A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Cognitive Styles in Arab and American Adult Learners Using Eye-Tracking

Handbook of Cross-cultural Psychology: Social behavior and applications ... By John W. Berry, Ype H. Poortinga, Marshall H. Segall, Janak Pandey

تقول اهواك انا مانساك You say I love you I will not forget you - A song with a little scandal story

This song is an interesting song from the 80s, from Jordan. It was a very popular song during the mid/late eighties. Check out the headbands and women's hairdos.The music also reminds me of Cindy Lauper, early Madonna stuff, David Bowe, you know, pop music of the 80s, notice the base, the synth... so 80s . I loved this song , especially the part where she is walking with a bunch of her girlfriends friends wearing Bedouin clothes and 80s headbands and tights, so funny...

The band that sings this song is a Jordanian band called Mirage, was called Mirage, they  stopped singing unfortunately. They were a talented couple, a man and a woman , who are married. They got into a really bad scandal though, After which I heard they immigrated to Canada and left Jordan. So, this poor couple, who are married, it seems they enjoyed taping themselves having sex and watching themselves later, uhumm, so one day a thief came and stole their house and included in the stuff that was stolen was their VCR with guess whic tape in it?? Yes, you guessed right. Next the tape was all over the black market and with every pimple-faced teenager in Jordan and many arab countries ... the poor couple were shamed and destroyed. They had to run away to the land of the west..They say they immigrated to Canada.. masakeen..

Now isnt this is story?

I wonder what they are doing now.. I wonder if they are alive .. I hope they are .. I hope they are alive and making some very cool music ..
Cheers to Suheir and I forgot the name of her husband Sha-sha-a  (sha3sha3a)  سهير شعشاعة / فرقة الميراج الأردنية

Here are the lyrics translated by your truly for your pleasure.

تقول اهواك
 You say I love you

انا مانساك
 I will not forget you

ليه
 Why

وتروح وما نرجع
and you leave and never come back?
تقول انتي القمر
 you say you are (like) the moon

بليل السهر
 In the long night

مثل السحر فلّيت
 like magic you went away

وليلي طويل
 and my night is long

اسأل نجوم الليل
 I ask the stars of the night

ما تيجيب
 They dont answer

صمت الحجر قاسي

 silence of the stone is cruel

واقول اخطيت
 I say I did wrong

يمكن أكون اخطيت

maybe i did wrong

ونسيت
 or I forgot

وقليبي مش ناسي
but my heart is not forgetting
تقول اهواك انا مانساك
 you say I love you I will never for get you

وتروح وما ترجع
and you leave and never come back

يركض بينا العمر
 Time runs fast

شاب الشعر
 my hair is getting grey

بتمنى طلتك
 I wish for you show up

وابعث مرسال ورا مرسال
 I send to you

time after time

الك

مادري تقول حسيت
 I wonder if you feel me

تقولي كلام
 you tell me words

احلى من الاحلام

that are sweeter than dreams

واجمل
 and more beautiful

ويضيع معانيه
 and then all the meanings are lost

تغيب سنين

you disappear for years!
وسنين تغيب  وما تسأل

 and years you disappear

and you never ask
والعشق لمّا زال
 but in love , I still am

الفراق
 being away from you

يا عمري طال
 has gone for too long

my precious

وصعب الحال
 My situation is hard

ما يهدا البال
my mind never eases
تقول اهواك
 you say I love you

انا مانساك
 I will never forget you

ليه
 why

وتروح وما نرجع

 and you leave and you never come back?

Coconut Girl and the Mirror

Once upon a time coconut girl ran into a child holding a rock,
The child’s eyes turned into a big mirror
Coconut girl saw the mirror for the first time in her life.
A moment of self-discovery
She didn’t like what she saw
She was scared
she smashed the mirror
100,000 pieces the mirror scattered
Each one has the same picture: Coconut girl
A l00, 000 coconut girls

The child died on the cross
Went to heaven
A whole generation passed
The 100,000 mirrors grew up mirror trees
Each with 100,000 more mirrors with brown girls on them
Mirrors speak; I am your identity, I am your grandmother El hajjeh, back in the old country
Look into my eyes; I’m your mirror
Erase me from your diary; you can’t erase me from your genes.
Brown on brown
She tore down grandmother’s picture but grandmother still existed
The more she avoided looking into the child’s brown eyes the more she was dissolving
Living in denial is the best cure
She turned off the history
She preached; I’m felicity, I am beige now.
I’m the saint of all saints,
I study people,
I’m above everyone
I’m exotic,
I am hummous,
I am tabbouleh.
I’m just another coconut girl
I tell people what is right and what is wrong
And in the meantime I uproot me

To be Arab and proud, what a combination
Is it logically feasible?
It scares me,
I see those pictures of my grandmothers that I burnt.
I apologize to the mirror and the children
It’s not about you

Grandma visits me in my dream, passes her gentle loving hand on my forehead and forgives me.

My self-hatred is blinding my vision; the cowboys taught me that I am brown because I am dirty,
They invented Clorox. I washed me with Clorox so that I can fit.
I don’t want to be dirty.

Grandma visits me in my dream, passes her gentle loving hand on my forehead and forgives me.

Brown bleached girl got pregnant
She gave birth to a brown little boy who was holding a rock

I’m a mere rusty brown link on the chain of “us’s” identity
I happened to be a prime number
A second generation ya grandmother
Don’t blame me

Brown Jesus visits me in my dream, passes his gentle loving hand on my forehead and forgives me.