Word for the Travel Wise (04/24/06)

Anyone out there know whether or not
Lonely Planet co-founder, Tony
Wheeler returned from Iraq
? If he hasn’t just yet I’m betting a slew of loyal Lonely Planet readers will jump on
the bandwagon and book flights to the country once he does. I found only two Iraq blogs where he notes his arrival and
explains that his travel is non-related to any death wishes. In fact he is spending his time in the Kurdistan region
where life in the country tends to be pretty tame in comparison to war-torn Baghdad. For those wishing to follow in Mr.
Wheeler’s footsteps here’s a little Kurdish lingo lesson for the day.

Today’s word is a Kurdish word used in Iraq:

jiyan – to
live

I plucked this word off of Wiki’s
Kurdish word list
simply due to most people’s pessimistic thinking that a trip to Iraq automatically equals an
untimely death. Obviously this is not true, however one should proceed with extreme caution and do their research
before jetting over to the area. Learning Kurdish online won’t be easy, but here are a few resources you can use: My Language Exchange (find a pen pal looking to exchange
the Kurdish lang for your native tongue), Wiki (Kurdish lang
background and short word list) and this Kurdish Language
and Linguistics site
.