I’ve been learning how to swear from Israelis and it turns out Hebrew speakers tend to use Arabic swear words and Arabic speakers uses Hebrew swear words. This is fascinating because it implies that both sides seemed to see their own language as being more ‘graceful’ than the other. I was also told that in the market, many Israeli merchants greet their customers in Arabic, but if they try to carry a proper conversation with them in Arabic, they would get very offended that you would think they can speak Arabic.
-Yvonne
i wrote about a similar incident. A man greeted me with an Arabic greeting, so I spoke to him in Arabic. He was insulted and said that he spoke Hebrew because he is Jewish.