As in, I heard a girl sitting around before class shout out to her friend out in the hallway that my classroom smelled like “majari”. The only reason I somehow knew that word and understood her was because a few summers ago the kids had taught me how to say stupid little insults like “bitashrab majari بتشرب مجاري“ (you drink sewage) (see post “The Sunglasses are in the Potatoes“). I was slightly offended because I didn’t smell a thing, but then I remembered that this girl is a little crazy. When I asked her to stop talking one time in the middle of class she turned to me and said “But SIR, we’re only human!” Yeah, but you’re a 17 year old human and you can sit through a 45 minute class paying attention and not talking. If she says my classroom smells like sewage again, I’m just going to bust out the insult that I learned and tell her that she drinks sewage. That will teach her.

Majari = مجاري = Sewage

And now you know some Arabic for your your everyday life.