Thanks to Najma for sharing these kebabs on the barbeque from Iraq.

Do you want to share photos of your country’s food? Join our photo group on Flickr and show us your photos.

Read more:
Madrid street food - Spain likes a barbeque, too
Arrosticini - the Italian version
Iraqi blogs on Blogs of the World
Catching a plane in Iraq

This colourful photo is by This Photographer. Thanks for sharing!

This Persian dish is called Tahchin, and is made with chicken and rice baked in the oven. The yellow colour comes from saffron which is added to the rice.

Check out our Food of the World photo group on Flickr to see more photos posted by PocketCultures readers around the world. We’d love to see yours too! Just join the group and add your photos.

Read More:
Nasi Goreng - another rice dish, eaten for breakfast in Indonesia
Iran as you don’t see it on the news: recommended documentary about Iran
Britain’s 10 favourite foods - British people in the kitchen

The use of beads in Africa can be traced back at least 12,000 years. The oldest known beads have been found in the Kalahari desert, Sudan and Libya. The earliest beads were made of eggshell, clay, twigs, stones, ivory and bone - glass beads were introduced later by traders from Europe, India and the Middle East.

Beads were used in various parts of Africa as adornment or works of art. In some African economies they also served as currency. As adornment they were important in defining and identifying someone’s status, as well as what tribe or group they belonged to.

Photo: African beaded art: power and adornment exhibition

The introduction of glass beads inspired works of art based on the new medium and this is the main focus of the African Beaded Art exhibition held earlier this year at Smith College museum of art in Massachusetts. The site also contains a lot of historican information on the use of beads in African art.

This article from Afrol News writes about African Heritage, a gallery in Kenya which has built a sucessful business selling modern day adaptations of traditional beaded jewellery designs, and also contains a museum about the history of beads.

On a recent trip to the beautiful Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, Turkey I was impressed to see the stall owners switch effortlessly from one language to another as they greeted customers from different countries. Of course it takes a lot of of practise to get to that level but learning to say ‘Hello’ is a good start.

The languages were chosen based on those known by PocketCultures and our friends, plus some others that came into our heads. They are grouped according to their language families. Obviously the main drawback of this list is that it only has 20 languages, so if yours isn’t there please tell us about it in the comments!

Indo-European Languages

This diverse and widespread language group includes most European languages as well as some from further East.

1. BONJOUR - French

Where to say it:

Apart from France, Belgium and Switzerland this will also be understood in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria and the sub-Saharan African countries of DR Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Guinea, Gabon and Mauritius.

2. HOLA - Spanish

Where to say it:

Outside Spain, Spanish, or Castillian as it is sometimes called, is the main language of all Central and South American countries apart from Brazil. It is also the second most common language in the USA, spoken by more than 34m Hispanic Americans.

3. HALLO / GUTEN TAG - German

Where to say it:

Germany, Austria and Switzerland

4. CIAO - Italian

Where to say it:

Italy

5. OLÀ - Portuguese

Where to say it:

Portugal and Brazil. Also spoken in former Portuguese colonies of Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Macau.

6. NAMASTE - Hindi

Where to say it:

Northern India and Nepal. Hindi is one of the official languages of India, but is spoken as native language by only 41% of the population. Some people classify Hindi as the same language as Urdu, which is spoken in Pakistan.

7. SALAAM - Persian (Farsi)

Where to say it:

Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan. Also parts of Uzbekistan and Bahrain. NB. Persian is sometimes called Farsi. That’s the local name for Persian as it is spoken in Iran.

8. ZDRAS-TVUY-TE - Russian

Where to say it:

Russia, and as a first or second language in the Eastern European, Caucasian and Central Asian countries of the former USSR. Kazakhstan in particular has large numbers of ethnic Russians who speak Russian rather than Kazakh.

Ural-Altaic Languages

A controversial language family. Experts do not agree on which language family Japanese belongs to. We included it here in the Ural-Altaic family, but some linguists think it belongs better in the Austronesian family whilst others think it canot be classified. Likewise, there is some disagreement on whether Turkish and Korean belong to this group as well.

9. OHAYO / KONNICHIWA / KONBAN WA- Japanese

Where to say it:

Japanese is spoken pretty much only in Japan. The greetings above are used in the morning, around midday and in the evening respectively.

10. AHN-YOUNG-HA-SE-YO - Korean

Where to say it:

North and South Korea.

11. MERHABA - Turkish

Where to say it:

Turkish is spoken in Turkey and Cyprus. Also the languages spoken in Azerbeijan and parts of Iran, Georgia and the Balkans are very similar to Turkish.

12. SAIN BAINUU- Mongolian

Where to say it:

Mongolia. Mongolian speakers also live in some parts of Russia, China (Inner Mongolia) and Kyrgyzstan.

13. SALEMETSIZ BE? - Kazakh

Where to say it:

Almost 7 million of the world’s 10 million Kazakh speakers live in Kazakhstan. The rest are divided between Xinxiang province in China, Uzbekistan, Russia, Mongolia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Tajikistan. As in Mandarin, the literal translation of this greeting is ‘how are you?’

14. SZIA - Hungarian

Where to say it:

Mostly in Hungary, although parts of Austria and the Balkans have Hungarian speakers.

Afro-Asiatic Languages

These languages are spoken in North Africa and include the Berber languages spoken by desert nomads of the Sahara.

15. MARHABA - Arabic

Where to say it:

Arabic in various dialects is spoken throughout North Africa and the Middle East. It is a main language in the following countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE, Western Sahara, Yemen

16. SANNU / SALAMA ALEIKUM - Hausa

Where to say it:

Hausa is the native language of inhabitants of Niger and Northern Nigeria, but it is also used as lingua franca in many countries of West and Central Africa.

Niger-Congo Languages

Most African languages belong to this group, which may be the largest in the world in terms of distinct languages.

17. JAMBO / HABARI - Swahili

Where to say it:

Swahili has between 5 and 10 million native speakers who mainly live in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. But it is used as a lingua franca for most of East Africa and second language speakers swell the ranks to a massive 80 million!

Sino Tibetan Languages

Like its name suggests, this family groups the languages of China and Tibet.

18. NI HAU – Mandarin

Where to say it:

Mandarin is the most spoken language in the world – it is spoken by at least 50% of China’s 1.3bn population.

19. NAY HOH - Cantonese (Yue)

Where to say it:

Southern China (especially Guangdong province), Hong Kong and Macau

Austronesian Languages

Mostly spoken on the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, only a few Austronesian languages are spoken on mainland Asia.

20. HALO – Bahasa Indonesia

Where to say it:

Although there are over 300 different dialects spoken in Indonesia, Bahasa Indonesia is spoken by much of the population as a second language. It is also very similar to the Malay language of Malaysia.

So, now you can start a conversation in at least 20 countries! Now all you need is someone to talk to…

Is your language missing? Leave a comment and let us know.

Read More:
More about different world language families
Dedicated follower of Chinglish: interview with a Chinglish spotter
Top 20 Languages of the World: what are the most spoken languages of the world?
Top 10 languages on the Internet

A New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden is a very comprehensive book of recipes. From how to make the best hummous, to six different methods of stuffing vegetables, even how to barbeque a fish.

The author grew up in Egypt, and the book includes food from Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Israel. The book also includes many stories and anecdotes from the region.

If you enjoy Middle Eastern food you might also like to read our post on Turkish cooking.

http://www.thy.com/en-INT/corporate/skylife/article.aspx?mkl=265

Flat-heeled ‘yemeni’ slippers and colorful ‘kutnu’ fabrics are a dying art nowadays, victims of our changing consumer habits. The magazine Skylife of Turkish Airlines tells us all about it.