But I came to remember ... a few months ago, at a birthday dinner with Ethiopians, we went over some unfortunate yet hilarious confusion that arose when one mixed English and Amharic in the same sentence. The trigger was when one guy said, 'Qesar ...'. A girl asked, 'Qes min?', which cracked me up because I thought she said 'ye Qes min?' Next thing we know we're pointing fingers at each other to figure out who started the "corrupted" message. We concluded with the understanding that 'Caesar Salad' will probably never be translated into Amharic in menues. Ever.
One word let to another and a friend pointed out that if you said 'Arizona' quickly over and over, you'll hear something else in Amharic. I'll let you try it.
The translation of that meaning comes to something like, 'we're full of crap.'
Arizona & and your new immigration law : yeah, you're full of crap!