Would anyone be able to recommend some useful phrases along the lines of ‘no thanks, we’re not interested’, or ‘we don’t want to buy XYZ’, or ‘we’d rather walk’ or even ‘please leave us alone’ for use at tourist sites?! Thank you!
I’m not sure about Egyptian, but in Levantine(Shaami) you can just say, ‘Laa, shukran’ (No, thank you)
I’m not sure of a polite way to say ‘I don’t want to buy’, but you can be abrupt and say, ‘laa, ma biddi’, or ‘laa, biddesh’, meaning ‘No I don’t want’. I guess you can say, ‘laa ma biddi kus(cup, or whatever thing they’re wanting to sell.)’.
Finally, if you have someone being rude/following you and you want to ask them to leave you alone and tell them off, firmly say ‘Haram Ilaak’ which means shame on you, often I’ve found this enough to shock them and make them stop.
Hope that helps.
Hi Kathryn,
That’s a very interesting question. In Egyptian you can say:
'no thanks لا شكراً la shukran
But use a firm voice, don’t say no thanks with a shy voice, say it with a serious tone and a straight face.
Thanks, I don’t want
شكراً مش عايز Shukran Mish ؟ayiz (male)
شكرًا مش عايزة Shukran Mish ؟ayzah (female)
‘we don’t want to buy XYZ’,
I don’t want to buy
مش عايزة أشتري Mish ؟ayzah Ashtri /I don’t want to buy
you can also use your serious tone to say خلاص Xalas / enough and combine that with شكرا shukran if you want
I am sorry you’re having a hard time at tourist sites, I am sure these phrases would work. However, if you can get a tour guid (a real one) they can help decrease this disturbance.
Hope this helps.