Matkot, Sababa, Achi, Dira
When arriving to Tel-Aviv there are several words(expressions) that it is crutial you know in order to start understanding the culture.
The first word is called "Achi", translated to English Achi it means brother. The Average Israeli uses this word as frequently as he eats or sleep. It's one of those words that is being used to fill in the gaps.
The second word is "Sababa", translated to English it means absolutely nothing. The word sababa has no official definition, but on the unofficial side it has many meanings, the most important of which being "all cool". If you were asked to do something and you have no problem completing the task you would answer sababa.
The third word is the name of a beach sport that every Israeli has found himself playing "Matkot". Matkot means beach paddles in Hebrew. If you go to the beach you can see many people playing. The most important thing to know about matkot is that if you are not playing it means that there is a good chance that a small black ball might be flying in your direction.
The fourth word is "dira", which means apartment in Hebrew. Nothing special about the word dira, the only thing that is important is that you can search for apartments using the word dira instead and because of the amount of people looking for apartments in Tel-Aviv looking for an apartmant there is a good chance that you will find a forum that is a bit less famous and hopefully you might find your self a nice "dira" for your vacation in Tel-Aviv.
