This is the new Beirut. In the olden days it was all about religious differences and whatnot. Today it's all about language. Forget Arabic, because even though it's our common link we just throw in some words whenever we need to make complete sentences.
On the one hand, you've got the Yoyos. They're the ones who went to IC or ACS, wore baggy trousers with pockets hanging down to their knees and played with that small ball thing that you pass around from one foot to the other. Then you've got the Frenchies. They're the Lycee-Jamhour-LouiseWegman crowd who had a wannabe yoyo phase back in the 90s when it was fashionable to let your boxers appear below your trousers.
Yoyos walk into AUB and LAU like they own the place, while the Frenchies are still trying to figure out what the hell "credits" mean and why the grades are over a 100. They're more Gemmayzeh than Hamra, and they go sit with their laptops at Balima, while their English counterparts prefer Cafe De Prague.
Yoyos are Rap and RnB bitches and ho's type of music, always bearing a too-cool-for-school attitude. Frenchies go to French Night every Wednesday because where else can they ever get to sing Gilbert Montagnier without looking ridiculously lame? Yoyos are loud, Frenchies are uptight. And when around each other, both groups have an odd sense of competition towards one another that makes you wonder if it really only is a language thing.
Of course, you've also got the ones who refuse to be branded as either, and who attempt to bring everyone together. They meet at "neutral" places like Torino and Dany's [and Skybar because everybody knows that's Lebanon's ultimate point of agreement]. They date from the opposite "clan" (because let's face it, meeting new and different people is getting pretty scarce), they mix their friends together, and then English tramps French because Frenchies speak both languages and Yoyos do not. And Arabic is spoken as a second language. Lebanese identity crisis at its best.
On the one hand, you've got the Yoyos. They're the ones who went to IC or ACS, wore baggy trousers with pockets hanging down to their knees and played with that small ball thing that you pass around from one foot to the other. Then you've got the Frenchies. They're the Lycee-Jamhour-LouiseWegman crowd who had a wannabe yoyo phase back in the 90s when it was fashionable to let your boxers appear below your trousers.
Yoyos walk into AUB and LAU like they own the place, while the Frenchies are still trying to figure out what the hell "credits" mean and why the grades are over a 100. They're more Gemmayzeh than Hamra, and they go sit with their laptops at Balima, while their English counterparts prefer Cafe De Prague.
Yoyos are Rap and RnB bitches and ho's type of music, always bearing a too-cool-for-school attitude. Frenchies go to French Night every Wednesday because where else can they ever get to sing Gilbert Montagnier without looking ridiculously lame? Yoyos are loud, Frenchies are uptight. And when around each other, both groups have an odd sense of competition towards one another that makes you wonder if it really only is a language thing.
Of course, you've also got the ones who refuse to be branded as either, and who attempt to bring everyone together. They meet at "neutral" places like Torino and Dany's [and Skybar because everybody knows that's Lebanon's ultimate point of agreement]. They date from the opposite "clan" (because let's face it, meeting new and different people is getting pretty scarce), they mix their friends together, and then English tramps French because Frenchies speak both languages and Yoyos do not. And Arabic is spoken as a second language. Lebanese identity crisis at its best.
nothing new in this article.. I could have written it myself 10 years ago.. are you running out of fresh material Yasmina??
ReplyDeleteThe point of writing is not to write something new, nor to inform you of something new. There is a difference between writing stories (or blogs) and reading newspaper facts. Also, if the ideas of a text are familiar to you, they might not be to someone else.
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