Experdize Egyptian Social Event - Applied

How to play: you are at a bar in Saigon with a drink in your hand and nobody you know. Somebody crosses the room to you, or you cross it to them, and the small talk begins — hello and how are you, what is your name, where are you from, what do you do, what do you do for fun, may I buy you a drink, calling the server over, and would you like to dance. Three things can be wanted of you. Sometimes you have to say what they said, in English, so the four options are English. Sometimes you have to answer them, so the four options are Egyptian. And sometimes it is YOU who wants to ask something — the prompt is your own intent, in English — so the four options are Egyptian questions and the near misses ask something else entirely. What the whole evening is really teaching is the thing you cannot avoid for one sentence in this language: the greeting GENDERS ITSELF. إزيك is to a man and إزيكي to a woman, إنت منين to a man and إنتي منين to a woman, and the -ak and -ik on the end are the whole of the difference — there is no neutral you to fall back on. The everyday yes is three words, أيوه ماشي وممكن, and the coffee is ordered by its pairing word: سادة, مضبوطة, زيادة سكر. Every line is spoken aloud, with the pronunciation guide and the English written underneath at the easier difficulties. A wrong pick shows what would have worked, teaches why, and the question comes round again later, so a night always ends well however it goes. Five nights make the game: saying hello, where you are from, what you do, what you do for fun, and the coffee and the toast. There is no losing and no time limit; the clock only remembers how long the night took, and the glasses at the top how many people you got on with first time. It is the fourteenth lesson of the Egyptian course.