inchkachka

Great sites! Thanks!!!

Meschian is really something special. My wife tells me that most of those Harut songs you probably all dance to were written by him If you're in the USA you can buy his four CD set from narek.com (a good nor tari gift if you are still looking). Apparently his children are also musicians.

I know a lot of Armenians from Armenia who came to the USA (or Europe / Russia) and fully intended to return to Armenia. Most came to get training for getting a job. As a for instance, my wife's second cousin just came here, got his masters degree in economics, and is now about to return home. The problem is that unless your training is in business, economics, or engineering, there's really nothing for you in Armenia. You can't find a job as a mathematician or psychologist... so what happens? You stay where the jobs are. Or perhaps you marry, and maybe have children who are citizens of your "new" country. Either way it's a trap that you can't escape so easily. It's all well and good to say "go back" but when you are secure here and know that you don't even have a job there, or lack the connections to get one, how can you go back?? I've never heard anyone say they left because of political corruption. Sounds like a cover story for TV to me.

Up to about age 19 people like "a challenge" (especially girls). However, shortly after people start looking for something more serious and usually that means nice guys finish first. Confidence counts for men, though. Show a little tassib

I think not all Armenian names that don't end in IAN/YAN are changed from the original -- Cluny for example (yes, George Clooney has an Armenian name, though I don't know if he's actualy Armenian or not). Agassi / Agazzi may also be like that (like Andre Agassi the tennis player, or the semi-famous Agazzi who is a producer in Hollywood).

shnorakalutsyun bolorin Hayastanum bolor@ asum en "ira" voch te "ir" I may not speak well (though you are all helping!) but I do hear well :) So I am guessing ira, though colloquial, is common... like saying "asum a" instead of "asum e". I have a very hard time with the articles... probably got it wrong again above... these days I am happy if people can understand what I'm saying whether I get the grammar right or not Italeren@ aveli hesht er

Voch mi ban chem haskanum!! Eis lezhun@ shat dezhvar e! When do you use "nra" and when "ira"? im kin@ shat sirum e nra dashnamur@ (correct?) (=loves HER piano) vs. Gnatsel enk ira het (correct?) (= we went with HER)

Isn't it also the language spoken in Erevan?? I used A. V. Gevorkian's book "East Armenian Course" which I found for sale under a bridge in Armenia (no kidding), but frankly I learned more by speaking to people there. If you speak Russian there are some other books you can get. In the USA you could enroll at UCLA and take a class in it. If you have relatives you can ask them to bring you some childrens' books from Armenia. Try emailing Armbook@ysu.am which was in 2000 the email of the author. Good luck.