn’t get a job that involves the need to spell it.
Common sense! But then again, the common sense in our 7ekoma jobs is to not have common sense.
Anonymous Farmer
This isn’t someone’s handwriting, it’s a government stamp that was ordered and manufactured per some department’s requirements. They have no excuse not to spell it right, no matter how they pronounce it!
I’ve always wanted to start a consultancy and get a massive government contract to go around fixing all spelling and grammatical errors in all government signs, buildings, documents, websites etc…. even in Arabic!
You guys think that spelling mistake was bad? Ur wrong, THIS is bad!
http://www.kuwaitism.com/2007/05/30/tarzan-makes-work-disgusting/
يا عيب الشوم
Zaydoun,
When I want your opinion, I’ll ask for it.
Don’t bank on that though; inferiority-ridden folks don’t amount to much in my book.
With all due resBect, that is.
Fix that, consultant, so I can do it again.
———————
To the rest,
I love going to the peach so I could sblash around in the water. There, a little modeling for ya. If the spelling errors of my previous statement did not interfere with comprehensibility, I’m good.
Anyway, I’m not saying it should not be fixed, I’m saying it is a legitimate mistake, linguistically speaking. Not everyone has had the same education y’all have had; take it easy on the criticism.
Shosho, kisha’s wild and good
Anonymous Farmer,
This is inexcusable and you know it. You are an illiteracy apologist.
No need for the glib rudeness. I’m with Zaydoun on this one.
Purse,
I call ‘em as I see ‘em.
If this were inexcusable, I would have said it was inexcusable. But it IS excusable and it is you who should come to that realization. The typo needs to be corrected, yet if you scroll back and read the second paragraph of my initial comment, you will hopefully acknowledge the legitimacy of such a misspelling. You must not be grammatically prescriptive unless you’re being paid to grade papers.
You actually made that same mistake within your comment, content-wise through word choice. You labeled me as an illiteracy apologist, the word “illiteracy” being the wrong word-choice here since it alludes to an illiterate public, which is not the case within this particular situation, otherwise we would all be labeled as illiterates since we all misspell.
What you probably meant to say was that I was an apologist for the malfunctioning educational system in Kuwait that produced such “inexcusable” spellers. Now if this were what you were trying to say, then it would have been a smart comment. However, you still would have been in the wrong; I am fully aware and critical of the barely functional educational institutions in Kuwait.
You’re sticking up for your friend, and I have no problem with that. Hell it’s almost as charming as that typo was. But don’t let friendship sidetrack you from objectivity. As opposed to your little friend there, I perceive teacher education as the groundwork for educational reform. So rather than dodge the problem through futile solutions such as the one he mentioned, take the bull by the horns through properly educating teachers. All it takes is integrating basic linguistics into the curriculum; not much, a mere course or two will do just fine.
And yes, my previous comment may have bordered on rude. I usually cuss a blue streak and I’m far from perfect in that respect. I’m working on it though and have come a long way since I started blogging. People like you keep me on my toes. I hate people like you.
So bublic is excusable. Matter of fact, I call for the elimination of the letters P and Q. P since it’s nasty, otherwise we wouldn’t have named piss after it, and Q since it could adequately and without conflict be represented by K as in “keep”.
Word to the wise: Do not argue with a linguistics major; we have no life and we didn’t come here to lose.
Farmer,
OK, though I suspect you’re bored and pulling our chain, I’ll bite
RE: Descriptive vs. prescriptive. What’s the point of the educational system you’re advocating reforming if we’re supposed to be strictly descriptive? Furthermore, your thesis is that there is a new branch of Kuwaiti English, with its own set of spelling and grammar, that should be embraced? *and* that this is a deliberate spelling by the Kuwaiti postal service?
No matter, you admit that it is indeed a typo, and that we second-language learners are “doing our best”. However, as Zaydoun said, a postal stamp is government business. Governments are not held to the same standards as ordinary people. They are supposed to represent the *best* of us (through our collective collaboration and hard work). If *none* of the people checking this stamp noticed anything amiss, then our government, and by implication the Kuwaiti people, is indeed functionally illiterate (if perhaps not literally illiterate
). So .. Shame on us!
By the way, this is not about this particular stamp, but as Q has shown on this blog and also demonstrated by official signage everywhere in Kuwait, involves a systemic disregard of correct English usage.
You linguists sure are.. wordy
I must admit your comment made me laugh. I like you 
p.s. I don’t know Zaydoun and never met him.
Little Man,
You’ve done your homework.
You shouldn’t have, though, since you’re still regurgitating the same old arrogant discourse of a privileged person.
Not everyone has had the same education that you have had. In addition, confusing /p/ with /b/ is a very common mistake within the Arabic community and can even occur with non-native English speakers of Arabic descent whose levels in English are way above standard. So if graduate students and professionals still fall under that confusion in regards to the sounds /p/ and /b/, you can bet your ass that official public employees in Kuwait will do much worse, especially seeing as they do not represent “the best of us” but – on the contrary – are the ones who were less likely to have attained the same quality of foreign language education that you and I have received.
I am advocating educating teachers, I am calling for the misspelling to be fixed, yet I am not compelled to either mock or feel embarrassed over this particular typo. We ain’t in frickin’ America here, which – by the way – is calling for strip searching the crap outta your ass in airports while you’re embarrassed over misspelling the English word “public”. Man, screw that inferiority-ridden attitude. That stamp was an eye-opener, that’s all, and an indication that English teachers are not as phonetically aware as they should be.
Fix it, don’t feel embarrassed over it.
Plus, Arabic is Kuwait’s official language and we’re gracious for accommodating non-Arabic speakers, we are doing our best, and in light of our currently malfunctioning educational system, we’re doing a pretty good job. Inferiority-ridden snobby complainers can just blow it out their ass.
Hey, with our educational system the way it is, you’re lucky we didn’t get a stamp that said “booblic”. According to Queue, we already got an official “pubic” in the past, and now that we got a glimpse at what our officials must be thinking of, it’s just a matter of time until “pubic” sides up with some other term pertaining to genitalia; I’m keeping my fingers crossed for female ones, easier on the eye.
I am not bored and I do have a life; got nineteen credit-hours worth o’ life this semester. But I couldn’t pass up on this little discussion. I cannot stand people’s unjustified feeling of inadequacy. I messed up on a linguistics quiz the other day, but I think I just redeemed it.
RE on your PS: Stick to me and I’ll wipe that inferiority complex right offa you.
I don’t care for your condescension. It makes it hard to take you seriously.
You’re saying sloppiness is fine. I guess we’ll agree to disagree.
Purple shade,
I apologize if I seemed condescending; I assure you it was unintentional. Matter of fact, this whole classist condescension of some over others, and of one language over another is what bugs the hell outta me. Tell you what, I’ll tone it down a bit if you decide to chew on it for a while.
You must be a girl, otherwise rudeness would not have been an issue.
You’d better be a girl or I swear to God … LoL.
“I cannot stand people’s unjustified feeling of inadequacy.”
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The amount of irony pussing out of AF’s posts has been so wonderfully entertaining. (Is it intentional I wonder?) Unfortunately the level of uncoolness has become far greater than the utility gained from this irony. So, AF, keep on entertaining us, but please take note: sexist, rude and condescending behavior is uncool.
PS: We ain’t in frickin’ America Man! Why dontcha wipe that cocky smile right offa ya face and write your posts in Arabic!
Dear Panties in a Bunch,
Pussing may not be used as a verb, not even in slang. It may only be used as a noun as in “Shut your puss” or an adjective as in “You want a towel for those pussing zits?”, I’m stretching the rules here for your sake.
And yes, it was intentional, so stop wondering.
Don’t give me any lip on rudeness if you’re doing the same; practice what you preach, otherwise you’re just a pot calling the kettle black.
The smile ain’t goin’ nowhere, deal with it.
I did compose an entire post in Arabic; took over two months of constant diligent work so you may put a lid on that one.
I like your user name, very fitting.
You have a good day now.
LOOOOOOOOOL we have a de3la in the house!!
Glad you liked that.
Now cut it out. LoL.
I was kidding. I’m sorry. I apologize and I take it all back.
If there’s anything else I can do for you, please let me know.
Random’s a lot better.
I was gonna leave a comment bas shift il wath3 metkahrib gilt amorkom wagt thani.
قلت حق أبوي عن هالسالفة و سألته شلون ننبههم، فقال لي أكيد راح يتنبهون لأن هواة الطوابع يعتبرون الطابع اللي فيه غلط أغلى من غيره و يدورونها دواره
و يقول ان أيام الملك فاروق كانوا أحيانا يتعمدون يغلطون بالطابع على شان يصير أغلى
فإنت خش الظرف و الا بيعه بمزاد
Wow! I leave for a few days and I come back to this!
AF, chill … whats with the aggressiveness? Say whatever you want except badmouthing others please. thx.
T, lol laa 7ayaach anytime ilbait baitich
Deema,
الظرف مو لي! عسى رفيجي ما قطه!
Queue,
You been gone all this time? And here I was thinkin’ you were the bomb, in terms of blog administration.
Besides, there was no aggression, it was all in good fun. Go back and count the LoL’s. Friendly ribbing is all.
hehehe thats funny … and sad!
HAHA,
there is a shop in shuwaikh, i think its for tires, the store sign is big and proudly says “GAY” on it, in big bold letters
I’ll see if i can take a picture of it next time i go there.