A surprising number of people know Arabic

[cthulu2016]

Arabic is kind of like Latin and French and English have been in other contexts—the common language within a broad multi-lingual culture. Arabic is, historically and largely culturally, the language of Islam so lot of people in the Islamic world speak Arabic plus their native language.

That is somewhat tangential to this (real) overheard exchange, but it was funny enough to record:

"A lot of people speak more than one language. I know three languages."

"Bullshit. Which Ones?"

"I speak Arabic and Somali."

"That's only two."

"What language are we speaking right now...?"

[Xipe Totec]

1. I hope, in Spanish, is Ojalá. Which comes straight from the Arabic Insha'Allah - God Willing