The Arabic Student

List of Best Levantine Dialect Lessons

2011-11-05T13:29:00.004-04:00

This list includes the best Levantine dialect (Lebanese, Syrian, Jordanian, Palestinian) lessons that I've done on this site over the past few years. The lessons are all taken from Arabic media, mostly TV shows, that way you hear how the words are actually said and you get them in context.

Just a side note, if you're learning Lebanese, for example, the Syrian lessons will still help you and vice versa. The Levantine dialects are so similar that there is a ton of shared vocabulary and the pronunciations are nearly the same.

Syrian:

Lesson from the TV show بقعة ضو (Spotlight)
Lesson from جميل و هناء (Jamil and Hanaa)
"From your mouth to the gates of heaven"
Children Song اسناني واوا (My teeth hurt)
Comedy from فزلكة عربية (Fazlaka Arabia)
Children Song بابا تليفون (Dad! Phone!)
Another lesson from بقعة ضو (Spotlight)
"Don't talk about me"
Lesson from الحب المستحيل (Impossible Love)
Lesson from عليا (Aliya)
"Have a little shame"
"What can I tell you"

Lebanese:

Lesson from اجيال (Generations)
Lyrics from "This Car Won't Run" by Fairouz
Lesson from Dr. Hala
Lesson from جويل (Joelle)
Lyrics from Dominique Hourani song معقول مش معقول
Jokes from اهضم شي (The Nicest Thing)
Lyrics from ختيار على العكازة (The Old Man on the Cane) by Faris Karam
Lyrics from الواوا (The booboo) by Haifa Wehbe
Haifa Wehbe talks about her love for Hasan Nasrallah
Lyrics from Libnani by عاصي الحلاني
Lyrics from Ouf Ouf by Nelly Makdessi

Jordanian:

Lesson from Jordanian comedy group بث بياخة
Bedouin folk song by Fu'ad Hijazi

Arabic Pod 101 Giveaway!

2011-11-02T20:17:00.004-04:00

Edit 11/13/2011: Zachary won 1st prize and Camilo won 2nd prize. Thanks everyone for entering and I hope to do more giveaways in the future!

We had the Rocket Arabic giveaway a few weeks back and I think it went well as the first giveaway I've done on the site. There were 40 entries and the winner was very happy with her prize. Now Arabic Pod 101 contacted me about doing a giveaway! This time 2 prizes will be awarded. The first prize is a 1 month premium subscription (I seriously just typed subscribtion and had to delete it. Arabic has effected my brain.) to Arabic Pod 101. This includes access to their 203+ lesson archive for which new lessons come out weekly, lesson notes + review quizzes, 2000 core words and premium tools - flashcards, word bank, and just a ton of resources in general. Second prize will be your choice of 1 item from the Arabic Pod 101 store.

Rules:

On the last giveaway I had people submit a comment with their name and email address which I viewed but didn't post to the site. This time I'd like entries to be a comment with your name and email in a format like thearabicstudent (at) yahoo (dot) com, or some other format that isn't going to be immediately recognizable to a web crawler as an email address.

You'll have a week from today to enter and I'll randomly draw the 2 winners on Friday, November 11. Thanks and good luck. :)

Black and White Faces

2011-10-18T21:44:00.003-04:00

So, today there are 3 phrases that all have related meanings. These are Levantine, but are probably used outside the region as well.

1. بيّضتولي وشي قدام الناس - You made me look good in front of the people. (Literally, "you (plural) whitened my face for me in front of the people.")

2. سوّدتولي وشي قدّام المدير - You embarrassed me or made me look bad in front of the manager. (Literally, "you (plural) blackened my face in front of the manager.")

3. شي بيرفع الراس - Something that makes you proud. (Literally, "something that raises the head.")

Vocab:

بيّض - to make something white
سوّد - to make something black
وش - face (from the MSA وجه)
قدّام - in front of (think of the MSA word امام which means the same thing)

Rocket Arabic Giveaway!

2011-10-16T00:45:00.003-04:00

Edit 10/24/2011: There were 40 entries into the drawing and the winner of the language software is bcbeaveratheart! I used a random number generator to pick the winner. I will be contacting them to give them their prize.

I was recently contacted by Rocket Languages and they want to do a free giveaway of their Arabic language software. I did a review of their program here and it will get you a great foundation in Egyptian Arabic. Egyptian dialect is a great choice since Egypt is the most populous Arabic country by a wide margin. It's also used widely in Arabic movies and TV shows and knowing Egyptian will make it easier to learn other dialects as well as MSA. Almost 5 years ago I began my journey to learn Arabic by studying MSA. If I had it to do over again I would have gone with a dialect, either Egyptian or Levantine. MSA is what you need to know if you plan to watch the news, or select TV shows (some cartoons and historical shows are done in MSA), but if you only know MSA and walk down the street in any Arabic speaking country, everything you hear around you is going to sound like gibberish. So, starting off with Egyptian is a good way to go.

Giveaway Rules:

All you need to do to enter the drawing is make a comment to this post. Don't post as Anonymous. Choose a name. Include your email in the post so I have a way to contact you if you win. I won't approve the comment so that no one else can see your email address. The winner will be randomly chosen and announced on Sunday, October 23 and then he/she will have 5 days to email me back and claim the prize.

Prize details:

1 membership to the online version of Rocket Arabic Premium
the membership lasts a lifetime
the membership is activated with a valid email address
the prize does not include hardcopy 20 CD pack (Only online access - although all files are downloadable)

Levantine Dialect: You came in the nick of time

2011-10-10T14:26:00.004-04:00

So phrases are an important thing in any language. These phrases are used at least in the Levant region, but possibly in other Arabic speaking countries as well. However, everyone will understand what you are saying no matter which country they are from, even if they themselves would say it a little differently.

1. جيت و الله جابك (jeet wa allah jaabak) - You came in the nick of time.

Literally this phrase means "you came and God brought you", meaning you got there right when you were needed.

2. جيت بوقتك (jeet ibwa'tak) - You came at the right time.

Literally this says "you came at your time". It has pretty much the same meaning as جيت و الله جابك .

Syrian Dialect Lesson

2011-10-03T21:28:00.010-04:00

This post consists of clips taken from Jamil wa Hanaa (جميل و هناء), a Syrian comedy. As I was watching this episode (episode 25, season 1) I made note of some words and phrases that are useful. They're all said at normal speaking speed and the show is intended for native Arabic speakers, so it may be difficult, but if you listen to each one several times you'll get it. This dialect is Syrian, but it's close enough to other Levantine dialects to be understood in many places.

1. نص ساعة دعايات ربع ساعة برامج. خلصونا بقى (nus sa'a di'ayaat rub'a sa'a baraamij. khalisoona ba'a) - Half an hour of commercials and a quarter hour of shows? Come on!

Context:

The woman's name is ام محمود (Im Mahmud). She bought a lotto ticket and is watching the TV show to see if she won or not. She's annoyed because there are more commercials than actual show.

Explanation:

نص is نصف in MSA and means "half"
دعاية - commerical; دعايات - comercials
خلصونا بقى - you can translate this as "come on!" here; it is normally used when you're fed up with something

2. العمى! حطيت 70 ليرة عالفاضي (al'ama! huttayt 70 lira 'al faadi) - Damn! I spent 70 lira for nothing.

Context:

It turns out that ام محمود 's ticket didn't win in the first round so she is upset.

Explanation:

العمى - literally it means "blindness", but it's used like "damn" when something you don't like happens
حطيت - I put.
عالفاضي - combination of على "on" and فاضي "empty". Literally the sentences says "I put 70 liras on nothing". عالفاضي is used to expressed wasting something or getting nothing in return.

3. ام محمود؟ ام محمود؟ ياه! وين راحت؟ ما في بالعادي تطلع برات البيت و تترك باب الشقة مفتوح. و هاي عكازتها. ما تقدر تمشي بلاها! شو القصة (im mahmood? im mahmood? yah! wayn raahit? ma fee bil 'aadi titl'a barraat albayt wa titrik bab alshi'a maftooh. wa hay 'akaazita. ma ti'dar timshi balaaha. shoo al 'issa?) -

Im Mahmud? Im Mahmud? Yah! Where did she go? It's not normal for her to go outside the house and leave the apartment door open. And here's her cane. She can't walk without it. What's going on?

Context:

On the last drawing Im Mahmud's ticket won so she had a mini stroke and her neighbors took her to the hospital. The lady in this clip is another neighbor wondering where she went.

Explanation:

ما في بالعادي - it's not normal/usual
تطلع برات البيت - (for) her to go outside the house
عكازة - cane/walking stick
بلاها - without it
شو القصة - literally "what's the story?", but means "what's going on?"

4. جارتنا, الله يرضى عليكي. انتي خليكي هون شي ساعة ساعتين. اذا ماتت ام محمود خبرينا (jaaritna, allah yirdaa 'aleyki. inti khaleeki hoon shee saa'a saa'atayn. Iza maatit im mahmood khbreena.)

Neighbor, may God be pleased with you. You stay here an hour or 2. If Im Mahmud dies, let us know.

ليش؟ انتو وين بدكن تروحو؟ (leesh? intoo wayn bedkun troohoo?)

Why? Where are you guys going?

منروح عالبيت. دق خلقنا. صارلنا زمان هون (minrooh 'albeyt. da' khili'na. saarlna zamaan hoon)

We're going home. We're fed up. We've been here for a long time.

Context:

The man is Jamil. He and Hanaa, his wife, brought Im Mahmud to the hospital and have been waiting there for a long time. He's tired and ready to leave.

Explanation:

جارتنا - our neighbor
شي ساعة ساعتين - the word شي means "about" here. "About an hour or 2"
دق خلقنا - a saying that means "we're fed up"
صارلنا زمان هون - we've been here a long time

Arabic Pod 101

2011-10-03T09:08:00.007-04:00

Arabic Pod 101 is a subscription site that teaches Modern Standard Arabic with audio and video lessons. The site is geared toward an absolute beginner to intermediate level, so if you can watch TV shows or the news in Arabic and miss very little then this site isn't for you. This site is good for those starting out in Arabic. Their native speakers who read the words and sentences for you are Egyptian, so some of the things they say have an Egyptian flavor to them, but it is still definitely MSA not dialect.

One thing I found very helpful about this site is the 2000 most common word list. It's not just a list of words, how they're spelled, and what they mean. They also have someone say the word and a few sentences to give you context on how the word is used. Seeing and hearing words used in context is the best way to learn a new language and I wish I had this list when I started learning Arabic. You can also have a word of the day sent to your email address. I've been doing that for a while and there have been a few I didn't know, like today's word ردهة الفندق (rudhat ulfunduq) - hotel lobby. I had never seen the word ردهة before. They have audio and context for the words of the day as well.

They have a free 7 day trial going so you don't have to pay anything to see if Arabic Pod 101 is going to be useful for you. If you decide you like it they have 2 different subscription options. The Basic option is $4/month and the Premium option is $10/month. Both options give you access to all the lessons, but the Premium subscription gives you some extra perks like access to their vocabulary videos where they give you a picture of a thing or an action, have someone say the word, and have the word written. It's a good way to pick up vocabulary. The Premium option also gives you access to the list of the 2000 most common Arabic words that I mentioned.

For their free trial, go here.

Syrian Lesson: Jamil Wa Hanaa

2011-08-29T22:13:00.008-04:00

This lesson is taken from the Syrian comedy show Jamil and Hanaa (جميل و هناء). The main premise that I've gotten from the show so far is that Jamil, Hanaa's husband, is shy around women that are not his wife and gets upset when Hanaa would like him to be more open around other women and even flirt with them. There's another couple that's the opposite of them. The husband always hits on other women and the wife gets upset. I'm on episode 7 and I really like it. It's not like most Syrian shows that I've seen that are very conservative. I mean in Jamil and Hanaa they aren't wearing revealing clothes or anything, but the kinds of things on the show are a little risque by middle eastern standards today. There's lots of flirting for example.

The clip starts with Jamil reading from a book trying to give Hanaa a hint that she should do what he says and care about him more or else he might divorce her. The parts he's quoting from the book are in MSA. The rest is Syrian dialect:

جميل: لم تهتم به فطلّقها. نبّهها. لم تصغي إليه فطلّقها. قال لها (lem tahtam beehee fa tallaqaha. nabbahaha. lem tusghi ileyh fa tallaqaha. qaala leha)

Jamil: She didn't care for him so he divorced her. He warned her. She didn't listen to him so he divorced her. He said to her...

هناء: تفضل (tfaddal)

Hanaa: Here.

جميل: يسلمو ايديكي... ردي عالتليفون (yislamu eedayki... riddi 'al tilifoon)

Jamil: Thanks. Answer the telephone.

هناء: قوم رد انت و اذا رفيقة من رفقاتي بدك تحكي معها و تسلّم عليها! قوم بقى (oom rid entay wa iza rfee'a min rif'aati beddek tahki m'aa wa tsellim 'aleyha. oom ba'a.)

Hanaa: You get up and answer it. And if it's one of my friends you're going to talk to her and say hello! Get up!

جميل: انا ما رح ارد قومي ردي انتي (ana ma rah arid oomi riddi inti)

Jamil: I'm not going to answer. You get up and answer.

هناء: ما رح ترد؟ (ma rah trid)

Hanaa: You're not going to answer?

جميل: لا ما رح ارد (la ma rah arid)

Jamil: No, I'm not going to answer.

هناء: ايه مو على كيفك. بدك ترد يعني بدك ترد! بطللي عادة هالخجل! قوم رد لشوف! يلا قوم (ay moo 'ala kayfak. beddek trid y'ani beddek trid. battilli 'aadat hal khajal. oom rid lashoof. yalla oom.)

Hanaa: It's not your choice. You're going to answer means you're going to answer! Stop this habit of shyness! Get up and answer! Come on, get up!

جميل: هناء قومي ردي و تعرفي كلمتي كلمة. ما رح ارد يعني ما رح ارد (hanaa oomi riddi wa t'arifi kilimti kilmi. ma rah arid y'ani ma rah arid.)

Jamil: Hanaa, get up and answer and know that I mean what I say. I'm not going to answer means I'm not going to answer.

هناء: ايه لنشوف (ay linshoof)

Hanaa: Ok. We'll see.

جميل: لم تصغي إليه فطلّقها (lem tusghi ilay fa tallaqaha)

Jamil: She didn't listen to him so he divorced her.

هناء: رد (rid)

Hanaa: Answer.

جميل: الو. اهلين يامو. الحمدلله الحمدلله. إمسكي إحكي مع امي بدهاياكي (alu. ahlayn yaamoo. hamdilla alhamdilla. imsikee ihkee m'a immi bidayaakee)

Jamil: Hello. Hi, Mom. Thank God. Thank God. Take it and talk with my mom. She wants you.

هناء: الو. اهلين مرة عمي. كيفك. الله معك. سلامة (alu. ahlayn mart 'ammi. keefik. allah m'aik. salaami.)

Hanaa: Hello. Hi, mother in law (literally "my uncle's wife"). How are you? (I cut out the phone conversation.) God with you. Bye.

جميل: رغم أنه يحبها, لم تهتم به فطلّقها (rughma annahu yuhibuha lem tahtam bihi fa tallaqaha)

Jamil: Even though he loved her, she didn't care for him so he divorced her.

هناء: تعرف لو كنت محل امك انا؟ كنت زعلت منك و ما عاد كنت حكيت معك بنوب (t'arif lo kint mahal immak ana. kint iz'alt minnak wa ma 'aad kint hakayt m'ak ibnob)

Hanaa: You know if I was in your mom's place? I would have gotten mad at you and not talked to you anymore at all.

جميل: ليش؟ شو قلت انا؟ (laysh? shoo ilit ana?)

Jamil: Why? What did I say?

هناء: ما قلت شي. و لأنك ما قلت شي كانت لازم تزعل منك (ma ilit shee. wa li annak ma ilt shee kaanit laazim tiz'al minnak)

Hanaa: You didn't say anything. And because you didn't say anything she should have gotten mad at you.

جميل: ليش لحتى تزعل؟ (laysh la hatta tiz'al)

Jamil: Why should she get mad?

هناء: الحمدلله يامو الحمدلله. هذا حكي واحد بيحكي مع امه؟ (humdilla yaamoo alhumdilla. hada haki waahid byehki m'a immu)

Hanaa: "Thank God, mom. Thank God." Is that what someone says to their mom?

جميل: شو بده يحكي مع امه الواحد يعني؟ (shoo beddu yehki m'a immu alwaahid y'ani)

Jamil: What should someone say to his, mom then?

هناء: بيقلها كيفك؟ شو اخبارك؟ كيفه ابي؟ (bee illa keefik. shoo akhbaarik. keefu abi)

Hanaa: He should tell her "How are you?","How are things?", "How's dad?"

Vocabulary List:

أصغى (asgha) - to listen to, to pay attention to
طلّق (tallaqa) - to divorce someone
يسلمو ايديكي (yislamu eedayki) - literally "may God bless your hands", a way to say thank you when someone does something for you or gives you something
قوم (oom) - imperative "get up/stand up"
رفيقة (rfee'a) - female friend
كلمتي كلمة (kilimti kilmi) - literally "my word is a word" but it means "when I say something I mean it" or "I mean what I say"
يامو (yaamoo) - Syrian way of saying "mom"
زعل (za'al) - to get mad

Video Gaming in Saudi Arabia is HUGE

2011-08-14T19:49:00.016-04:00

In the past few years video gaming has exploded in Saudi Arabia. I first learned about this fact by stumbling upon Saudi Gamer's podcast. I'm very excited about this trend because as someone interested in the Arabic language it gives me material to watch that I'm actually interested in. There are a ton of You Tube channels of Saudi gamers recording themselves playing different games and commenting as they go. I don't know why, but the majority of videos like this that I've seen are from Saudis and thus they are in Saudi dialect. The dialect was difficult for me to understand at first because I'm used to Egyptian and Syrian, but like with anything I got used to it over time and now I understand most of what is said.

(Pictured above is Abd Al-Latif Al-Himili from Saudi Arabia who recently placed second in the Street Fighter championship at Evo 2011, the largest fighting game tournament in the world.)

I couldn't find anything from any country other than Saudi Arabia having to do with video games. I searched for what Egyptians subscribed to on You Tube in the way of video games and found that they subscribed to channels in English. If anyone knows of video gaming sites from Arab countries other than Saudi Arabia, please let me know. Also, if you know of sites/channels that cover games aside from Call of Duty I'd be happy to know about them. Saudi's sure do love their CoD. :)

1. Saudi Gamer:

I've mentioned Saudi Gamer here before as they were the first Arabic gaming site/podcast I discovered. They even talked about one of my videos about Saudi dialect in podcast #93 (minute 1:43). This is my favorite Arabic gaming site. They cover all the topics that an English gaming site like IGN would cover. Their podcast is the main attraction.

2. Z-pad:

This website is similar to Saudi Gamer. I don't know which came first or which is more popular. I enjoy both but just found out about Z-pad. Their Zpadcast uses a green screen which they stand in front of and play game footage on which looks really professional. They have their podcast as well as game news. Here's an example of the Zpadcast:

3. xJIoIKeIR:

This channel run by Abu Kahl and is the 20th all time most subscribed You Tube channel by Saudi's with about 12,000 subscribers. His channel is dedicated to Call of Duty: Black Ops (كول اوف ديوتي: بلاك اوبس) which seems to be a common thread for Saudi gaming. CoD has to be the single biggest video game there. The videos are of him playing online multiplayer and talking about either the game or other random things that come to his mind. He's an entertaining guy. In the video below he plays Call of Duty while talking about what makes a friend a true friend.

4. SAGAM3R:

Check out this channel for something other than Call of Duty. He's done commentaries on Minecraft, Fifa 11, HomeFront, and Battle Field: Bad Company. He started his channel just 6 months ago and is at about 10,000 subscribers. I learned how to say "cracked" (مكرّكة) as in "a cracked version of a game" in Arabic from this guy with this sentence:

لتلعب اون لاني لازم تكون اللعبة عندك اصلية مو مكرّكة

"To play online your game has to be original, not cracked." (One that you bought and didn't download for free. Go to 2:30 in the video below to hear him say it.)

Here's one of his Minecraft commentaries. Go to minute 1:35 to see the little guy he made lol.

5. M4jedHere:

This channel does CoD, but also has a series of Portal 2 commentaries. He goes through the whole game commenting on it in Saudi Arabic. M4jedHere has about 4,000 subscribers. Here's the first video in his Portal series:

Egyptian Lesson 3: Why are you looking at me?

2011-08-08T21:21:00.007-04:00

So, the phrase for today is "Why are you looking at me?" I did a You Tube video about it and I've taken a clip from the Egyptian comedy show Al Bab Fil Bab الباب في الباب that uses the phrase. Watch them. Learn how to pronounce it. It's important. So, here's my video:

And here's the clip from Al Bab Fil Bab:

She says ايه هشام؟ بتبص إلي ليه؟ (What, Hisham? Why are you looking at me?). In my video I was saying بتبص إلي كده ليه؟ (Why are you looking at me like that?). The only difference is the كده and the ايه؟. So, to break down the phrase.

ايه (eeh)- "what"

بتبص (bitbus) - "you are looking" or "you look". Don't confuse this with بس (bes) which means "but" or باس (baas) "he kissed" and يبوس (yiboos) "he kisses". They all sound very similar. The only difference is the "s" sound used. Just for kicks, بصبص means "to ogle".

إلي (ili) - "at me"

كده (kida) - "like this" or "like that". It comes from combing the MSA ك "like" and هذا "this". In Saudi they say كذه with a "dh" instead of a "d" which is closer to its MSA roots.

ليه (leeh) - "why"

And in the You Tube video I added:

يا راجل (ya raagil) - man

يا عم (ya 'am) - uncle

يا حج (ya hagg) - hajji (someone who has been to Meca for the Haj)

Saudi Arabia Starting on the World's Tallest Building

2011-08-04T16:36:00.002-04:00

It seems like Saudi Arabia is taking the example of Dubai and trying to attract tourism with amazing buildings. Have a look at this article that talks about Saudi Arabia beginning work on the tallest building in the world. It will dwarf the current tallest building that was recently finished in Dubai, but it's not going to be completed for over 5 years, so Dubai's Burj Khalifa can hold on to its title for a little while longer.

A Star Trek Theme Park in... Jordan??

2011-08-01T23:06:00.004-04:00

This article doesn't provide many details, but it says that work is about to get underway on a $1.5 billion Star Trek theme park in Aqaba, Jordan on the Red Sea! I thought I had seen all the tourist stuff in Jordan, but if this thing does get built it gives me a reason to go back. It's known that King Abdullah II is a big Star Trek fan and he even had an appearance as an extra on Voyager so I imagine this had a lot to do with the decision.

I'm all for anything science fiction related being done in the Middle East. It might encourage more scientific endeavors there and show people that science is cool in a part of the world where it doesn't seem to garner much interest. Sci-fi isn't just imaginary, far fetched entertainment. It actually encourages kids to get into science and engineering which would be great for the region.

Egyptian Saying About Men and Money

2011-07-28T20:25:00.006-04:00

Every culture has sayings about money. I learned this one while watching عايزة أتجوز on MBC's website. The show is about a girl who can't find a husband. The context for the clip is that she finally meets a man who wants to marry her. He's a trash man (زبّال) and really annoying, but he has a lot of money because he owns the trash company. She tries to convince herself that money is all that matters to her with this phrase: الراجل ما يعيبوش إلا جيبه (arragil ma ya'eeboosh illa gaybu) which means, "A man has no shame except his pocket." Basically, it doesn't matter what a guy is like as long as he has money. Here's the clip for some context and how to pronounce it:

إللي قبلنا قالو, الراجل ما يعيبوش إلا جيبه. عندهم حق. الصراحة, عندهم حق. اه, اه, اصلا هيفيد بايه بقى التوافق في المستوى الإجتماعي و الثقافي و التعليمي و الكلام الفارغ ده هيفيد بايه؟ أهم حاجة الشبكة بكم و الفرح فين و بعد الجواز هنتغدى ايه انهرده و هنتفسح فين الاسبوع ده و هنصيف فين السنادي. أه

Those before us said, a man has no shame except his pocket. They were right. Frankly, they were right. Yes, yes, I mean what good is a sharing a similar social, cultural, or educational level and this empty talk, what good is it? The most important thing is how much is the engagement present and where will the wedding party be and after the wedding where are we going to eat today and where are we going out this week and where are we going to have summer vacation this year? Yes.

عيب - shame
توافق - matching or on similar level
هيفيد بايه؟ - what good is it? literally "it will benefit by what?"
الشبكة - wedding gift
الفرح - wedding party. Also means happiness.
انهرده - today (Egyptian). Comes from النهار هذا
تفسّح - to go out, like out on the town
صيّف - to take summer vacation
السنادي - this year (Egyptian). Comes from السنة هذه

This clip is when the trash man is asking Ola (عُلا) to marry him. He's listing his qualifications.

الراجل ما يعيبوش إلا جيبه و أنا جيبي مليان

A man has no shame except his pocket, and my pocket is full. (He's rich.)

Can You Get Rid of Your Accent?

2011-07-03T11:50:00.007-04:00

Accent is something people ask me about from time to time. They want to know how I learned to speak with a good accent in the Arabic language as this is a part of language that most learners can't seem to nail down. This is the most difficult question to answer with regard to language learning. Why do some people have foreign accents when speaking a 2nd language while others are able to minimize or completely eliminate their accent. I haven't eliminated my accent completely, but I've minimized it enough so that if I'm speaking to a native Arabic speaker they will usually just think I am from a different Arabic country than they are. For example, in Jordan people thought I was Lebanese or Syrian or maybe that I had 1 parent who was Arab and another American.

No one is sure why some people have accents and others do not. A person can move to another country when they are 30 and live there until they die and have an accent their entire life while others eliminate their accent very soon after starting to learn the language. I believe it has to do with the music of the language. I'd be willing to bet that musicians are more likely to get rid of their accent than others. Language is a lot like music in that there are different stresses, intonations, and rhythms. Good musicians have an ear for these things. You can, however, learn to be a good musician as well as a good mimicker of accents.

Most people learn a language to communicate, but I wanted to learn Arabic because it just sounded cool. It's sounds were nothing like English and that exotic factor appealed to me. That was my number 1 reason for choosing it. And while learning Arabic the main thing I focused on was where the stress went in words and sentences. It may sound corny and ingenuous, but I viewed Arabic as a song. I was slower to get the meaning of words and slower to understand what people said to me than the others I was learning with, but my pronunciation was always spot on because I viewed the language as music, as a kind of chant. Equally important to me as the definition of a word was being able to reproduce it the way the speaker said it, exactly the way we will try to sing a song on the radio the way the singer himself sings it, putting the emphasis where the singer does and drawing out the syllables that the singer draws out.

I think some language learners go into a new language oblivious to these kinds of things. They learn the meanings of words and the grammar, but pronunciation is secondary. Pronunciation needs to be focused on, at least in the beginning, as much as the meaning of the language. In fact, I would not even go over what the words mean until after spending a few weeks on how to pronounce things and where emphasis goes on the syllables. This will keep the students from focusing on the meaning and ignoring pronunciation since you aren't giving them any definitions yet. In this way Arabic will be viewed as a song first and as a language second. After a few weeks when you start to introduce meaning into this way of singing called Arabic, the students will be versed in how things are supposed to sound.

An Iraqi friend of mine who speaks English fluently, but can immediately be pointed out as a foreigner because of his accent, showed me a program that goes deeper into all of the stresses, rhythms, and flow of language in order to get the correct accent. He says it's really helped him with his accent and I have noticed a difference in the way he speaks as well. I guess sometimes all it takes it raising a persons awareness to the little things they are overlooking. The program he uses is called The American Accent Audio Course and I really wish there was one for Arabic as well. (Hmmm, this gives me an idea :P)

I mention the program because I know there are native Arabic speakers who read this blog and some may benefit from it. I took a look at the program and it's a pretty advanced course which covers all the little things that give someone away as not being a native speaker, such as the correct intonation and stress on different words in the sentence and how these can change meaning or just make the sentence sound weird to Americans, the American 't' that can be pronounced as 't' or 'd' depending on where it is located in the sentence, and a lot more little things that American English speakers take for granted and so would probably never bring up in a class because they don't even notice them themselves. You can get the course here. If you use it please let me know if it helps you as much as it helped my friend.

Fifa 12 will have Arabic audio

2011-07-01T20:14:00.004-04:00

I was listening to the Saudi Gamer podcast and they announced the news that EA has chosen to give the game Fifa 12 Arabic audio commentary and menus. EA hired two actual soccer commentators, a Tunisian Issam Chawali (عصام الشوالي) and a Saudi Abdullah Alharbi (عبدالله الحربي). This choice makes sense as the Arab world is a huge market for all things soccer. I'm really excited about this step and I hope it sets a precedent for more video games to have audio in Arabic. I've always been jealous of people learning Japanese because they can augment their learning by playing a lot of video games in Japanese, but for Arabic you don't have that option. I might actually buy this game for my Xbox to learn some soccer jargon even though I'm definitely not a soccer fan. I'm sure it's more exciting than watching an actual game though :P.

Arabic Phrase: What can I tell you to tell you?

2011-06-25T22:27:00.009-04:00

Today's post is all about a phrase that's used a lot in Levantine Arabic (Syrian, Lebanese, Palestinian, Jordanian). The phrase is شو بدي أحكيلك لأحكيلك (shoo beddi aHkeelak la aHkeelak) and sometimes شو بدي أحليلك تأحكيلك (shoo beddi aHkeelak ta aHkeelak).

They both mean the same thing and are used before you're about to explain something or don't really know what to say. The phrase means, "What can I tell you?" or "What can I say?". It's literally, "What can I tell you to tell you?" There are two examples below to give you more context on how it's used. The first is from the Palestinian movie Paradise Now and the second is from season 5 episode 21 of the Syrian drama Bab al-Hara.

سها: السلام عليكم
ابو فلان: اهلا سها. كيفك؟ وين هالغيبة؟
سها: شو بدي أحكيلك تأحكيلك. مفاجآت الحياة كتيرة

Suha: Peace by upon you.
Abu So-and-so: Hello Suha. How are you? Where have you been for so long?
Suha: What can I tell you? Life has many surprises.

فلان (fulaan): "so-and-so". I don't know the guy's name so I just wrote ابو فلان .

وين هالغيبة (wayn hal gaybeh): This is like "long time no see". Literally it's "where this absence?", like "where have you been during this absence?".

ام جوزيف: بس يللي صار معي... آخخ صعب كتير كتير.
البنت: خير خير خير إن شاء الله! والله غليتيلي قلبي. شو يللي صاير معك؟
ام جوزيف: آخخخ. شو بدي أحكيلك لأحكيلك؟

Im Joseph: But what has happened to me... akhkh is very difficult.
Girl: I hope everything is ok! You've made my heart boil. What's happened to you?
Im Joseph: Akhkhkh. What can I say?

خير (khayr): "good". Here it's like "I hope everything is ok." Say you tell your friend that you just got a call from the hospital. He might say خير or خير ان شاء الله meaning that he hope's everything is ok.

غليتيلي قلبي (ghalayteelee albi): literally "you've made my heart boil". She means here that she's worried her.

Arabic jokes from Ahdam Shi

2011-06-23T23:13:00.009-04:00

Ahdam Shi (أهضم شي) is a comedy show on the Lebanese channel MTV. They spend about 2 hours going back and forth telling jokes with a little bit of dancing and music thrown in. I believe that if you can understand comedy in a language then you've mastered the language which is why I watch a lot of comedy shows. Also they're just more entertaining to me than the soap operas that most of Arabic TV is saturated with. A lot of the jokes on Ahdam Shi are rated R and have to do with sex which might be surprising to most people learning Arabic. After all, Arabs are supposed to be very conservative, right? Lebanon is different. At least parts of Lebanon are. That's another reason why I like this show. It's not as stuffy as a lot of Arabic media. Here are two jokes from the most recent airing of the show along with the translation and explanation of some words.

قال مرة, وحدة واقفة على طرف الطريق ناطرة سيارة و ما حدا عم بيوقّفلها. بعد شوي بيوقّفلها شب. بيقلها "فضلي مدموزيل إطلاعي." بتطلع. بيقلها "ليكي. ما تخافي. أنا مهذّب. أنا جنتلمن. أنا كتير محترم. ما تفكريني مثل هول الشباب يللي ما بيوقفو إلا للبنات الحلوين."

Once there was a woman on the side of the road waiting for a car and no one was stopping for her. After a while a young guy stops for her. He says to her, "Please, mademoiselle, get in." She gets in. He tells her, "Look, don't be afraid. I'm polite. I'm a gentleman. I'm very respectable. Don't think that I'm like those guys who don't stop except for pretty girls."

قال مرة - I take this to mean "once" or "one time". Lots of jokes start with this. It literally means "one time he said", but you wouldn't translate it like that.

طرف الطريق - "side of the road"

نطر - "to wait"

راح زلمي فاتح محل بطاطا. إجا لعنده صاحبه. قاله كيفك. قاله ماشي الحال. قاله قديش صارلك فاتح محل هالبطاطا؟ قاله شي 3, 4 سنين والله ما بيع غير بطاطا. قاله احوالك منيحة؟ قاله الحمدلله. قاله معك تديّنلنا شي 500 دولار؟ قاله لا بقدرش. قاله كيف ابتقدرش؟ عم بتقلي احوالك منيحة؟ قاله ايه بس ابقدرش. قاله ليش؟ قاله شفت البنك بالواجهة هنيك؟ قاله ايه. قاله في كونتراكت أنا وياهن. لا أنا بقدر ديّن مصاري و لا هن فيهن يبيعو بطاطا.

A man went and opened a potato store. His friend came to him. He said to him, "How are you?" He said to him, "Fine." He said to him, "How long has it been since you opened this potato store?" He said to him, "About 3 or 4 years. I only sell potatoes." He said to him, "Are you doing well for yourself?" He said to him, "Thank God." He said to him, "You have about $500 you can loan me?" He said to him, "I can't." He said to him, "What do you mean you can't? You're telling me that you're doing well for yourself." He said to him, "Yes, but I can't." He said to him, "Why?" He said to him, "You see that bank across the street there?" He said to him, "Yes." He said to him, "There's a contract I have with them. I can't loan money and they can't sell potatoes."

إجا لعنده صاحبه - "His friend came to him." He says this in a strange way. He doesn't pronounce the إ in إجا

ابقدرش - "I can't." In some places of Lebanon and Syria they will put an ا instead of ما before the verb to negate it. This means the same thing as ما بقدر . Some places also put the ش at the end to negate verbs just as Egyptians do.

واجهة - "face" as in the face of a building or shop.

وياهن - "with them"

مصاري - "money". The way he says it sounds like مشاري.

This guy really wants a visa!

2011-05-31T21:08:00.010-04:00

This guy Alaa Wardi (علاء وردي) wrote this song about being bored in Saudi Arabia and wanting to leave but not being able to get a visa. It's pretty funny. And no offense to anyone from Saudi Arabia. I wrote out the lyrics, translation, and some explanations. He's singing in Jordanian dialect.

انا علاء وردي قاعد بالسعودية
باكل بشرب بنام و عالفيسبوك بسهر (الله يلعن هالفيسبوك)
من كثر ما انا قرفان كتبت هالاغنية
كمان 8 اغاني زيها و كبيتهن بالزبالة

I am Alaa Wardi here in Saudi Arabia
I eat, I drink, I sleep and I stay up all night on Facebook. (God curse this Facebook.)
Because I'm so bored I wrote this song.
And 8 other songs like it that I threw in the trash.

- The word قاعد literally means "sitting", but in Jordanian, Iraqi, and Saudi dialects it isn't used to always literally mean sitting down. For example, انت قاعد تشرب؟ doesn't mean "you're sitting down drinking?". It really just means, "you're having a drink?". قاعد is thrown in in various places. So, he doesn't literally mean he's sitting in Saudi Arabia. He just means he's there.

- The word بسهر (bashar) has 2 meanings. It can mean "to stay up late" or "to be partying at night", like a "soiree". The word has both of those connotations. Here he means that he stays up all night on Facebook. Also he is sarcastically saying that he "parties" on Facebook.

- قرفان is "bored".

- To كب something in the trash (زبالة) means "to throw it in the trash".

يا شباب انقذوني
يا شباب طلعولي فيزا
يا شباب حلقولي شعري
و قبل ما انجن

Guys, save me.
Guys, send me a visa.
Guys, they cut my hair.
Before I go insane.

صارلي 9 شهور قاعد بالرياض
و مش شايفلي بنت من زمان
كان بدي روح على كندا بس ما طلعلي فيزا
قاللي روح ايراني معفن قلتإله (كس اختك)

I've been here in Riyad for 9 months.
I haven't seen a girl in a long time.
I wanted to go to Canada but they didn't give me a visa.
He told me, "Get out of here you stinking Iranian." I told him, "Go fuck yourself."

- من زمان - "for a long time"

يا شباب انقذوني
يا شباب طلعولي فيزا
يا شباب النجدة النجدة
و قبل ما انجن
انجن!

وصلت الفكرة

Guys, save me.
Guys, send me a visa.
Guys, help, help.
Before I go insane.

You get the idea.

Red Bull Arabs Drifting

2011-05-29T03:50:00.003-04:00

Red Bull Car Park Drift

The reactions these people have are hilarious! Redbull put a camera in the dashboard of a car while the driver drifts all over the place. The driver is Lebanese and it seems like this was filmed somewhere in the Gulf. UAE probably. My favorites are the first hot Lebanese girl, (the driver keeps telling her to quit touching him because he's married lol) and the 3rd guy in the Kufiya who almost craps his pants from fear.

Here's a translation of the 3rd dialogue:

So you're telling me you already do drifting right
Yeah
So it's nothing new to you, you have no fear. God bless! .....
This is normal to you right?
yy.yyeah
You're not afraid of this, right. Good. ...
Everything good right?
huh?!
You're not feeling anything right? ...
You're not afraid right? Everything good. ...
Are you trying to tell me something?
Nn...nno ...
You don't look afraid at all...
Nnn..nno..nooo

Lebanese Lesson from Dr. Hala

2011-05-27T20:48:00.002-04:00

Dr. Hala (مسلسل دكتور هلا) is a drama that airs on MTV Lebanon about love and relationships. It might not be your cup of tea, but it will help you learn the language. The dialect is Lebanese and the show has actors that appear in many Lebanese TV series. Among them are Rita Barsona (ريتا برصونا) and Peter Semaan (بيتر سمعان). There are only so many Lebanese actors and actresses so you will see them again and again.

This clip from the show is 1 minute 45 seconds long. Below the clip is the translation and explanations of words I felt might be new or difficult. The English translation is in blue below the Arabic and the explanations are below that.

غادي : انا ما بشوف انه الفن بعده مثل أيام زمان و انه و ما بيطعم خبز و الواحد لازم ياخده كهواية مش كمهنة. و هالاخبار إللي ربّونا عليها انه الفن بعبع. اوعى يا بابا تفكّر انك تطلع فنان و اوعى يا ماما تفكّري انك

Ghadi: I don't see that art is still like it used to be and that it doesn't put bread on the table and that one must take it as a hobby and not as a profession. And this news that we were raised on that art is a boogy man. Don't think about becoming an artist, son! And don't think, daughter, about...

بعده - "Still". Ghadi doesn't think that art is "still" like it used to be when you couldn't make a living at it.

بيطعم خبز - literally "to feed bread", but a better translation is to figuratively "put food/bread on the table".

بعبع - "boogy man" or "monster". Art was a "boogy man" in that no parent wanted their child to become an artist.

ايام زمان - this is a phrase that means "back in the day", and often "back in the good ole days" when someone is reminiscing about days past.

اوعى - "beware!" or "don't!". اوعى تروح بنص الليالي - don't to go out in the middle of the night!

يا بابا و يا ماما - It might seem strange that he's literally saying "Mom, don't become an artist." and "Dad, don't become an artist.", however, in Arabic countries a mother will call her children "mom", and the same thing with a father. He'll call his kids dad sometimes when speaking to them. It's strange at first, but you get used to it. I didn't translate it as "mom" and "dad" because it wouldn't make sense. He's pretending that he's a dad and then a mom talking to their children.

غسان : شو لكان انه صار الفن هلأ عم يطعم خبز؟

Ghassan: So what then? Art now is able to put bread on the table?

شو لكان - Here this means something like "what are you talking about?" or "so what then?" لكان is a word you get a feel for after hearing it used a lot. Used alone it can mean "of course." If Ghadi replied to Ghassan's question with لكان , that's what it would mean. "Of course."

غادي : يعني القصة منها قصة خبز. اصلاً ما بقى حدا ياكل خبز. الكل عالدايت و التوست

Ghadi: I mean it's not about bread. Actually no one eats bread anymore. Everyone's on a diet and toast.

منها - "It is not." This is spelled exactly like "from it", من ها , but this is different. Here منها means "it isn't." The ها refers to القصة

اصلاً - People will tell you that this means "originally", and in MSA is does most of the time, however a better translation here is just something like "I mean" or "actually". It doesn't literally mean "originally."

بقى - Here, the بقى translates as "anymore".

غسان : ببلادنا أكيد مش لازم الشب او البنت يعملو فنانين. اصلاً انا اذا بجيب ولاد أكيد ما بخليهن يطلعو فنانين

Ghassan: In our country, of course young boys and girls shouldn't become artists. I mean if I have kids I definitely won't let them become artists.

بلاد - It's the plural of بلد , but Ghassan still means "country" and not "countries". He's talking about Lebanon. Even though this is the plural, it's best translated as "country". You might also go with "in our lands", but that sounds like something from Lord of the Rings.

هلا : اوف اوف اوف! عم بتحكي جد غسان؟ اول مرة بعرفك ضد الفن و الفنانين

Hala: Oof, oof, oof! Are you serious Ghassan? This is the first time I've know you are against art and artists.

اوف - word that expresses surprise or being fed up

جد - seriously

البنت : يعني لو انا اختك ما كنت بتخليني غني؟

Girl: I mean, if I were your sister you wouldn't let me sing?

غسنان : أكيد لا. و لا بخلّي ليون يطلع بس موسيقي

Ghassan: Of course not. And I wouldn't let Leon become just a musician.

ليون : شو قصدك بموسيقي و بس؟

Leon: What do you mean by "just a musician"?

شو قصدك - "what do you mean?" If someone says عن قصد it means "on purpose".

غسان : يعني تتكل عالموسيقى و بس. لازم تشتغل مهنة مهمة و بأوقات فراغك بتدق موسيقى

Ghassan: I mean relying on music alone. You have to work an important profession and in your free time you can play music.

تتكل - "rely on". Heard a lot as تتكل ع الله "rely on God".

ليون : أوقات فراغي؟ تعرف قديش لازم تدرس سنين و سنين و تتمرن ايام و ليالي تتصير موسيقي مهم؟

Leon: My free time? You know how long you have to study, years and years, and practice days and nights to become an important musician?

تتصير - "in order to become". The ت at the beginning of this word may seem out of place. The Lebanese shorten حتى sometimes to just ت . They get rid of the rest of the word. So what he's saying is حتى تصير موسيقي مهم "in order to become an important musician". As far as I know this is Lebanese only. Even other Levantine countries don't do this.

غادي : هيدا اذا ضل عندك وقت فراغ لما تكون عم بتشتغل بشغلة مهمة هالقد. أنا مش من رأيك دكتور. أنا بشوف لو طالما الفنانين ببلدنا ما بيمتهنو الفن ما رح نتطور بشكل كبير. و كمان الراضية اذا بيشتغلو شو ما كان بنهار و بيجو عاشية تيلعبو ماتش فوتبول ما رح تزبط معنا. كلنا رح نضلنا هاويين و مش محترفين

Ghadi: That's if you have free time when you're working such an important profession. I'm not of your opinion, Doctor. I see that as long as the artists in our country don't take art as a profession, we won't develop in a big way. And also the athletes, if they work whatever job in the day and come in the evening to play a game of soccer, it's not going to work for us. All of us will stay hobbyists and not professionals.

هالقد - "this much". In this sentence is translates to "such" as in "such an important job" شغلة مهمة هالقد

طالما - "as long as". This is MSA as well.

شو ما كان - "whatever it is". I translated this a "whatever" in the sentence. If the athletes work "whatever job" or "some job" in the day time.

تيلعبو - "to play". This is the same thing as earlier. It's really حتى يلعبو but they shorten حتى to just ت

ما رح يزبط - "it's not going to work". The MSA spelling is ضبط . The ض changes to ز in Levantine dialects.

هلا : مزبوط. كل إللي عم بتقوله مزبوط غادي

Hala: Right. Everything you're saying is right, Ghadi.

غسان : عن جد؟ و ليش حضرتك استاذ بتشتغل شغلتين؟

Ghassan: Really? Then why, sir, do you work 2 jobs?

حضرتك - a polite way of saying "you". It's something like "sir". Ghassan is being sarcastic here though. A polite way of saying "me" is محسوبك

غادي : لانه بحب الشغلتين كتير و ما كان بدي اترك وحدة كرمال التاني. بس بالأساس شغلتي الاساسية صحافي و اعطيها تلت رباع حياتي

Ghadi: Because I love the 2 jobs a lot and I didn't want to leave one for the sake of the other. But really my main job is being a journalist and I give it 3/4 of my life.

كرمال - "for the sake of" A synonym you might hear is فدا

تلت رباع - three fourths

غسان : ع كل حال ما رح نضل لكل السهرة نتشارع بهيدا الموضوع لأنه ما رح اقتنع. خصوصاً اني شايف المثل الواضح قدّامي. شب و بنت بيحبو بعضهن, إمتهنو الفن, و بعدهن لهلأ ما معهن يمشو

Ghassan: Anyway, we're not going to keep arguing all night about this matter because I'm not going to be convinced. Especially because I see the clear example in front of me. A guy and girl who love each other, they took art as a profession, and even until now it hasn't worked for them.

ع كل حال - anyway

قدّام - "in front of"

Fazlaka Arabia: Syrian Comedy Show

2011-05-13T21:39:00.007-04:00

I finished watching all the episodes of بقعة ضو (Spotlight) that were available at Shahid MBC and so I've moved on to another Syrian comedy. It's called فزلكة عربية (Fazlaka Arabia). I don't know the best way to translate that. فزلكة is like "joking around". Anyway, this show is difficult to understand just like بقعة ضو is. The shows are made for Syrians and has a lot of local terminology. To me this is a good thing as the dialogue isn't simplified. It's very authentic speech.

I've taken one of the sketches from the show and given a transcript. This is one of the few sketches where I understood all of what was being said. In most of them I get the idea and the joke, but there are individual words that I'm not sure of so I don't feel comfortable writing out the dialogue.

هلق رح يشرّفنا يا مفتّش و بتمنى, بتمنى من كل قلبي أنو ما تسوّدو وشي - Now we're going to be honored with an inspection and I hope with all of my heart that you don't embarrass me.

(ما تسوّدو وشي literally means "don't blacken my face". وش is وجه in MSA.)

حاضر آنسة - Yes, miss.

(حاضر is used as "right away", "yes", "I'll do it", things like that. Mainly subordinates say it to the people over them when they are told to do something)

لنشوف... اهلا وسهلا - We'll see. Hello and welcome!

يعطيكي العافية. جلوس. كيف المستوى؟ ان شاء الله عم بيتحسّن بالنطق عندهن - God give you health. Sit. How is the level? Hopefully their pronunciation is improving.

تمام التمام و النطق عندهن سليم - It's great, their pronunciation is correct.

(تمام التمام is a way of saying that something is really good. It's the same idea as عال العال which also means "really good"; literally "highest of the high".)

طيب. رح اختبر انا بنفسي شوف. وقف حبيبي لشوف. انت اي انت. شو اسم الكلب الصغير؟ - Ok. I'm going to test it myself to see. Stand, my dear, let's see. You, yes, you. What do you call a young dog?

(صغير is "small" but can mean young too. I didn't put "small dog" because جرو is a puppy and a "small dog" could be any age of small dog, but you wouldn't use جرو for an old chihuahua since it isn't a puppy.)

درو - "Daru".

(The kid is pronouncing the word with a "d" instead of a "j")

جرو حبيبي بالجيم. جرو - "Jaru" with a jeem. "Jaru".

اي بالديم درو - Yeah, with a "deem". "Daru".

قلي جرجير حبيبي - Say "jarjeer" for me, my dear.

(Jarjeer is the vegetable "arugula"; "rocket" in Britain)

دردير - "dardeer"

بالجيم. جرجير - With a "jeem". "jarjeer"

دردير - "dardeer"

معنتها لازم تبذلي جهد اكبر معهم. يا آنسة هذا مو معقول - This means you have to exert more effort with them. Miss, this is unbelievable.

(The word بذل is pretty much always used with جهد or جهود "effort/s". بذل جهود "to exert effort".)

بصراحة يا أستاذ عم ببذل معهم أقصى طاقة ممكنة بس هالولد بالذات غبي و رح يدنني - Frankly, sir, I'm exerting the maximum effort possible but this boy specifically is stupid and he's going to drive me crazy!

(The word طاقة is power, energy, effort, things like that.)

The joke was that the teacher wasn't pronouncing the "j" correctly which is why the student was getting it wrong. What she meant to say was رح يجنني "he's going to drive me crazy".

Bad mouthing men in Arabic

2011-04-27T16:21:00.005-04:00

Today's post covers 2 phrases from Levantine Arabic and more specifically Syrian dialect although they are used in the neighboring countries as well. The clips are from an episode where a girl's friends tell her all the bad things they've learned about men so that she doesn't fall for her boyfriend's tricks. These are taken from بقعة ضو (spotlight) which is a Syrian comedy show.

1. وحدة ما باس تمها غير امها (wahdi ma bas timma gheyr imma) - Someone who has never been kissed except by her mom (i.e. a virgin).

وحدة means "someone" for a female. واحد is how you say "someone" when referring to a male.

باس is "to kiss" or "he kissed". The present tense is يبوس (yboos).

تم is the Levantine way to say "mouth". فم (fem) is the word for mouth in MSA.

About the clip:
The girl's friends are trying to teach her about men and how evil they are.

Transcript:
حبيبتي الشب بيتسلى بالبنت مثل السيجارة و بس يشبع منها بيروح لعند امه لتخطب لوحدة ما باس تمها غير امها (habeebti ashab byetsalla balbint mithl assigara wa bess yeshb'a minna beerooh l'and immu latakhtub lawahdi ma bas timma gheyr imma) - Honey, a guy enjoys himself with a girl just like (he does with) a cigarette. And once he gets his fill he goes to his mother to get engaged to someone who has never been kissed except by her mom.

يتسلى (yetsalla) - to have fun or play with

شبع - to become full, to satisfy one's appetite

2. يا مآمنة بالرجال مثل المي بالغربال (ya imaamni birijaal mithl almai balgirbal)- Don't trust men. (Literally this is "trusting men is like trusting water in a sieve". Here are pictures of sieves.)

مآمنة is belief or faith or trust. It's from the same root as مؤمن (mu'min) which is a believer. Most of the time a believer in God.

مثل - sometimes this is said متل (mitil) instead of مثل (mithil) in dialect. Also, the word زي sometimes replaces مثل when this phrase is said. زي and مثل mean the same thing; "like".

مي - this is the dialect word for water. The MSA word is ماء (ma').

غربال - sieve; I think of it as a sifter or a colander because those are things I'm familiar with that are pretty much the same as a غربال

About this clip:
This is from the same episode and the same topic. Bad mouthing men.

Arabic Proverb - Lion Fangs

2011-04-21T19:41:00.005-04:00

This proverb, parable, saying or whatever you want to call it is a very popular one. If you say this to an Arabic speaking friend they will be very impressed with you, even if it's the only thing you know how to say in Arabic!

If you see the fangs of a lion showing, don't think the lion is smiling.

اذا رايت نيوب الليث بارزةً فلا تظن ان الليث يبتسم

There are 2 words used here that have common synonyms. The word you probably know for lion is أسد (asad). ليث means lion as well. Also, the word used here for fangs is نيوب , but أنياب (anyaab) is used as well.

Lebanese Soap: Ajyal أجيال

2011-04-19T17:22:00.011-04:00

The word أجيال (ajyal) means "generations". The singular, "generation", is جيل (jeel). Ajyal is a soap opera shown on the Lebanese station MTV. Simply put it's about beautiful people having romantic and dramatic relationships. There's lots of yelling and crying which turns me off to this show. However it is very popular in Lebanon. To tell you the truth I just skip to the parts with Nadine Njeim (نادين نجيم) and Dalida Khalil (دليدا خليل). This lesson covers a conversation in Lebanese Arabic from the show.

You don't need a lot of context to understand what's going on here. The woman in the clip is a widow and has 3 kids. The man is trying to make his move. She pushes him away.

بعرف انه زيارتي مفاجأة بس – I know that my visit is a surprise, but…

تفضل تفضل بليز – Please, please, please

سوري عن جد ع عجقة الاوراق بس عندنا عشية حلقة ع الهوى و بعد عندي شي 200 سؤال بدي حضرهن - I'm really sorry about the clutter but this evening we have an episode live and I still have like 200 questions I need to prepare.

(عجقة ('aj'a) means congestion or "a lot of stuff everywhere". I've normally seen it used as عجقة سير meaning "congested traffic" or "a traffic jam".)

عن جد بعتذر انه جيت بلا تليفون حتى – I apologize for coming without even a telephone call.

(telephone rings)

هدول الولاد. الله يستر. الو؟ اي ماما؟ - It’s the kids. God protect. Hello? Yes, Mom.

(The phrase الله يستر is said when you want God to make sure everything is alright or help with something. The root ستر has to do with pulling curtains or a veil over stuff to hide or protect. ستارة means curtains.

In Arabic it is common for a mom, dad, aunt, uncle, etc to address kids by using their own name. Like we see here, the mom calls her child "mom". I don't think there's anything like that in English.)

احمد عم يضربها لنور – Ahmad is hitting Noor.

(This means the same thing as احمد عم يضرب نور . In Levantine it can be said like this as well, though.)

طيب حبيبي ما تخاف هلق رح شوف شو بدي اعمل. سوري بس لحظة. ابو ناجي؟ كيفك انا فرح. عمول معروف فيك تطللي ع البيت شوف بس ليش احمد و نور عم بيخبطو بعضن؟ الله يخليلياك ابو ناجي. إذا في شي خبرني. اوكي باي – Ok, baby. Don’t worry. Now I’ll see what I can do. Sorry. One moment. Abu Naji? How are you? This is Farah. Do me a favor. Can you look in on the house for me and see why Ahmad and Noor are fighting? God keep you for me, Abu Naji. Let me know if there’s anything. Ok bye.

(عمول معروف means "do me a favor". You can't really look at it and figure out what it means. You just have to memorize it. If you use MSA rules then a معروف is "a known". "Do me a known" makes no sense.)

انا من شان هيك جايي لعندك – This is why I came.

(لعندك literally means "to you")

لانه الولاد عم بيخبطو بعضن؟ - Because the kids are fighting?

لا. بصراحة من شان عدة اشياء. اولاً بدي اشكرك على الربورتاج عن جد كتير حلو لو ما بستاهل قد ما سببتلك مشاكل بيوم التصوير. و شغلة تانية كمان بدي اعتذر على إللي سببتلكياه بالبيت. كمان بدي قلك انه احمد بده متابعة. و الدكتور زوين -سامعة فيها مو هيك؟ - هي معالجة نفسية للاطفال يللي بتطلع ع التلفزيونات و هي بتطلع عندكن هون كمان – No. Frankly for a few reasons. First of all I want to thank you for the report. It was really very nice even though I don’t deserve it because of how many problems I caused you on the day of filming. And the second thing, I also want to apologize about what I caused for you at your house. I also want to tell you that Ahmad needs looking after. And Dr. Zwain - you’ve heard of her, right? – she is a psychologist for children who goes on TV and she’ll come to you here too.

(بستاهل means "I deserve")

بعرفها – I know her.

اي فهي بنت عمتي و... فإذا بتريدي... – Yes, she’s my cousin and… if you want…

مرسي كتير. عم عذبك كتير معي – Thanks a lot. I’m torturing you a lot.

("I'm torturing you" is basically like saying "I'm putting you out")

ولو ما في عذاب ابداً – No way. It's no torture at all.

بس بصراحة انا ما عم بفهم إهتمامك الزايد – But frankly, I’m not understanding why you care so much.

بصراحة انا انسان كتير صادق. ما بخطط للاشياء. بس حس انه بدي اعمل شي بعمله من دون لا سؤالات و لا جوابات – Frankly, I’m a very truthful person. I don’t plan things. When I feel that I want to do something, I do it without questions or answers.

مسيور تيو إذا انت انسان صادق, انا انسانة صادقة و صريحة كمان. اولاً بدي اشكرك على اهتمامك فيّ و بالولاد. و تانياً بتمنى عليك تضلك بعيد عننا لانه انا مرأة ارملة و وضعي مش كتير بيسمحلي ابني صداقات مع رجال و خاصةً زيارات مفاجأة هيك بالشغل و حتى عندنا بالبيت – Mr. Theo, if you’re a truthful person, I am a truthful and frank person as well. Firstly, I want to thank you for your caring about me and about the kids. And secondly I want you to stay away from us because I’m a widow and my situation doesn’t much allow me to build friendships with men and especially surprise visits like this at work and even at our house.

Very Egyptian Phrases

2011-04-05T06:44:00.006-04:00

Egyptian is a very distinctive dialect. There are several words that give it away. You've got فين (feen, where), كده (kida, like this), أوي (awi, very), and they pronounce all their ج (j) as English G's. It's hard to confuse Egyptian with another dialect once you've had some exposure to it. This post is basically a sampling of some very Egyptian phrases.

1. يا راجل انت جننت ولا ايه؟ (Ya Ragil enta gannent wala ee) - Man, have you gone crazy or what?

The word ولا means "or" in Egyptian and in other dialects. It's a combination of و (and) and لا (no), but just remember that it means "or". جنن means "to go crazy". The word مجنون (crazy) which is usually one of the first words any Arabic student learns comes from the same root.

2. بقلك ايه (ba'ulak ee) - I'll tell you what...

This is used the same way we use it in English. You can say it before you tell someone something.

3. هو ده الكلام (huwa da alkalaam) - That's what I'm talking about

Literally this means "that is the talk". When something goes the way you want it to or someone says something you agree with you can use this phrase.

4. مش كده (mish kida)- Isn't it like that? مش هيك, أليس كذلك

It takes a lot of exposure to different Arabic dialects before you can differentiate between accents, but before you can do that there are words that are very specific to certain dialects. The word كده is specific to Egyptian. If you hear it then you are definitely listening to Egyptian dialect. كده literally means "like this".

5. ايه إللي جابك هنا (ee illi gaabak hena) - What brings you here?

This can be said in a mean way or if you're just wondering why someone is there. It's all about tone.

6. بجد (bigad) - For real

This is the same as Levantine عن جد. It can be translated as "really", "for real", "seriously", etc.

7. بصو بقى يا جماعة (busu ba'a ya gamaa'a) - Look, everyone.

This would be said to get the attention of a group of people. بص means "look". بقى is a strange word that basically just gives emphasis. It also means "to become" in some sentences.

8. رايحة فين يا حببتي (rayha feen ya habibti) - Where are you going baby?

I put this one here because it's very Egyptian. فين is "where". It comes from في اين which is MSA. Also, the way they say حببتي (habibti) instead of حبيبتي (habibati).

9. وحشتني قوي (wahashtani awi) - I missed you very much.

This phrase took a while to wrap my mind around. You would think it would be وحشتك (wahashtak), right? After all, in English we say I missed you. But in Egyptian they do it the other way around. So if you wanted to say "Did you miss me?" you'd say وحشتك؟ , but "I missed you" is وحشتني. I think of it as "You made me miss you." The action is being done to the other person.

From your mouth to the gates of heaven

2011-03-06T17:18:00.007-05:00

Today's post is about the phrase من تمك لأبواب السماء (min temek labwaab assama) which means "from your mouth to the gates of heaven."

It's used pretty much the same way that الله يسمع منك (allah yesma' minek) "may God hear you" is used. You can reply with this phrase whenever someone says something that you want to happen. You're basically saying that you hope God/heaven will hear what the person just said and make it come true. The phrase is at least used in Syrian, Lebanese, Jordanian, and Palestinian, but I don't know if it's used elsewhere. I have 2 example clips to help with pronunciation and to give some context.

In this first one the man and the women are complaining about making too much money. The man says that he heard the government is going to lower wages and then the woman responds من تمك لأبواب السماء.

يا ستي طمني بالك. سمعتإلك من مصادر موثوقة أنو في قرار قريب لتخفيض الرواتب (ya sitti tumini baalik. ism'atilik min masaadir mawsoo'a anu fi qaraar 'areeb litakhfeed arawaatib) - Madam, don't worry. I heard from trustworthy sources that there will soon be a decision to lower wages.

من تمك لأبواب السماء (min temek labwaab assama) - From your mouth to the gates of heaven.

Ok, so the guy calls her يا ستي . This is his wife he's talking to. The word ست is more often used to refer to your grandmother or more formally to a woman. Think "my lady".

طمني بالك means "don't worry". Literally, "calm your mind".

مصادر موثوقة is "trusted sources". You'll notice that he pronounces the ث as an س which is very common.

This second example happens after these guys' team wins in a soccer semi-final. The guy on the left has just said that he hopes the team will have the same results at the next match. The guy on the right replies من تمك لأبواب السماء.

Fairouz Lyrics - هالسيارة مش عم تمشي

2011-02-28T21:12:00.009-05:00

I decided to look up the full version of this song because I had heard people singing parts of it several times on various TV shows. Fairouz's songs are a big part of Lebanese culture and the culture of the entire Arab world and this is a popular one that everyone seems to know. I like it because it has a catchy tune and it's actually about something concrete. It's about a car being broken down. You could translate the title as This Car isn't Going. This song is also good for learning Lebanese vocabulary. There are a lot things specific to Lebanese dialect in the lyrics. I've written out the lyrics to the song and put a vocab list at the end. Vocab words are in red.

اسمك شغلك ضيعتك
انا اسمي زيون
عندي بالمدينة محل بيع صحون
وستي من ضيعة كحلون
الله معك ع كحلون

Your name, your job, your village?
My name is Zayoon.
In the city I have a shop where I sell dishes.
And my grandmother is from the village of Kahloon.
God with you to Kahloon.

هالسيارة مش عم تمشي
بدنا حدا يدفشها دفشة
يحكو عن ورشة تصليح
وما عرفنا وين هي الورشة

This car isn't going
We need someone to give it a push
They talk about a repair shop
But we don't know where the repair shop is

مبارح شفناهن رايحين
على قمر العشاق طالعين
و نحنا بمطرحنا واقفين
والسيارة مش عم تمشي

Yesterday we saw them going by
They were going to lovers' moon
And we are stopped in our place
And this car isn't going

يغيب نهار يطل نهار
والناطر ناطر على نار
بيجي مختار بيروح مختار
والسيارة مش عم تمشي

A day goes by and another day dawns
And the waiter waits on a fire
A mayor comes and a mayor goes
And this car isn't going

و يا أهل ميس الريم ضلوا اتذكروني
كلما حبو اثنين تبقوا اتذكروني
لا تنسوا زيون لا تنسوا زيون
اللي ستها من كحلون
مطرح اللي بيبكي وبيحفر الحسون
اسمه على خيال الحور
بكحلون

Oh people of Mais al Reem, remember me.
Whenever two people fall in love, remember me
Don't forget Zayoon. Don't forget Zayoon.
Who's grandmother is from Kahloon.
Where the goldfinch cries and digs
his name on the poplar's shadow
In Kahloon

Vocabulary List:

1. سِت (sit) - lady. This word can be used to refer to a woman who is married or to a grandmother. In this song it means grandmother. This is not to be confused with the word 6 which is either ست or ستة . There's an Egyptian show called راجل و ست ستات (A man and 6 women) who's name plays on the similarity between these 2 words.

2. دفش (dafash) - to push. This comes from the MSA word دفع (dafa'a) which means the same thing. In Lebanese they will take the last letter of a word and change it to a ش (sh) sometimes. Another example is the word قبش (qabash) which means "to bury". It comes from قبر (qabara) which means the same thing. I'm sure there are more words that do this is well. If you see a word you don't know and it ends in a ش (sh), just try to think of words you do know that just have a different last letter. You might be able to figure out the word.

Also, in the song the lyric goes بدنا حدا يدفشها دفشة (we need someone to give it a push). That literally means "we need someone to push it a push".

3. قمر العشاق ('amar al'asha') - the moon of lovers. If someone is "going to lovers' moon" it's just a way of saying they are in love.

4. مطرح (matrah) - place/location. Same thing as مكان (makan).

5. الناطر ناطر على نار (alnaatr naatr 'ala nar) - literally "the waiter is waiting on a fire". نطر (natar) means "to wait". الناطر (alnaatr) just means "someone who waits". It isn't the guy at the restaurant who serves you that we call the waiter in English. This sentence just means they are "waiting anxiously". Imagine if you were waiting for something and having to stand in a fire while you waited. That's the feeling this conveys.

6. مختار (mukhtar) - village leader. No real translation for it in English. Chief or mayor would be the closest.

7. ضل (dal) - stay/remain.

8. الحسون (alhassoon) - goldfinch (popular bird in Lebanon)

9. خيال (khyaal) - shadow

10. الحور (alhoor) - poplar tree (popular tree in Lebanon, but not as popular as the الارزة , the cedar)

Don't Talk About Me - ما تجيب سيرتي

2011-02-21T21:12:00.008-05:00

This is a common phrase in the Levant region and it took me a while to work out. It took hearing it in lots of different contexts and eventually the meaning was clear. Literally ما تجيب سيرتي (ma tjeeb seerti) means "don't bring my story", but it is used to mean "don't talk about me". In MSA a سيرة ذاتية (seera thateea) is an autobiography, literally a "self story".

Sometimes it will be used with ع لسانك at the end. ما تجيب سيرتي ع لسانك - "don't bring my story on your tongue". It doesn't always have to be a person who's "story you're bringing" either. For example, if a guy and a girl are out on a date and the girl starts talking about marriage he might say, مين جاب سيرة الزواج بالموضوع؟؟, meaning something like "who's talking about marriage??" or "who brought up marriage??".

Here are 2 example clips to further illustrate the usage of سيرة

This first clip is from بقعة ضو , a Syrian comedy show. To give you some context, the guy in the clip is always waiting for this girl outside her house with a bouquet of flowers. She gets angry because she has a fiance.

يا ليلة - Layla.
أوعك ها! أوعك! ما بسمحلك أصلاً تجيب سيرة إسمي ع لسانك - Stop! Stop. I don't allow you to say my name!

The word أوعى is like a warning. It's like saying "I warn you" or like saying "stop". The ك at the end is the "you" pronoun. The ها at the end of the first أوعك is just for emphasis. It isn't the female pronoun.

The root سمح means "to allow" or "to let someone do something". Not to be confused with سامح which is "to forgive", as in الله يسامحك , "may God forgive you".

أصلاً is a hard one to translate. The word اصل means origin and اصلاً means originally... sometimes. But here it doesn't mean that. You have to hear this word used a lot to know when it would fit in a sentence. Here you could translate it as "anyway" or "at all". I just left it out though. It's just an emphasizer.

تجيب سيرة إسمي ع لسانك - "to bring the story of my name on your tongue", but really it just means "to say my name". If it doesn't sound right in English, don't put it in the translation. That's how I do it anyway. You can't translate literally or it's going to sound dumb.

This next clip is from a Turkish show dubbed into Syrian Arabic called احلام بريئة Innocent Dreams. This girl's grandmother is yelling at her because she doesn't like the boy she's been hanging around.

من هون و رايح ما بدي شوفك معه و لا بدي اسمع إسمه ع لسانك و لا بدياكي تجيبي سيرته - From now on I don't want to see you with him, I don't want to hear you say his name, and I don't want you to talk about him.

من هون و رايح - "from now on". I made a video about this phrase here.

لا بدياكي - I don't want you. If you say بدي "I want", and what you want is a pronoun, you don't just put the pronoun on the end of بدي. You have to put يا in between. For example. "You want it/him" would be بدكياه . "I want it/her" is بدياها. It's really بدي ياها. There are really 2 ya's there but you can just write it as one.

Have a little shame! - إستحي على دمك

2011-01-27T20:14:00.008-05:00

I've got 2 phrases for you today that are pretty cool. They are إستحي على دمك and إحترم نفسك . The first is used in Levantine countries and I'm not sure where else, and the second is used everywhere as it is MSA. I've got some clips that illustrate the usage of these phrases as well as a video I made for You Tube.

إستحي على دمك (istahi 'ala demek) - Have some shame!

To set up the context for this clip, this girl has been walking around everywhere getting hit on by every guy and finally she gets into a taxi where she thinks she's safe and the taxi driver starts ogling her. The clip is from the Syrian comedy show بقعة ضو (spotlight).

و بعدين معك انت؟ خلاص بقى! إستحي على دمك! حاج البصبصة - And with you too! Cut it out now! Have some shame! Stop ogling!

- بعدين - This word usually means "later" or "afterward", like بسوّيها بعدين "I'll do it later". Here it's used for some emphasis. The sentence would mean the same thing without it.

- خلاص - You say this when you want something to be finished. Like if your mom and dad are arguing and you get fed up with it you can yell خلاص (khalaas) for them to stop.

- بقى - This word is used a lot for emphasis. In MSA it means "to stay" or "to remain" بقينا في الفندق ل3 ايام means "We stayed at the hotel for 3 days." In dialect they use ظل or ضل (same word) to mean "to stay". I guess you can compare بقى to the word "now" in English. For instance. We say "come on now" or "cut it out now" but not really mean for it to be done literally "right now". We say it for emphasis. The word بقى is the same way.

- إستحي - Someone who is shy is مستحي . This word can mean "have shame" or "be shy". Shyness is more accurately خجل though. I knew an old Iraqi guy who would jokingly tell girls to إخجلي when they were being a bit too racy for him :D. It's not appropriate for girls to joke about sex and stuff in Arab cultures.

- حاج البصبصة - The word حاج here means "stop". You'll also see حاجة . It's not like the Egyptian word حاجة which means "something". And بصبصة is ogling.

إحترم نفسك (ihtarim nefsek) - respect yourself

In this next clip we have Saddam Hussein being tried. He goes off on a tirade calling the trial a farce and the judge says إحترم نفسك. And without missing a beat Saddam comes up with the quick witted response إحترم نفسك انت "YOU respect yourself!". I don't know how he came up with that one on the fly like that. And the judge responds in Iraqi dialect, آني محترم نفسي . "I do respect myself."

"Respect yourself" is used when you want to say that someone is making a fool of themself.

Here's another example clip for احترم نفسك . This is from the show الاتجاه المعاكس which is a debate show that always ends in arguing and yelling. The guy on the left is saying how bad of a dictator Saddam Hussein was and the guy on the left is supporting Saddam Hussein. The guy on the left just got done saying a bunch of bad stuff about Saddam and the guy on the right isn't too happy about it.

امراً عليك ان تحترم نفسك و تُأدّب ألفاظك جيداً و إلا أسوّي بيك شيء ما تتصور ابداً - I order you to respect yourself and clean up your mouth or else I'm going to do something to you that you can't imagine

This is all MSA except for when he says اسوّي . That's Iraqi.

- تُأدّب ألفاظك - I translate this to "clean up your mouth". ادب is manners (also literature), for example, when someone says that you are قليل الادب it means you are "bad mannered", literally "few manners". لفظ is pronunciation but here he means كلام. So تُأدّب ألفاظك means to "nicen up your talk" or "clean up your mouth" which sounds more natural.

- سوّي - means "to do". This is used in Iraqi and sometimes in Syrian.

- شيء ما تتصور - something that you can't imagine

- ابدا - this means "never", but here you just attribute it to emphasis. I wouldn't translate it as "something you can never imagine!" Personal preference really.

Arabic Gestures and their Meanings

2011-01-20T20:14:00.002-05:00

I started making a list of a few different things in Arabic that weren't exactly words or phrases, but that nonetheless carried meanings. In the US we have the thumbs up, the middle finger, the ok sign, and I'm sure a lot more that I can't think of. These have spread and are recognized around the world. Arabs also use non-verbal communication like these which will probably be confusing if you haven't had exposure to them before. In the video I talk about a click that Arabs do which means "no". The first time someone did it to me I thought they were getting an attitude with me because in the US we have a similar click/teeth suck/whatever you want to call it that is fairly rude. It's usually accompanied by someone rolling their eyes. After I had been exposed to this click lots of times, sometimes by really nice people, I began to realize that it wasn't meant to be rude and that it just meant "no". There are sure to be a lot of other gestures specific to Arab countries that I left out, but these are 3 that I have noticed being used a lot that are foreign to westerners.

Jordanian Dialect Lesson

2011-01-15T19:06:00.004-05:00

I mentioned the You Tube comedy channel بث بياخة (bathbayakha) a while back and in this lesson we'll be disecting one of their songs. It's in Jordanian dialect, but this dialect is very similar to the other Levantine dialects (Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian) so if you're learning one of those, then this lesson will help you. One simple way to distinguish Jordanian dialect from the other dialects in the Levantine family is from the way they pronounce the letter qaf ق . They pronounce it as "g" as in "goal" just like the Gulf and Iraqi dialects. You'll notice that a lot in this song. I wrote the translated lyrics in blue so you can pick them out more easily from among the explanations.

اسمعيني - Listen to me

فتحي دينيكي- Open your ears

He says اسمعيني because he is talking to a girl. He would say اسمعني if he were addressing a guy. And دينيكي is literally "your two ears". They don't use the plural of ears when referring to a person's ears. They use the dual. In MSA "your (2) ears" is أُذُنَيكِ. In many dialects they change ذ to د or ز. You can see that they changed the ذ to a د in this case.

انا و انتي صارلنا سنين متجوزين و بنينا عيلة من يوم عرسي و انا متاكد ان حياتنا شنق ليلة - You and I have been married for years and we've built a family. From my wedding day I was sure that our life would be great.

صار means here "it has been". Another example would be قديش صارلك بلبنان -"how long has it been for you in Lebanon". صارلنا is literally صار لنا -"it has been for us". It isn't all one word, but most of the time it is typed that way. I know I used to get very confused by stuff like that, thinking that the little add-ons were part of the root of the word. "I can't find the 4 letter root صرلن anywhere!!!"

عيلة is عائلة which means family in MSA.

شنق ليلة is a phrase I had to ask about. It's specifically Jordanian. It literally means "choking the night", but figuratively it means "awesome" or "really great".

كل شي كان عسل حتى لو انك ماكلي بصل - Everything was honey even if you ate onion.

This is a figurative phrase. Not literal, obviously. It's just a way to say how nice his life was. That is... before... she did something terrible!

بدي منك تسمعيني اكمل كلمة ككلمة - I want you to listen to me say what I have to say.

Literally اكمل كلمة is literally "complete a word" but "let me say what I have to say" gets the idea across better.

بتذكر بعد العرس لما رن جرس البيت فتحتي الباب حكيتي كلمة لواحد ازعر قد الحيط - I remember after the wedding when the doorbell rang and you opened the door and spoke to some lowlife.

The word is تذكر. So, I remember would be بتذكر and you remember would be بتتذكر. Don't think that the ت in the word in the sentence indicates "you". It's just part of the word. The word رن is just like our word "ring". It's an onomatopoeia which is when a word sounds like its meaning.

ازعر is a negative word to refer to a guy. I chose to go with "lowlife". قد الحيط is something that confused me and I asked several places about it. Everyone told me that it means someone who is really big which is what you would get when you thought about the definition. It literally means "as big as the wall". However, that doesn't make sense here as the guy she sees at the door isn't huge. Maybe he's just exaggerating like in the rest of the song. But I have it from many sources that قد الحيط refers to someone who is very large.

عامل حالي مش عارف بس انا فاهم كل الطبخه - I pretended like I didn't know, but I understand everything that's happening.

عامل حالي is how you say "I pretended to be". I pretended not to see would be عامل حالي مش شايف . "I make my condition not the seer."

انا فاهم كل الطبخة - I understand everything that's going on. "She's cooking something up." الطبخة is used in kind of the same way we'd use it in English. طبخة is literally a plate of food or something being cooked.

صاير وضعك مش طبيعي شو؟ شايفتيني لطخة؟ - You've changed. What? Do you think I'm stupid?

صاير وضعك مش طبيعي - "Your condition has become unnatural" is a literal translation, but "you've changed" sounds better.

شايفتيني - You see me

لطخة - stupid

بتخونيني - You betray me.

Also could be translated as "you cheat on me".

كومستير - I found you out.

I had to ask about this one too. This is a word that is shouted in Arabic hide and seek, which is called غُمَيضة, when you find someone. It makes sense to call the game that because the root غمض means "to close your eyes". كومستير is not an Arabic word and it must have been taken from somewhere else. We don't yell that in the US when playing hide and seek as far as I know. The word sounds Italian to me. Anyone know?

شفتك لما دخلتي عند ابو سامح تبع الخضرا - I saw you when you went into Abu Samih's vegetable shop

ابو سامح تبع الخضرا - Literally, this is "Abu Samih of the vegtables" تبع is a strange word. My book - الكتاب تبعي

وزنلك كيلو بطاطا و انا عارف كان نفسك خضرا - He weighed a kilo of potatoes for you and I knew you wanted vegetables.

نفسك means "you want". This is used a lot in Egyptian, but I haven't heard it in other Levantine dialects. I was surprised to hear it in Jordanian.

و مرة عالاشارة لما اجاكي ذاك الشب بده يبيعك حبة علكة تعطر تمك تروي القلب - And one time at the stop light when that guy came up to you. He wanted to sell you a piece of gum to freshen your breath and quench your thirst.

تعطر تمك - means literally "to give your mouth a good smell". The noun عطر means "perfume" and it's believe that's where we got the word "odor" which has come to mean "a bad smell" even though in Arabic it means a good one. If you didn't know that عطر meant "perfume" you could have just typed it into Google and looked at the images.

The root روى is MSA and means "to quench thirst". I don't think I've ever heard that gum "quenches thirst" in English, but you get the idea. "To satisfy you" might be better.

الاشارة - stoplight

ذاك الشب - that guy

قلتيله شكراً حبيبي. حبيبي؟؟؟ - You said to him "Thank you, habibi." Habibi???

Habibi literally means "my love", but it can be used in a very platonic way which is how the girl was using it. Something similar in English would be "thanks, hunny". It can be meant for your boyfriend or anyone at all. The singer of the song just gets jealous very easily :).

مالك؟ مش عارف. بظن في اشي محلق بزوري - What's wrong with you? I don't know. I think there's something stuck in my throat.

You'll notice that he says إشي instead of شي . You can distinguish that someone is Palestinian or Jordanian if they use إشي . I was standing in line at the airport and heard a girl taking on her phone in Arabic and she used this word. I asked her, انت فلسطينية مو هيك؟ (you're Palestinian, right?) and she was so surprised that I knew that :P.

محلّق بزوري - stuck in my throat

جاجة ورا ثلاجة و جاجة راكبة دراجة و جاجة ورا جاجة وين؟ فوق الثلاجة و جاجة - A chicken behind the fridge and a chicken riding a bike and a chicken behind a chicken. Where? On top of the fridge. And a chicken.

There is no deeper meaning to that chicken stuff. :) The guy singing is just supposed to be random and funny. I thought it meant something or was a joke only Jordanians would understand but after asking around, nope.

و انت كمان يا صاحبي واقف معي شو ما يصير بتخاف علي اكيد و ع مرتي اكتر بكتير. اكيد! - And you, my friend always stand with me no matter what happens. You worry about me, for sure, and about my wife so much more. For sure!

بتخاف علي - means more like "you look out for me"

كان لازم و انا مسافر و انا بعيد قلبي اتطمن من بعد العيشة معك بكون حمار لو ما بتعلم - I had to make sure when I'm traveling and far away that my heart is at ease. After living with you I'd be a donkey if I didn't learn.

The و here doesn't mean "and". It means "when". You'll hear people say انا و صيغر . It doesn't me "me and little". It means "when I was little".

There's a saying that says التكرار يعلّم الحمار (repetition teaches the donkey). So if he didn't learn from all the times she's "cheated" on him, he'd be a donkey.

إتطمن means "at ease". Often someone will say طمّني عليك. It means, let me know how it's going. Literally "put me at ease about you". In MSA الإطمئنان is tranquility, peace of mind, calmness.

اضطريت اوصي صاحبي بغيابي يضل معكي و بالليل جنبيكي نام يحط ايده حواليكي - I'm forced to instruct my friend in my absence to stay with you and at night to sleep next to you and put his arm around you.

اوصي means to entrust, charge with, etc.

ضل or in MSA ظل means "to stay".

ولو - Naturally!

ولو can be translated different ways. Here, "naturally" is a good translation. You might also put "of course". It's often used in the following situation. If you ask someone for help (some money or something) and they feel offended that you thought they might not help you they could say طبعاً بساعدك ولو "of course I'll help you". I've heard this word used many many times and still have trouble pinning down a good definition and exactly where to use it. There really isn't a perfect equivalent in English.

حواليكي؟ حواليها؟ - Around you? Around her?

بتخونيني - You betray me.

فيثاغورس - Pythagoras

Because it's a love triangle and Pythagoras is the triangle guy in math.

Syrian Dialect from the TV show بقعة ضو (Spotlight)

2010-12-29T21:57:00.012-05:00

Warning! This is a LONG post. I'm going to try to give you an idea of how I learn new Arabic words. These words and phrases are all from a single episode of a comedy show called بقعة ضو (Spotlight). I'm not going to play the whole episode, I'm just going to show clips to give you enough context to understand what's going on. As far as I'm concerned, this is the best way to learn (next to watching the whole episode of course). I think the hardest part for most people who haven't had exposure to Syrian dialect (or any dialect) will be actually hearing the words they're saying. I know that was (and sometimes still is) a major problem for me. To get over that it just takes a LOT of listening to a lot of different things. Even if you don't know what it all means you'll eventually be able to hear the words that are being said and at that point you can do a Google search since you'll know how to spell the word. Even if there isn't a site that says "the definition of this word is X", and sites like that are rare for the dialects, you will have a lot of uses of the word from the sites Google returns and you'll be able to figure out the meaning, in most cases, from all the new context you have. You should be able to tell that context is my favorite word. Let's dive in!First, I need to give you the plot of the show so it's not all just random clips. This woman (Reem) accidentally leaves her phone in the taxi she took to work. She calls her cellphone from work and the taxi driver (Abu Janti) picks it up. She asks him to come by her work and return the phone to her but he keeps picking up passengers and dropping them off instead. He eventually has people calling her cellphone about work matters and he takes care of the issues. He goes and picks up her French passport that was ready, he pays her phone bill, etc. At the end of the show he returns the phone and she offers him a job working for her since he did such a good job for her. He turns down the job though because he loves being a taxi driver.

That's enough for these clips to make some sense and really make the vocab stick in your head.

1. اي رد على الموبيل والله صرعنا. ولا عجبتك رنته؟ (Ay rid 'ala almoobile wallah sara'na. wala 'ajibtak rintu?) - Hey, answer the cellphone. It's driving me crazy. Or do you like its ring?

In this clip, Abu Janti (the driver) thinks that the cellphone belongs to this new passenger. However it belongs to Reem who he just dropped off at work. He says والله صرعنا which is like "by God it's driving us crazy." You can refer to just yourself as "us" in Arabic sometimes. Also, الصرع in MSA means "epilepsy", so you can remember this phrase as "you're giving me epilepsy."

The phone rings for a while before I started the clip so Abu Janti adds literally "or do you like its ring?". I would translate that to "or do you just like the sound of its ring?" to make it clearer. ولا is a common way to say "or" in many dialects. Egyptian included. It doesn't mean "and no".

2. الو؟ (aloo?) - Hello?
الو! لك مين انت؟ (aloo! lek meen intay) - Hello! Hey, who is this?
انا ابو جانتي ملك اللانسر. (ana abu janti melik alansar) - I'm Abu Janti, king of the Lancer.
لك هادا موبيلي إللي معك. (lek hada moobayli illi ma'ak) - Hey, that's my phone that's with you.
ايه عرفت عرفت. حاكيني بعد 5 دقايق. انا ماني فاضي. (ay 'arifit 'arifit. haakini ba'd khams d'aaya ana maani faadi) - Yeah, I know, I know. Talk to me in 5 minutes. I'm not free (now).
يِ! يِ! يخرب بيته! هادا شوفير تاكسي سكر بوشي (yi! yi! yikrib baytoo! hada shofer taksi sakkar ibwishi) - Yi! Yi! Destroy his house! That taxi driver hung up in my face!

Now for an explanation of some things that might not be clear. لك is basically like "hey". It can be perceived as rude. A Lancer is the model of car that Abu Janti drives. That's why he calls himself "king of the Lancer". You'll notice she says هادا instead of هذا . They change ذ to د sometimes in lots of dialects.

Also, he says انا ماني فاضي. The word ماني might be new to you, but it means the same thing as مش and مو. He could have said انا مو فاضي and it would mean the same thing. "I'm not free (to talk).

The word "yi" is an expression of surprise or astonishment. It's said mostly by women. يخرب بيته literally means "destroy his house", but it's not a terribly mean phrase and not to be taken literally. It's used when someone upsets you.

The word سكّر means to close. The full expression would be سكر الخط بوشي . "He closed the line in my face", literally, but we would translate it to "He hung up in my face". وش is how they say the MSA word وجه which means "face".

3. يِ! نسيت أساله مين دقإلي (yi! nasayt asalu meen da' illi) - Yi! I forgot to ask him who called me!
رجعي دقيله. لك ليكون غزوان دقإلك اذا بيرد و بيطلعله صوت شاب بيطبل الدنيا (rja'i di' illu. lik laykoon ghazwan da' illik izi byitla'lu soot shab byitbal addini) - Call him back! Hey, it could be Ghazwan who called you. If he answers and he gets a guy's voice he's going to be very angry.

The prominent word in this clip is دق. It means "to beat" (as in a heart beat), "to knock" as in knock on the door, but in the context of phones it means "to call". ليكون here means "it might have been" or "maybe it was".

Ghazwan is the name of Reem's fiance. Before this clip Abu Janti said that someone called Reem's phone but Reem forgot to ask who called. Reem's friend says that she should call Abu Janti back because if Ghazwan calls again and gets Abu Janti he's going to get the wrong idea.

يطلع has many different meanings. Here and a lot of the time it means "turns out to be" or "happens to be". A new phrase I learned here is يطبل الدنيا (they pronounce دنيا as dini instead of dunya). يطبل الدنيا means the same thing as كسر الدنيا (literally "to break the world"), but in actual use it means "to get really angry".

4. دخيل عينك. دخيل عينك ابو جانتي دير بالك عليه. هادا الباسبور مو اي كلام يعني. (dakheel 'aynak. dakheel 'aynak abu janti deer baalak 'aleyh. hada albasboor moo ay kalaam ya'ni) - I beg you. I beg you, Abu Janti, look after it. That is a passport, not just any old thing.
ولا تهكلي هم. حطيته بالتابلو مع اوراق السيارة (wala tihkali hem. hatteytu biltablu m'a oora' assayaara) - Don't worry. I put it in the glove compartment with the car's papers.

دخيل عينك means "I beg you". It's like please, but stronger. دير بالك means "to look out for". بال is "mind" and دير means "to wrap around". A new phrase for me is when she says that this passport is not اي كلام "any talk". From context you can tell the meaning is "not just any old thing", that it's very important.

Abu Janti responds and tells her to لا تهكلي هم . This means "don't worry". هم is a worry. There are other variations on this phrase as well. I had never heard this one specifically. I had heard however, لا تاكل هم and لا تعتل هم which mean the same thing. Respectively they literally mean "don't eat a worry" and "don't carry a worry". Those are probably mostly Lebanese though.

حطيت means "I put". And yet another new word for me that you can get from context is تابلو. It means glove compartment. Put تابلو السيارة into Google and look at the images it gives you. I tried تابلو and التابلو and it didn't give me what I wanted. That's how I make sure of a lot of words. Doing Google images searches.

5. ابو جانتي. من شان الله. الله يرضى عليك. الله يخليلك ولادك. من شان الله تاع محتاج الموبيل ضروري ضروري من شان الله (abu janti. min shan allah. allah yerda 'aleyk. allah ykhalleelak oolaadak. min shan allah taa' mahtaaj almoobile daroori daroori min shan allah) - Abu Janti. For God's sake. May God satisfy you. May God keep your children for you. For God's sake come. I need the cellphone. It's imperative. For God's sake.

Reem is really getting annoyed and she starts to beg Abu Janti to bring the phone. The things she says are very typical of what is said when someone is pleading with someone else to do something.

تاع is the Syrian way of saying تعال, "come".

محتاج means "I need".

And something that is ضروري is something necessary or something that must be done.

6. لك مع مين عم تحكي لك مع مين؟ (lek ma' meen 'am tahki lek ma' meen?) - Who are you talking to, Abu Janti? Who are you talking to?
لك الله يخليلك جانتي ان شاء الله لك بس قلي رح تجلطني يا اخي. شي بدقإلك بلاقيه مشغول شي بدقإلك ما بترد علي شو القصة؟ (lek allah ykhleelak janti in sha allah lek bes illi. rah tijlitni ya akhi. shi bda' illak blaa'eeh mashghool. shi bda' illak ma bitrud 'alayy. shu al'issa?) - May God keep Janti, inshallah, but tell me, you're going to give me a stroke, brother. Sometimes I call you and I find it busy. Sometimes I call you and you don't answer me. What's the story?

I really wish I could talk as fast as she talks at the end of the clip... even in English. The لك is just used for emphasis here and I wouldn't translate it as "hey". You could maybe translate it as "look here" but I like just leaving it out.

Janti is Abu Janti's son obviously, but coming from a western background that might not register to us right away. I know I had that problem. The word رح indicates future tense and تجلطني is a cool word. جلطة دماغية is a stroke so رح تجلطني means "you're going to give me a stroke) :D.

The word بلاقي means "I find". بلاقيه is "I find it". When she says شي you can take it to mean "sometimes" here. شو القصة is like "what's going on". I know I had a hard time recognizing it when I first started with Levantine dialect because they drop the ق so it's "shu al issa". I knew the word قصة but because they didn't say it like I had learned it in MSA class I didn't recognize it as a word I knew.

You'll find that, if you've studied MSA, a lot of words that you hear and think you don't know you actually do know, they're just said in a weird way to your ears so you don't recognize them. This problem is solved with lots of exposure to the dialects.

7. انا اذا ما كل يوم اطلعت ورا دركسيون اللانسر و حطيت الشريط إلي على ذوقي و فتلت الشام كلياتها حارة حارة و شارع شارع ما بيهنالي عيش (ana iza ma kil youm atla't wara direkesion al lancer wa hateyt ashareet illi 'ala zoo'ee wa fatelt ashaam kilayaata haara haara wa shaar'a shaar'a ma byihnaali 'aeesh) - If I didn't get behind the steering wheel of the Lancer every day and put on a tape I'm in the mood for and weave around the entirety of Damascus neighborhood by neighborhood and street by street, I couldn't live happily.

This clip is right after Reem offers Abu Janti a job for his good work that day. He turns it down even though the pay she is offering is more. دركسيون is the French word for steering wheel. ذوق is "taste", but in English you wouldn't say "I put on the tape that's on my taste", so "the tape I'm in the mood for" is a better translation.

فتل is not a word I'm familiar with, but you can get it from context that it means to go around Damascus. I looked it up in the Hans Wehr dictionary and it said to twist or weave around. الشام is Damascus by the way. They also say دمشق . I translated كلياتها as "the entirety of it", but more simply it just means "all". Just like the word كل .

Now I'm not 100% sure of the last phrase. ما بيهنالي عيش isn't something that I've heard before. But I get the idea. I'm pretty sure it's, "I wouldn't be able to live" or "I couldn't live happily". Something like that. If anyone wants to chime in (if anyone stuck with the lesson this far :P) and shed some light on that phrase I would be thankful.

China limits use of English in written material

2010-12-23T16:23:00.003-05:00

I know this is nothing to do with Arabic, but it's very interesting. This article from Taipei Times announces that China has made it so that English words and abbreviations are no longer allowed to be used in newspapers, websites, and books. They are claiming that allowing English to be used is contaminating the purity of their language. I'm kind of torn on this issue. When I first read the article I though, "How dare they ban English!", like it was an attack on my country or something, but I can see where they're coming from. I'm sure a lot of countries around the world, not just China, feel like they're being culturally attacked by English.A lot of countries don't care and even embrace English as a road to prosperity, but it seems China's leaders don't want their country to lose its identity. I'm not sure how I feel on this. After all, shouldn't China's people be able to choose for themselves what they read? I know I wouldn't be for it if the US suddenly banned foreign language use in print, so I guess it's hypocritical of me to say it's ok for it to be done in China. What do you think about this subject?

Lebanese Arabic - enter فات

2010-12-23T02:34:00.003-05:00

This is an essential word in Levantine dialect. The word فات (fat) means "he entered" and the present tense is يفوت (yfut). The word فات is also used in MSA, but it has a different meaning. It means "to pass away". The examples below will help clear up the way the word is used. There's another phrase I hear a lot that I didn't mention in the video. On TV when the channel wants you to tune in to a future program they'll say لا يفوِّتك (la yfawwitak) which means "don't miss it" or literally, "don't let it pass you by". You will hear this word used all the time.
To enter:
1. الي حابب يضحك يفوت (illi haabib yidhak yfut) - Whoever likes to laugh, enter. (talking about an internet forum topic)
2. لما كسرت الباب فات علينا البرد (limma kasart al bab fat 'alayna al bard) - When you broke down the door, the cold entered (on us).

To pass by:
3. فات الاوان (fat al awaan) - the time has passed
4. الي فات مات (illi fat mat) - let bygones be bygones (literally, "what's passed is dead")

Ya Reit يا ريت - if only

2010-12-18T22:59:00.006-05:00

This phrase looks strange because it contains يا which is usually put in front of someone's name when talking to them. This يا however is just part of the phrase. يا ريت has several different translations. It all just depends on the context. It can mean "if only", "hopefully", "I wish", and other meanings that have to do with wishful thinking. In MSA it is pronounced and written as يا ليت (ya leit) and means the same things.

Example Sentences:

1. يا ريت تعجبكن الصور (ya rayt t'ajibkun assuwar) - Hopefully you guys like the pictures
2. يا ريت كنا نضل صغار (ya rayt kinna ndall izghaar)- If only we had stayed young

Video Games in Arabic

2010-12-18T09:46:00.004-05:00

Most of the stuff I post is usually related to Levantine dialect or MSA, but last night I was looking for a podcast to listen to in some Arabic dialect while I went to sleep. I don't like listening to things in MSA. I know comparing MSA to Latin is cliche, but that's how I feel. I want something that has emotion, slang, etc. Something that people use in their every day lives. So eventually I found this podcast on video games called Saudi Gamer. I haven't had much exposure to Saudi dialect and I'm not into Islam so that kind of limits the reasons I'd have to learn it, but knowing that there's this subculture of video games encourages me. After all, if you're going to learn a language there needs to be something that interests you about the culture of the people who speak that language in order to keep you motivated. When I was first learning MSA I gravitated toward the science news in order to keep me interested. There's a show called Al-Jazeera puts on called عن كثب that I watched a lot. If you're interested in Islam then Arabic is a lot easier for you to learn, but if you're interests, like mine, include technology, science, futurism, then you're hard pressed to find resources that will keep your attention.I say all that to say that this Saudi Gamer podcast is a good resource for people like me who have trouble finding interesting topics to learn the Arabic language from. It's basically like having IGN or GiantBomb (both English video game websites) in Arabic. They review new games, talk about new platforms, etc, but it's all in Saudi Arabian dialect, something I never thought I'd see. There are 90 podcasts that are on average between 1 hour and 2 hours long and they are always adding new ones. I gather that this podcast is very popular because to my knowledge there's nothing else that covers this topic in the Arab world and they've done over 100 hours of the show so there has to be a decent fan base.

As someone with little exposure to Gulf dialects I don't understand everything that's said, but it's only a matter of time. 90 episodes is a lot of listening material to bridge the gap between the Levantine dialect that I know and the way Saudis speak.

Jordanian YouTube Comedy Channel بث بياخة

2010-12-12T17:15:00.005-05:00

I haven't found a lot of resources online that are specifically Jordanian dialect, but the YouTube channel bathbayakha (بث بياخة) is. The name means something like "silly broadcast". It's a comedy channel run by a small team of Jordanian guys that do short skits. They have 5 up right now, but they continue to make more. I wouldn't be surprised if they are YouTube partners once they have a few more videos up because the quality of the videos is really good and they're pretty funny too. I really like the one they just put up called بتخونيني (you betray me) where a guy raps about his girlfriend cheating on him with other men when she's really just doing platonic things like buying stuff at the grocery store. And then at the end of the song it's his friend that she's really cheating with.There's another video that's in Bedouin dialect making fun of Bedouin TV shows, one about a fight over who's going to pay the bill at the restaurant, and a guide on how to avoid speeding tickets in Jordan. Jordanian is close to other Levantine dialects so it won't be like trying to understand Moroccan or anything.

I hope the Arab world continues to make YouTube channels. You obviously see tons in English, but YouTube channels in Arabic are few. If anyone knows of anymore please post them in the comments.

Niyalak نيالك - Good for You

2010-12-11T20:53:00.004-05:00

The word نيالك (niyalak) is used in Lebanese and Syrian (as well as other dialects I'm sure) to mean "good for you", "oh how lucky you are", "good job", and other things along that line. The example sentences will make its use clear. نياله (niyalu) is "good for him", نيالها (niyala) is "good for her", نيالنا (niyalna) is "good for us", you get the idea.1. نياله اذا نجح بالامتحان - Good for him if he passed the test.
2. انا عربي يا نيالي - I'm Arab. Good for me.

'Quick' in Syrian Dialect

2010-12-04T20:25:00.004-05:00

Lots of times in Arabic dialects the MSA word will be used as well as another word to mean the same thing. This is the case for the word قوام (qawaam). It is used to mean "quickly", but the MSA word بسرعة (bisur'a) is also used. This word is used in Lebanese, Syrian, Egyptian and I'm sure some surrounding countries as well. I know very little about Palestinian and Jordanian because most of the language I hear is from TV shows and only a few TV shows come out of those countries. An example of the usage of this word can be found below the video.

1. حضريلي كاسة شاي قوام (haddireelee kaasat shaay 'awam) - Fix me a cup of tea, quickly.

If you used بسرعة instead of قوام it would mean the same thing. If you know MSA but aren't so great at dialect you can always use the MSA word and 99% of the time it will work fine. Remember, Arabic speakers watch the news and understand it so if you throw in a news word you're going to get your point across. Some people will tell you this isn't true and I've had people tell me that as well. They say that you can't speak MSA in an Arabic speaking country and be understood, but in my experience the reason these people weren't understood is because their pronunciation was very bad. If all you know is MSA and you speak it in an Arabic country people will find it funny since it's rarely spoken by regular people in everyday situations, but you will be understood just fine.

What's the right way to say Qatar?

2010-12-03T19:36:00.003-05:00

Qatar is a word you will hear pronounced all kinds of different ways. It's been in the news a lot lately since it was announced December 2nd that it will host the 2022 Soccer World Cup. There's really no way to say it correctly with an accent other than the Arabic one since it has 3 letters that aren't in English, but you can get close.

TV Review: Syrian Series Abu Janti

2010-12-01T18:27:00.007-05:00

The Syrian TV show Abu Janti (المسلسل السوري ابو جانتي) is one of the best Arabic shows I've seen. It's a comedy show mainly, but it's got drama too. The show centers around the life of a taxi driver named Abu Janti, his mother and sister, and his friends. A lot of the show is shot from inside his taxi as he picks up odd characters around Damascus. For me, his interaction with them is the best part of the show. I also love that since Abu Janti is driving around Damascus you really get to see the city, its streets, buildings, and people. The show isn't restricted to the inside of building and you get to see a place that you've never been.

One thing that's invaluable about this show from the standpoint of someone trying to master the Arabic language is that the language spoken in the show is really authentic. It's much more like how real people talk than dubbed soap operas. If you can understand everything in this show then you have done it. You can say that you are a master of at least the Syrian Arabic dialect. I'll admit that I don't understand everything that's said, but that tells me that I'm watching the right show. In dubbed soap operas the language is much simpler and a lot less slang and colorful language is used. They're good for starting out because everything is very clear, but even if you can understand every word in them there is a lot that they won't expose you to.
On the topic of not understanding everything, often the most difficult to understand people are the ones who are not very educated. In this show there is a friend of Abu Janti named Abu Layla (ابو ليلة) who represents that type of person. The actor wears fake teeth on top that jut out and make it hard to understand him. He also doesn't move his lips much when he talks. He's supposed to be a village idiot character, but there are so many characters like that in this show which is what makes it so fun to watch. Abu Layla has a pretty wife somehow and it's hard to believe that a marriage between 2 people who are so different would happen in real life. Abu Layla isn't satisfied with his wife though because she bosses him around all the time. I guess that's why he's always hitting on every pretty girl that walks infront of his button shop. Most of the time you see him he's forcing his one employee, Waleed (وليد), to transcribe the songs he thinks up to woo women.

The two characters that I don't really enjoy are Sa'eed (سعيد) and Su'aad (سعاد). Sa'eed is approximately 35 to 40 years old and he spends all his time trying to become a good enough soccer goalie to actually be allowed to play in a game. His girlfriend Su'aad is played by an actress who has been in a lot of popular Syrian shows including Dunya (دنيا) and Bab al Hara (باب الحارة), but I really just find the two of them annoying. Su'aad's personality is very abrasive and I never really cared about Sa'eed's plight. The rest of the characters are much more interesting. Abu Janti's sister Awatif (عواطف) is really cute and naive and wears her emotions on her sleeve. The love story between her and Abu Layla's employee Waleed is fun to watch unfold. Then there's Imad (عماد) who works as a painter and lies to a girl who he sees from the balcony that he owns the place he's painting. He strings a bunch of lies over many episodes to make himself seem like he's rich and important so that she likes him.

I would recommend this series to anyone wants to watch something in Arabic but finds most shows boring. The show isn't overly conservative which allows it to present more interesting scenarios than some other shows. The Arabic in the show will be extremely hard to understand at first, but give it time. You're learning even when you don't think you are. You can watch the show at panet.co.il.

How to say something in Arabic شي

2010-11-30T18:06:00.004-05:00

Many times when someone finds out that you know a language other than English they'll ask you to say something in that language. Some people I know will do just that and say whatever "something" is in their language. It's a simple answer and avoids you having to think of a random sentence to say. And if you ask them, "What do you want me to say?" then they'll usually think of the most convoluted complex jargon for you to translate. When you can't translate it they'll say, "I thought you said you knew language x?" So instead of having to deal with all that, just say today's word of the day, "something", or in Arabic, شي.

Examples for context:

1. مشينا شي 20 متر (mshayna shi 'ashreen mitr) - We walked about 20 meters.
2. ما بدي شي منك (ma beddi shi minnak) - I don't want anything from you.

Arabic Word of the Day - low واطي

2010-11-29T16:58:00.003-05:00

The word واطي is used to mean low literally and figuratively. You can call someone low (i.e. lowdown good for nothing snake in the grass) just like you would in English, or you can use it to mean something like "lower your voice". In MSA منخفض is used to mean low. واطي is specific to Levantine dialect and isn't used at all in MSA.

1. هو واحد واطي (huwwi waahid waati) - He is a lowdown good for nothing double crossing snake in the grass.
2. وطّي صوتك (watti sootak) - Lower your voice.

I also have a question for anyone who can answer it. There's a Jordanian song sung by احمد الدرايسة (Ahmad-Al-Draysseh) that says حيطنا مش واطي واحنا اردنية. Does anyone know what حيط is?

Word with a lot of meanings - طلع

2010-11-28T19:06:00.002-05:00

In this video I try to give a few examples of the many ways the word طلع is used. For someone first starting to learn Levantine dialect it seems like this word can just be thrown anywhere and mean anything, but with enough exposure you start to learn situations where it is used. A lot of the time it just means 'go', but there are many other uses.
1. إطلع من وشي/راسي (itla' min wishi/raasi) - Get out of my face.
2. إطلع السيارة (itla' assayyaara) - Get in the car.
3. طلّع فيي (talla' fiyyi) - Look at me.
4. بنهاية المحكمة هي طلعت بريئة (binihaayat almahkama hiyi tala'it baree'a) - At the end of the trial she turned out innocent.

Trouble Arabs have when learning English

2010-11-27T21:20:00.006-05:00

The comment that ragtag3333/Linguist made on The Hardest Part About Arabic post got me thinking about some of the difficulties that Arabic speakers have with English. Now I've never had to learn English and am not a native speaker of Arabic so I haven't had to go through what people find difficult in English. I do remember having trouble with knowing when to put 'b' or 'd' in a word when writing it. Something about the mirror image of the letters confused me as a kid. I would write something like 'sudway' instead of 'subway', but I think that's a problem most kids have. Spelling is definitely a big problem for learners of English as well as native English speakers. The fact the bomb, tomb, comb all end in 'omb' but don't rhyme is just one example of many that attests to how convoluted English spelling is.

A specific problem to native Arabic speakers that I've written about before is differentiating between 'p' and 'b'. Since Arabic has no 'p' sound Arab speakers will often say 'p' as 'b' like banda bear or bolice.
The difference between 'f' and 'v' also comes up because, again, there is no 'v' in Arabic. So you will hear many Arabs say 'fery' instead of 'very'. This isn't as widespread at the 'p' vs. 'b' thing though.

The fact that English has many vowel sounds while Arabic only has a few is another problem. The words 'pit', 'pet', 'put', 'pot', and 'pat' might be the hardest in the entire language for Arabic speakers to pronounce and recognize. Words that are only differentiated by their vowel sound are tough. I know a guy who couldn't hear the difference between 'bomb', 'pump', and 'bump'. The 'o' and 'u' sound were hard for him as well as the 'p' and 'b'. The difference between 'six' (6) and 'sex' also causes problems. The 'e' sound in 'sex' just isn't found in Arabic. Many will say 'sixy' instead of 'sexy'.

These mistakes don't cause too much difficulty in being understood though. As long as the word that is said incorrectly is in a sentence to give it context it's fine. However if someone just asks you what X means and they're saying it wrong (like asking what pit means when they actually are trying to ask what pet means), then you can run into problems.

What are some more difficulties people and especially Arabic speakers face in learning English?

How do you say Al Qaeda القاعدة ?

2010-11-27T20:42:00.002-05:00

When the terrorist group "Al Qaeda" first became a household name no one knew how to pronounce its name. The same kind of thing happened with Osama and Usama. The second pronunciation is closer, but for some reason the first one stuck. Today on the news you'll hear mostly "al kayda". The news anchors will change the ق to a 'k' and the ع to a 'y'. This isn't really a problem though. In fact I actually view it as somewhat pretentious when someone switches to a foreign accent just to say one word, like when people say Pari instead of Paris when they are speaking English. So I don't hold it against people who pronounce this the American way, I just figured I'd make a video to show the correct way to say it because it is a confusing word when you read it in English.

Arabic Dialects - must لازم

2010-11-13T17:48:00.008-05:00

The word لازم (lazim) is another essential Arabic dialect word. It means "must" or "has to". It's used in many (if not all) dialects, not just Levantine, and understood by everyone. It's also a very simple word to use since you don't have to worry about conjugating it. You just conjugate the verb that comes after it.

1. لازم تروح ع الجامعة (lazim trooh 'aljami'a) = you have to go to the university
2. لازم تفكّر في الموضوع قبل ما تاخذ قرار (lazim itfakkir filmowdoo' abl ma takhuth araar) = you have to think about the issue before you make a decision
3. بكرا هو لازم يشتغل (bukra huwi lazim yashtagil) = tomorrow he has to work

Levantine Arabic - to happen صار

2010-11-13T10:49:00.003-05:00

The word صار is one of the most important words to understand in Levantine Arabic because it is used all the time. It's used in all the Levant countries, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine, but least used in Jordan. The word is used to mean "to happen" and also has to do with time in some sentences. The example sentences should clear up the word for you. You will also hear the form of this word صاير (saayir) for example in the sentence شو صاير which means the same thing as شو عم بيصير. It's present tense.

Example sentences:
1. شو عم بيصير = What's going on?
2. رح كون جمبك شو ما صار = I will be by your side no matter what happens.
3. قدي صارلك بلبنان؟ = How long have you been in Lebanon?
4. صارلك شهرين غايب عني = You've been away from me for 2 months.

Syrian Dialect - at all بنوب

2010-11-10T22:23:00.003-05:00

This post/video is the beginning of a new thing that I'm starting, the Arabic Word of the Day. They aren't going to be every day, but when I do post them there will be a video and sample sentences that focus on 1 word or phrase. It might be in MSA or in a dialect. The Arabic word today is بنوب and it is specific to Syria. You may see it spelled "bnoob" or "bnobe" online. It means "at all". This isn't used in all Levantine dialects although it is widely understood due to Syrian TV shows. I was thinking about it after I finished the video and the word نهائياً can be used in place of بنوب in pretty much every case and it is used in Jordan and Lebanon and other places.

The sample sentences in the video are:

ما بحب هالكلام منك بنوب (ma baheb halkalaam minak ibnoob) - I don't like that talk from you at all.
هلق مو وقتها بنوب (hala' moo wa'ta bnoob) - Now is not the time for that at all.

Cursing in Arabic

2010-11-06T23:01:00.006-04:00

This post is about all the bad words that you're unlikely to learn in a language class. You have to do the research on your own or have some Arab friends who will teach you. As far as I'm concerned words like this should be taught. You don't have to use them, but it's good to know them so that you at least have an idea of what people are saying either to you or just around you. This is a touchy subject when talking about the Arabic language specifically. I've noticed that many Arabs want everyone to think that Arabic is a modest and pure language. By many it is viewed as the language of God after all. So a lot of people take offense when words like this are taught. It's not like in English where no one really cares if swearing is taught to foreigners. I don't think Americans view it as blemishing our reputation if people know that there is profanity in English, but lots of Arabs take it personally. The truth is that every language on Earth has profanity. So, view this post as a purely academic endeavor.

First are some phrases you can say when someone wrongs you. For example, you're carrying something and someone bumps into you causing you to drop and break it. You can say these in response. They aren't considered vulgar and are very mild but still said when angry:

يقطع عمرك (yaqta' 'omrak) - May God kill you. (يقطع means "cut", and عمرك is "your life")

يخرب بيتك (yikhrib beytak) - May God destroy your house. (God is implied in this and the previous phrase)
الله لا يعطيك العافية (allah la ia'teek al'aafia) - May God not give you health. (I was in a restaurant in Amman and one waiter said this to another when his friend spilled a drink. He was joking, but it can be said in anger too. This is also said commonly without the negation. الله يعطيك العافية - God give you health.
العمى (al'ama) - Literally 'blindness'. It's used like 'damn'.

Next are the vulgar words that shouldn't be said around anyone:

كس (kis) - vagina
شرموطة (sharmoota) - whore (plural is شراميط shraameet)
زب (zib) - dick/cock (plural is زباب zbab)
بز (biz) - tit (pural is بزاز bzaz)
طيز (teez) - ass
عير ('ayr) - dick/cock (There's a funny video of a news anchor mistakenly saying صباح العير instead of صباح الخير , basically 'dick morning' instead of 'good morning'. Just type in صباح العير in You Tube.)
خرى (khara) - shit

How these are used in phrases:

كس اختك (kis ikhtak) - you're sister's vagina (like English 'fuck')
يا ابن الشرموطة (ya ibn asharmoota) - you son of a whore
مص زبي (mus zibbi) - suck my dick
الحس طيزي (ilhas teezi) - lick my ass
عيري فيك ('ayri feek) - my dick is in you
كل خرى (kul khara) - eat shit

This list doesn't not include all Arabic curse words. There are a lot more. This is just intended to give exposure to what's out there. There are some Disney videos here that are dubbed over with cursing that are actually pretty funny. If anyone can tell me what dialect that is I would be grateful. It sounds like a mix between Levantine and Gulf dialect because they use بدي for "I want" but the accent sounds like Gulf and they say ك as 'ch'.

Lebanese/Syrian Phrases

2010-11-05T00:20:00.006-04:00

The shows I was watching when I came across these phrases are: Dunia (دنيا) and Bab al-Hara (باب الحارة). Both of those are Syrian and there is one phrase that is only used in Lebanon in the video. I don't remember what I was watching when I caught that one.

انت عم بتصف معها (Enta 'am bitsaf ma'a) - You're taking her side.
لساتك عم تتوحمي؟ (Lissaatik 'am tatwahhami?) - Are you still having cravings?
انا بحبها لندا (Ana bahiba lanada) - I love Nada. (Only used in Lebanon)
سلملي عليه (Sellimli 'alih) - Say hi to him for me.
لا تفهمني غلط (La tafhamni ghalat) - Don't get me wrong.
مقطوع من شجرة (Maqtoo' min shajara) - Cut from a tree (someone with no family).
خيرها بغيرها (khayra bighayra) - Maybe some other time.

Please let me know if there's any way I can improve on these videos. Am I choosing phrases that you don't care about? Am I saying them too fast? I worry that someone beginning in Arabic might need more explanation. Am I explaining enough? Thanks much for watching and I hope you're learning something. :)

Lebanese You Tube series: Shankaboot

2010-10-30T21:56:00.008-04:00

If you're interested in learning authentic Lebanese Arabic, the type that is spoken by everyday people in Beirut then check out the You Tube series Shankaboot. It's a low budget show that is really high quality. It looks even better than a lot of the shows I've seen on Arabic TV. The story is interesting and the Arabic in it is great. The show has English subtitles that you can select as well. The series stars a delivery boy, Suleiman Shankaboot, in Beirut who gets involved with the mafia. It's not a conservative show which makes it more interesting. It has everything that you would find on American TV. The show also shoots in Bekaa البقاع for a few episodes so you get to hear what some of the rural Lebanese dialect sounds like.

The language is much different from the kind of thing you'll see on Lebanese talk shows and shows dubbed in Lebanese. Even though those shows are in Lebanese dialect the language contains less slang and is more proper. The thing I'm most interested in right now is Arabic slang and sayings. I've learned how educated upper class people talk, but I'm not as good as I'd like to be with slang. It's harder to find resources for that kind of thing because people have an aversion to teaching a way of speaking that they feel is wrong. It's just like how most Americans view Ebonics. It is viewed as bastardized form of English and no one teaches it. I've met a lot of foreigners who try to understand African Americans when they speak to them on the street but can't. That's how I feel when it comes to Arabic spoken in everyday life. I've learned a lot of everyday Arabic in the past year or so, but I still understand the news better than I do 2 friends just talking and joking with each other. I'm trying to change that.

And, if you can find it, another good show for learning authentic spoken Arabic is called Dunia دنيا. It's a comedic Syrian drama about a girl who comes from the country side to work as a maid and earn a living in Damascus and her dialect reflects that. She speaks with an accent that I hadn't heard before and it took a while to get used to. I still don't understand everything that it said in the show, but that means that it's something I can learn from. I stopped watching dubbed shows because I noticed that I can understand the vast majority of everything that's said. Dubbed shows have a more simplified and less "slangy" form of the language. Anyway, I found Dunia and a lot of good shows on arabseries.org, but they only accept new registrations from time to time. I would keep checking if you're interested because that site has tons of shows. I paid $20 a while ago for unlimited downloads.

Ma'qoul Mesh Ma'qoul Lyrics and Translation

2010-10-17T11:04:00.006-04:00

If you like current Arabic pop music you should subscribe to the following YouTube channels: MelodyTvgroup, MelodyMusicGroup, and MelodyMusicRecords. That is how I found this song "Ma'qoul Mesh Ma'qoul" by the Lebanese singer Dominique Hourani دومينيك حوراني. I like songs like this that have have a debka feel to them. I've translated the song in a way that would sound like how someone speaking English would say the phrases. For example, I didn't translate مش معقول to mean "illogical", "irrational", or "unreasonable" even though those are all meanings of the word as those don't really fit. When translating something into English I think it's best to take into account how an English speaker would say something. The meaning is more important than adhering to the dictionary translation. Some people don't like this method. They feel that every word has a 1 to 1 exact translation into English. For example, it's better in most cases to translate ان شاء الله as "hopefully" and not "if God wills it". The literal translation is "if God wills it", but in almost every case it's used to just mean "hopefully". Literal translations like that also make Arabs seem a lot more radical to western audiences. Most people aren't thinking about God when they say "inshalla", and the same thing for the phrase بالله as it's used to respond when someone tells you something incredible. Literally it means "by God??", but when it's said the person means "really??". Anyway, that's a bit of a tangent. Enjoy the song! :D

معقول مش معقول (ma'ool mish ma'ool) - Really? No way!
معقول مش معقول (ma'ool mish ma'ool) - Really? No way!
معقول مش معقول شو جنيت (ma'ool mish ma'ool shoo janeyt) - Really? No way! Have you gone crazy?
معقول يعني تكون غيري حبيت (ma'ool ya'ni tkoon gheyri habeyt) - Is it true that you love someone other than me?

لا ما بصدق لا هالعملة بتعملها (la ma basaddi' la hal'amli bta'mila) - No, I don't believe this thing that you've done.
و ان كنك عاملها ما ترجع عالبيت (wa in kinak 'aamilha ma trj'a 'albeyt) - And if you've done it, don't come back home.

مش من واحد من مية (mish min wahid min miyi) - Not 1, but 100
سمّعوني هالخبرية (samm'aooni halkhabariyi) - have told me this news
و ان شاء الله تكون مزبوطة (wa in shalla tkoon mazboota) - And I hope it's true
يا معتر يا ريت, يا ريت, يا ريت (ya m'attar ya reyt, ya reyt, ya reyt) - you stupid. I hope, I hope, I hope.

لخلي الدنيا كلها تسمع صريخك و الله (lakhali aldinyi killa tasm'a sareekhak wallah) - Let the whole world hear you yell.
عم بحلفلك بالله يا ريت يا ريت يا ريت ('am bahliflak bi allah ya reyt, ya reyt, ya reyt) - I swear to God. I hope, I hope, I hope.

(chorus)

عن شغلة تخليت كرامة رقة احساسك ('an shaghli tkhalleyt kramat ri'at ahsaasak) - You've forgotten about something, your senses of honor and kindness.
بتقعّدني بالبيت بتفلت انت عراسك (bit'a'adni bilbeyt btiflit enta 'araasak) - You make me sit at home and go you lose your mind.
عراسك عراسك لا و الله ('araasak 'araasak la wallah) - your mind, your mind, no oh God.

(chorus)

عن قصد مش عن قصد ما بيفيد ('an 'asd mish 'an 'asd ma beefeed) - Whether you meant it or not doesn't matter.
ما تقلي غلطة و ما كانت بالايد (ma t'ili ghalta wa ma kaanit bileed) - Don't tell me it was a mistake and not your fault.

(chorus)

Lebanese Phrases from Fares Karam Songs

2010-10-16T00:56:00.003-04:00

These phrases all come from songs by Fares Karam. As far as I'm concerned doing things like this is the best way to learn a language, i.e. using authentic material like songs and videos. In the video I sing the phrases the way Fares Karam sings them and also say them word by word so you can tell where one word ends and the next word begins. That was one of my big problems when trying to learn Levantine dialect. Everything would just run together since things aren't said as separated as they are in MSA. Let me know if things like this are helpful and what you'd like more of.

بقعد من دون شمس و ماي, بس ما بقعد بلاكي (ba'ud min doon shams oo mai, bes ma ba'ud balaaki) - I can go without sun and water, but I can't go without you.

ضيق لبسك ما عندك أوسع منه (dayyi' libsik ma 'andik aws'a minu) - Your clothes are tight, don't you have any looser ones?

نام بغني بوعا بغني ضيعتيلي عقلي مني وخليتيني دوب (nam baghanni boo'a baghanni day'atili 'a'li mini oo kheleytini doob) - I sing in my sleep, I sing when I'm awake, you made me lose my mind and made me melt.

اللي بتقصر تنورة تلحقها عيون الشباب (Illi bit'assir tanoora tilha'ha 'ayoon ashabab) - The one who shortens her skirt, the eyes of the boys follow her.

وين بتكوني انا بكون و حبك بدي (wayn bitkooni ana bkoon oo hobik bedi) - Where you are, I am and I want your love.

شفتها بشارع الحمرا بإيدها في قلم حمرا عم بتشيله من الجزدان (shifta bshaari' al hamra bi eeda fi 'alam hamra 'am bitsheelu min al jizdaan) - I saw her on "Red" street with a lipstick in her hand taking it out of the purse.

France 24 Arabic Commercial Campaign

2010-10-12T20:46:00.008-04:00

On YouTube I subscribe to the French news channel France 24 and today I noticed some videos titled so and so "apprend l'arabe". I don't know much French, but I understand enough to know that that means so and so "learns Arabic". To promote their Arabic news channel they have these faked videos of famous people trying to speak Arabic. There's Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Hu Jintao, and the Queen of England learning things like numbers and how to say hello. They're all really funny, but my favorite part is how they have Bill Gates say "4". I'm sure this is how my Arabic sounded 3 years ago. :D

Bill Gates:

Barack Obama:

Queen of England

Hu Jintao

Syrian Arabic from Bab Al-Hara

2010-09-25T12:12:00.004-04:00

I've been watching a lot of the Syrian show Bab Al-Hara باب الحارة lately and I really like the way they talk. They usually draw out the last syllable of a phrase. They'll say the whole sentence really fast and then on the last syllable they slow down. In Jordan I spoke in this accent to a taxi driver he replied to me in the same fashion and then called me عقيد (colonel) which is what one of the characters in the show is called. He then told me that he had named one of his sons عقيد because he liked the name so much. It's a really popular show in the Arab world and just finished its 5th season during Ramadan. Here are some phrases that I took from episodes of the show. They are pronounced in the Syrian accent that they use which is a little bit different than the modern day Syrian accent, but I like it better :P.

رح تأكل اصابيعك وراها (rah takul asaabee'ak waraaha) - You'll eat your fingers along with it.

This phrase is said about really delicious food. It's so good that you'll eat your fingers too in order to make sure you get all of the taste. Literally it's "you'll eat your fingers behind it."

إصطفل (istafil) - Do what you want

Say that you're arguing with someone who's about to do something stupid. You say this when you're fed up and just don't care anymore about what the person does.

ما عم بيجيني نوم (ma 'am beejeenee nawm) - I can't sleep

Literally "sleep is not coming to me".

مكتوب (maktoob) - a letter

In MSA رسالة is letter, but it's more often called a مكتوب (literally "a written") in Syrian.

علمي علمك ('ilmi 'ilmak) - I know what you know.

Literally "my knowledge is your knowledge".

ما بيطلع بيدي (ma byatl'a biidi) - I can't do it

Literally, "it can't happen by my hand."

طوّل بالك (tawwil baalak) - Calm down/wait a second

Literally, "lengthen your mind".

روق (roo') - Calm down

You may also hear روق يا فاروق because it rhymes. فاروق is just a guy's name.

How to Hit on Arab Girls تلطيش

2010-09-18T22:51:00.010-04:00

Here are a few phrases you can try out on Arab girls. All but the last one are Lebanese but they will be understood by all Arabs. Don't get mad at me if they don't have the desired effect, but in most cases the girl will think it's cute and smile or laugh since you're a foreigner. However, if it's an Arab guy saying it the result won't be the same. There's a big chance they'll get slapped or at the very least ignored. Use with caution :P. The Arabic word for phrases like this is تلطيش which is "cat calling". The word غزل is "flirting".
The comic says, on the right "Lebanese flirting: You see how big the moon is? That's how much I love you". On the left: "Our flirting (meaning Saudi): I swear I'll punch in the stomach anyone who says your name."

انت بتتأكلي بلا ملح (Inti btitakli bila milih) - You could be eaten without salt.

This phrase sounds dumb in English, but it's actually something that's said in Lebanon. It's like, "you're so sweet" or something. The idea is that she tastes so good you don't need to put salt on her to eat her. The connotation isn't sexual as it might be taken in English.

حلو جسمك. شو اسمك؟ - (Helu jismik. Shoo ismik?) - Your body is nice. What's your name?

It's cool because it rhymes. Not as cool in English. :)

رح جبلك لبن العصفور (Rah jiblik laban al'asfoor) - I will bring you birds' milk

So the idea with this one is that since birds don't have milk you're basically saying "I'll do the impossible for you" or "I'll do anything for you". I think this is used in countries outside the Arabic world as well because I read it on a Russian site. Needless to say it definitely wouldn't be understood in English speaking countries.

تقبريني (tu'burini) - Bury me

This one is a phrase of endearment. It's like saying "I'd die for you" or "you're to die for". You can even use it to address someone. You can say to your girlfriend or someone you love يا تقبريني which would be like "oh one who buries me".

شو هالجسد يا اسد (Shoo hal jasad ya asad) - What a body you lion!

Another rhyming one. Saying lion here is like calling a girl a fox in English.

شو هالنطة يا بطة (Shoo hal nuttah ya battah) - What's this bouncing you duck!

A girl with a big chest and big butt is called a بطة (duck) in Arabic slang. If you look at a picture of a rubber ducky you can see why.

شو هالطعجة يا نعجة (Shoo hal ta'je ya na'je) - What a swagger you ewe (female sheep).

This is just like the two above it. It's a cat call. I wouldn't call it a pick up line. It's something some Arab guys will say as a girl is walking by. This one is used in Jordanian and I'm not really sure if it would be understood elsewhere, so if you have a female Jordanian friend try this out and see what she says. :)

Is Arabic harder to read than other languages?

2010-09-07T16:46:00.005-04:00

This article from the BBC say that it is. Due to the fact that many Arabic letters are very similar, mainly the ones that only differ in the number of dots they have, the left side of the brain is the only side that works when reading Arabic. This is in contrast to languages like English and Hebrew where most of the letters are very different from each other. I remember confusing "b" and "d" as a child though and I've seen some people who are learning English do the same since the two letters are just a mirror image of each other. When I was learning the Arabic alphabet about 3 years ago I always mixed up the letters, and one can see how that is easy to do. You've got ن ت and ث which only vary in number of dots, ح ج and ح as well as ص and ض and don't forget ع and غ. Pretty much every letter can be changed into another letter by adding or taking away a dot and I guess the right side of the brain has trouble dealing with that. I wonder what the brain does when you're trying to decipher Arabic calligraphy. :)

Website Review: MTV Lebanon

2010-09-05T19:17:00.006-04:00

A few weeks ago Dish Network replaced LBC (Lebanese Broadcasting Company) with MTV Lebanon on my satellite. MTV Lebanon isn't a music channel which is what I first thought when they replaced it. It's the same type of channel as LBC. It has news hours but also all types of shows in Lebanese (mostly), Syrian, and Egyptian. What's great about MTV though is their website. There's a commercial that comes on that really plays up how nice their website is and it isn't lying. Via the website you can watch nearly any show that they air on the TV channel. It's the same kind of thing that MBC (Saudi channel) does but the MTV website is navigable for English speakers and has more shows in Lebanese. On MBC they have a lot of Turkish soap operas dubbed in Syrian dialect, but most of their shows are in Gulf dialect since it's a TV channel based in Saudi Arabia. With the talk shows on MTV (such as بالهوا سوا "Bel Hawa Sawa" and "At MTV") the people speak like they speak in real life. They throw in all the French and English terms that they would normally use in every day speech since the show is meant for Lebanese people they don't have to change the way they speak so that Arabs from other countries will understand which is something you see on shows geared toward the entire Arab world. Another plus about MTV is that since it's a Lebanese channel their news anchors look like this:

I don't know why, but Lebanon seems to have their disproportionate share of beautiful ladies. Pictured is Diana Fakhoury. Anyway, if you're interested in video resources to help you learn the Lebanese dialect MTV Lebanon is the best place to go. Even if you don't understand much it's still a good way to immerse yourself in the language. Your brain will pick things up even if you don't feel like you're learning.

Just Interviewed for a Job with Language Line

2010-09-04T13:43:00.006-04:00

I've been dealing with Arabic for a while now (coming up on 4 years) and I feel like I'm decent at it so I applied for a job with Language Line. They are a company that deals with over the phone interpretation. Companies such as banks, police offices, and utility companies will contract with them to interpret for customers who don't speak English. It seems like it would be a fun job where you would learn something new every day, so I thought I would apply. Now I can't interpret as well as the guys on Al Jazeera who can listen to what is being said and interpret it while it is still being said, but if someone says a sentence and then stops talking I can translate that sentence into English or Arabic. The fact that there are people who can translate while a person is continuing to talk amazes me and I can only hope to be able to do that one day. I don't like to limit things to bilingual people (people who grew up with 2 languages), but for that type of thing I think having grown up with 2 languages might be required.

Anyway, I just got off the phone with a lady who was doing my language assessment to see if I qualified to be an interpreter between Arabic and English. I think things went fairly well. She asked questions like, "Can you tell me how to get from your house to your work place?" and "Can you describe some TV shows that you watch?" I didn't make any blaring mistakes except when I was role playing a bystander who saw a car crash happen I said "there was a lot of cleaning" instead of "there was a lot of bleeding". The word for bleeding is نزيف and the word for cleaning is تنظيف. If you say them with a Lebanese accent they sound the same except for the "t" at the beginning if cleaning. She even asked me, "There was a lot of cleaning?" and I knew I had said it wrong but for some reason I didn't correct myself. Hopefully that isn't enough to disqualify me from the job, but it might be. They do get 911 calls where lives are on the line after all so every little mistake matters.

Whether I get the job or not I'm glad I gave it a try. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? Even if I'm not good enough right now, in a year or two I'm confident I will be.

Learning Persian after Arabic

2010-08-31T19:51:00.000-04:00

I've recently been looking at Persian (Farsi) because I had heard that if you knew Arabic it wouldn't be hard to learn. This seems to be the case. So far all I have done is look at about 500 flashcards and listened to a repeating news broadcast to try to get used to how the language is spoken. I know literally nothing about the way sentences work in Persian, but from the vocabulary alone it doesn't seem like it should take too long. About 30-40% of the words that I'm seeing either have a relation to their Arabic equivalent or are the exact same word (except for pronunciation). A few words I've found to be the same are:

East: مشرق
Field: ميدان
Defense: دفاع
To carry: حمل
To cross: عبر
First: اول
History: تاريخ
Situation: وضع
Movements: حركات
Line or Formation: صف
Teaching: تعليم
Abroad: خارج
A cross: صليب
Without: بدون

Those are what I found looking through my flashcards for a few minutes. There are also a lot of words that don't have the exact same meaning, but are closely related to the Arabic. With these kind of words, if you already know Arabic you have something to hang the new definition on in your mind. Examples of these types of words are:

- "Sculpture" in Persian is مجسمه سازى. Ignoring the سازى part which doesn't have anything to do with Arabic, you can look at مجسمه which has the root جسم which has to do with the body or embodying something. Knowing that makes the new Persian word easy to remember since you can think of a sculpture as an embodiment of something.

- A "Drawing" or "Painting" in Persian is نقاشى. If you look to the Arabic root نقش the Persian meaning is easy to remember since نقش means "to engrave". There's an Arabic saying التعلم في الصغر كالنقش على الحجر which means something like, "If you learn something when you're young it's engraved in stone." There's probably an exact equivalent to that saying in English but I'm not sure what it is. Anyway, there isn't much difference between an engraving and a drawing so it's easy to remember.

- In Arabic عكس means “opposite”. In Persian عكاس means “photographer”. In Arabic that's literally someone who makes opposites which makes sense because back in the days of film the negatives were opposites of the picture you took. Now I don’t know if that’s what was intended when Persian took that word, but it still helps me to remember it.

- Another photography word I saw was ظاهر كردن which means “to develop a picture”. It’s easy to remember if you know Arabic because the verb ظهر means “to become visible” or “to appear.”

Even though Persian and Arabic are not in the same language family, because of the Arab occupation of Iran along with Islam about 30-40% of the words in Persian are either Arabic words or derived from Arabic roots.

The Hardest Part About Arabic

2010-08-29T17:47:00.003-04:00

Some believe it's the grammar, but I have to say that the hardest part about Arabic is how different the pronunciation is from English. There are just so any difficult letters that give learners problems. In other languages you might be able to just ignore the strange letters, but in Arabic if you don't get them right then people are going to have a hard time understanding you at the very least. At times they won't understand a thing you are saying.

I knew a guy who spoke Arabic with a southern US accent and he always got really angry at the teachers because he thought they were picking on him, but in reality they (and the rest of the students) just couldn't understand anything he said. I've also known people who can understand just about everything in Arabic, but when they try to speak no one can understand them. Pronunciation is a very very important part of the Arabic language.

Arabic Urban Dictionary

2010-07-25T19:53:00.005-04:00

Last month Makkay suggested the site ar.mo3jam.com for learning Arabic dialect words. It's basically the Arabic equivalent of Urban Dictionary. It's the best way to learn authentic dialect words that I've found. I've been spending time going through the شامي dialect and after that I plan to go through the others. When I'm not sure exactly what a definition means I just type the word into Google and look at the picture results. I found the word بربتوز and the definition said it meant "baby clothes" in Palestinian, but I wanted to see what Google had to say. Sure enough it brought up lots of pictures of one-piece baby clothes. I really don't know of another way to learn these kind of purely dialect words other than living in an Arabic speaking country. It's also nice in that is writes out the English transliteration for each word. So for بربتوز it has barbatooz. This is really helpful because with dialect it's sometimes impossible to guess how the word is pronounced.

An interesting flaw I've noticed with the site is in the rating system. It's just like Urban Dictionary in that anyone can rate a word/definition. This is meant to weed out words that aren't widespread or are just incorrect. However, on ar.mo3jam people vote down any curse words or anything vulgar. This makes it hard to learn those types of words because you can't be sure if the word was voted down simply because it was vulgar or if it really was incorrect. For example, I found the word بيضات (literally, "eggs" but figuratively "testicles") and it had 6 thumbs down. Arabs seem to be ashamed that their language contains words like this. If you go on Urban Dictionary you don't find this at all. The most vulgar words will have hundreds of thumbs-ups. Maybe this points to some difference between Western and Middle Eastern mentalities?

Thinking About Getting an Arabic Tattoo?

2010-07-06T17:52:00.002-04:00

Make sure you read this! The guy goes through all the mistakes that people make time and time again when getting a tattoo written in Arabic. Yes, Arabic looks a lot cooler than English if you're an English speaker and I have nothing against people who get Arabic tattoos. One of my friends has "otter" (قضاعة) written on his leg. Just make sure you check with someone who knows Arabic before you get something permanent. Don't end up like the girl in the picture. م ا ل س

Lebanese Lesson: Lost Dubbed in Arabic

2010-07-01T20:43:00.009-04:00

When learning a new language it's often helpful to watch movies and TV shows that you know from your native language dubbed (مدبلج) in the target language. That way you know can more easily absorb new words since you know the plot and what's happening even when it's not obvious from the characters' behaviors. I finished watching the first season of the TV show Lost (الضياع) a few weeks back and it was good for me because I first watched that season in English about 4 years ago so there was a lot I didn't remember which kept me interested.

Alas I don't think my favorite movies and shows like Star Wars and Star Trek have dubbed versions in Arabic. I don't know why but it seems like Arabs generally don't like sci-fi. It would have helped me immensely when learning if I had been able to watch shows that I actually liked which is why I think learning something like Chinese, Japanese, or Korean would be easier for me. They seem to like the same kinds of things that I like, video games, space, technology. I'm sure I'm generalizing with that statement but that's the way I see it. I was actually very surprised when I found Lost dubbed because it's one of the few shows that I actually enjoy that I've found in Arabic (aside from Disney movies). I know I shouldn't complain. Imagine if you were learning a language like Mongolian or Kurdish. I doubt you'd find much at all in the way of dubbed media.

Lost is actually dubbed in Lebanese which is rare because most of the time shows are dubbed in Syrian. If you've watched Lost before you know that there's an Iraqi character named Sa'id سعيد. Everyone on the island speaks Lebanese except for him. He speaks Iraqi dialect :). That's a dimension of authenticity you don't get with the American version. Here's a clip from season 2 where John Locke first enters the hatch and meets Desmond. As usual the transcript and a vocabulary list are below.

قال لنا الطيّار أنه إنقطع الإتصال و إطلعنا عن المسار المحدد و بعتقد أنه هالمسافات البعيدة منعت فرق البحث من انه توصل لنا
(aalna atayyaar anu in'ata'a alitisaal wa itla'na 'an almasaar almuhadad oo ba't'aid anu halmisaafaat alba'eeda mana'at fira' albahs min anu toosalna)

The pilot told us that the communication was cut and (that) we went off course. I think that the long distance prevented the search teams from reaching us.

الرحلة إلي طلعت من سيدني على لوس أنجلس؟
(alrahli illi tala't min sydney 'ala los angeles)

The flight that took off from Sydney to Los Angeles.

أيه
(ay)

Yes.

كانت رحلة إعتيادية
(kanat rahli i'tiyadia)

It was a routine flight.

أيه طبعاً
(ay taba'an)

Yes, of course.

ممكن أني أعرف إسمك؟
(mumkin anni a'rif ismak)

Can you tell me your name? (Literally says, "Is it possible for me to know your name.")

إسمي؟ إسمي دريد
(ismi? ismi dureid)

My name is Dureid

و أنا إسمي جميل. بس أنا برأي ما في داعي لهذا السلاح
(wa ana ismi jamil. bes ana bi ra'iy ma fi daa'i li hatha silaah)

And my name is Jamil. But I don't think there's any need for this weapon.

عن جد؟ و شو رأيك أعطيك ياه إلك؟
('an jad? wa shoo ra'yak a'teek yah ilak)

Really? And what do you think about me giving it to you?

قلي كم واحد أنتو
(illi kam waahid into)

Tell me how many of you there are.

أه, 43 بس 4 منن ركبو طوف و راحو
(uh, thalaath wa arba'een bes arba' minun rikbu toof oo raahu)

Uh, 43 but 4 of them boarded a raft and left.

طوف!؟
(toof)

A raft?!

هالضو هاد مستعوضين فيه عن ضو الشمس لأنكن ما بتطلعو من هون؟ أه في شي طريق تاني للخروج؟
(hal daw had musta'wadeen fih 'an daw ashams lankun ma tatla'u min hoon? uh, fi shi tari' taani lilkhurooj?)

Is this light substituting the sun for you since you don't leave here? Uh, is there another way to exit?

كم واحد منكن مرضان؟
(kam waahid minkun mardaan?)

How many of you are sick?

مرضان؟
(mardaan?)

Sick?

أيه مرضان. يعني صحته تعبانة
(ay mardaan. ya'ni sahtu ta'baani)

Yes, sick. I mean in bad health.

و يمكن لهالسبب مكتوب "حجر صحي" على مدخل ال
(wa yumkin li hasabab maktoob "hajar sahi" 'ala madkhal al...)

And maybe that's the reason "quarantine" was written on the entrance of the...

جاوبني
(jaawibni!)

Answer me!

ولا شخص لا. ما حدا مرضان
(wala shakhs la. ma hada mardaan)

No one, no. No one is sick.

Vocabulary List:

إنقطع (inqata'a) - to be cut - This is used with electricity, communication signals
إعتيادية (i'tiyaadiya)- routine
ما في داعي (ma fi daa'i)- there's no need
عن جد ('an jad) - really, seriously
طوف (toof) - a raft
حجر صحي (hajar sahi) - quarantine

Rashed El Maged & Yara: El Maw'ed El Da'ea'

2010-06-17T21:55:00.001-04:00

This song (الموعد الضائع) by Rashed El Maged (راشد الماجد) and Yara (يارا) is one of my favorites. It's about how this guy was supposed to meet this girl for a date but he fell asleep and dreamed that he was on the date and therefore missed it. Thus the song is called "the missed date". I'm sure there must be a deeper meaning behind the song because the music video starts out with scenes and audio clips from the first moon landing. I think maybe the song writer is trying to say that the Arab countries have missed achieving their full potential (i.e. landing on the moon). The song is in the Gulf dialect and uses words that I've never heard before (التهيت and احتريتك). I can get them from context (I think التهيت means "to get side tracked" and احتريتك means "I waited for you", but I don't want to give the wrong definition so I didn't translate things I wasn't sure about. The lyrics are below the song along with a vocabulary list of the words and phrases that I feel comfortable translating. I know in general what is meant by all of the words, but some of them I don't know the exact way they would translate into English so I won't translate the whole song. Useful phrases are highlighted in blue.

يا حبيبة ما نسيت موعدي الضايع معاك
و اسمعيني لو دقيقة مثل ما كنت أسمعك

إسمعي عذري و بعدها سوي اللي تشتهين
وأعترف لك ياغلاي إني غلطان و حزين

وإسمحي لي أحكي فيه اللي حصل .. احكي فيه اللي حصل .. وخففي عني العتاب .. يمكن في عذري جواب
يمكن في عذري جواب

كنت في موعد لقانا جالسة بس أنتظر .. و أحتريتك و ما حضرت وكنت أدور لك عذر

و صرت أرجف و أشعر بحسرة و خوف .. حسرة إنك ما وفيت و خوفي إنك التهيت

بس تدري!؟.. يلا احكي و اسمعك .. يلا احكي و اسمعك .. عندها يمكن ألاقي عذر منك و أفهمك
..
أنا جيتك .. يا الحبيبة .. قبل موعدنا بدقايق / وكنت منتظره و كان الجو رايق .. وكان الجو رآيق
رحت أسولف عن شجوني .. و عن أحاسيسي و ظنوني
وقلت لك إني أحبك .. ياللي ماليتن عيوني
كل هذا كان في لحظة غفيت .. كان في لحظة غفيت
كل هذا كان في لحظة غفيت .. كان في لحظة غفيت
و فجأة من نومي صحيت .. و فجأة من نومي صحيت
و ما لقيتك يا الحبيبة
..
آآه .. آآه منك وش أقول / افرح بحلمك معاي
و لا أزعل في ذهول .. لا و تبيني ما أنفعل / لا .. لا وتبيني ما أنفعل
خلني أصدق وش تقول
..
صدقيني ذي الحقيقة .. الكذب لا لا ما أطيقه
صدقيني .. ذي الحقيقة .. الكذب لا لا ما أطيقه
..
أنت تدري آآه تدري كيف أحبك وإني .. ما أقدر أسيبك .. أسيبك
لكن الغيرة في قلبي .. ضيعت فكري و دربي
..
يلا ننسى اللي حصل .. و نجعل الدنيا أمل .. و نفرح ببكرة سوا
يا حبيبي .. يالله ننسى اللي حصل ونجعل الدنيا أمل .. ونفرح ببكرة سوا
يا الحبيبة .. يا حبيبي

Vocabulary List:

إسمعي عذري و بعدها سوي اللي تشتهين (isma'i 'athri oo ma ba'daha. sawi illi tishtahin) - Listen to my excuse and what's after it. Do what you want.
إسمحي لي أحكي فيه اللي حصل (ismahi li ahki fi illi hasal) - Let me talk about what happened.
يلا احكي و اسمعك. عندها يمكن ألاقي عذر منك و أفهمك (yalla ahki wa asma'k. 'andaha yimkin alagi 'athra minak wa afhamak) - Go on. Talk and I'll listen. When you do that maybe I can find an excuse from you and understand you. (Literally it's "at that" instead of "when you do that" but we wouldn't say that in English. Maybe "at that time" is good.)
أنا جيتك .. يا الحبيبة .. قبل موعدنا بدقايق (Ana jeetak yal habiba, qabli maw'idna b dagayig) - I came to you, oh my love, (a few) minutes before our date.
كل هذا كان في لحظة غفيت (Kila hatha kan fi lahtha gafeyt) - All of that was in a moment that I fell asleep.
و فجأة من نومي صحيت (wa faj'a min nawmi saheyt) - And suddenly from my sleep I awoke.
و ما لقيتك يا الحبيبة (wa ma lageytak yal habiba) - And I didn't find you, my love.
خلني أصدق وش تقول (khali asadig wish tagool) - Let me trust what you say.
صدقيني ذي الحقيقة .. الكذب لا لا ما أطيقه (sadigini thil hagiga. al kithib la la ma teega) - Trust me, this is the truth. No, no I can't bear to lie.
ما أقدر أسيبك (Magdar asibak) - I can't leave you.
يلا ننسى اللي حصل (yalla nansa illi hasal) - Let's forget what happened.

Omar Abdallat: Deer Balak Ablaadak

2010-06-15T19:21:00.000-04:00

When I was in Jordan I took taxis wherever I went. They're really cheap compared to taxis in the US and they're everywhere. I don't see the need to own a car if you live in Amman. Anyway, sometimes the taxi drivers would have music playing and if I told them I was learning Arabic they would always try to test me by asking me what the song playing on the radio was saying. Usually I could only pick out words and phrases, especially if the song was Jordanian. Lebanese and Egyptian songs I can understand without too much trouble, but Jordanian, Gulf, and Iraqi songs I have trouble with, especially if they are poetic songs with a real meaning. Pop songs are pretty simple most of the time. I don't feel very discouraged by finding songs difficult to understand though. I can rarely understand what songs in English are saying the first time I listen to them. Songs put emphasis on strange syllables and lengthen and shorten words in order to go with the rhythm of the song which makes understanding everything difficult even for native speakers of the language.

Here is one of my (now) favorite songs that I heard in a taxi in Amman. It's sung by Omar Abdallat (عمر عبداللات) who specializes in singing songs about Jordan, things like the police, the cities, Bedouins, King Abdullah, and basically anything praising the country. The song is called Deer Balak Ablaadak (دير بالك ع بلادك) and means something like "look out for your country." The song is very bagpipe heavy like a lot of the national music in Jordan. I found that rather strange but I guess it's a relic from the British mandate there. When you go to the Roman ruins around the country there are usually a few people playing bagpipes for tips. The lyrics are posted below the song. Enjoy!

حيو سيدنا حيوه الأردن ما في زيو
دير بالك عبــــلادك بـالعلالي خليها
زي ما بتحب ولادك جـواة عيونك خبيها

قولوا الله قولوا الله
ألاردن حلو يا ماشاالله

يا عماني ويا زرقاوي ويا معاني ويا بلقاوي
يا عقباوي ويا ربداوي ويا كركي ويا ماداباوي
يا طفيلي ويا عجلوني ويا جرشي ويا مفرقاوي

أردنية هاشمية مملكتنا هية هية
هية الحب وهية الخير ودير بالك عليها

هالله هالله يا محلاك هالله هالله والله روحي فداك

اردني وراسي عالي وبالعلالي عليناه وعاللالي ولالي ولالي وعليناه

اهواه وافداه سبحان اللي سواه

هو عشقي هو دمي وروحي ونبضي وقلبي وهمي

هو ابويه هو امي وخيي وجدي وخالي وعمي كبار صغار

احرار انغار

وهاي الاردن اغلى دار اهواه وافداه عشقي نبض قلبي دمي روحي معاه

اردن يا حبيب القلب مهما الدرب يوديني

لو لفينا شرق وغرب غيرك ما يملى عيني

قولوا الله قولوا الله
ألاردن حلو يا ماشاالله

يا عماني ويا زرقاوي ويا معاني ويا بلقاوي
يا عقباوي ويا ربداوي ويا كركي ويا ماداباوي
يا طفيلي ويا عجلوني ويا جرشي ويا مفرقاوي

أردنية هاشمية مملكتنا هية هية

هية الحب وهية الخير ودير بالك عليها

حيو سيدنا حيوه الأردن ما في زيو

Vocab List:

زي ما بتحب اولادك (zay ma bitheb awladak) - like you love your children
جواة عيونك خبيها (joowaat ayoonak khabiiha) - inside your eyes hide it (Jordan)
لو لفينا شرق و غرب (low leffeyna sharq oo garb) - if we turned (searched) east and west
غيرك ما يملى عيني (gheyrak ma yamla aini) - (no one) else but you fills my eye

Levantine Arabic: Words and Phrases

2010-06-11T19:45:00.001-04:00

- right away - على راسي ('ala rasi) or على عيني ('ala 'aini)

- please - دخيلك (dakheelak)

- the guys are waiting for us - الشباب ناطريننا (al-shabab naatreena)

- the door is closed - الباب مسكر (al-bab msakkir)

- if only (I wish) - يا ريت (ya rayt)

- ice cream - بوظة (booza)

- give it here, let's see - هات لشوف (haat lashoof)

- God give you health - الله يعطيك العافية (allah ya'teek al-'aafia) and الله يعافيك (allah y'aafeek)

- turn on the A/C - شغّل مكيف الهوا (shaggil mkayyif al-hawa)

- turn off the light - طفي الضو (taffi al-daw)

- loosen the screw - رخّي البرغي (rakhkhi al-burghi)

- pretty young girl (teenage - 25) - فرفورة (farfoora)

- cat - بسينة (bsayni)

- totally lost (like a deaf guy at a wedding) - زي الأطرش بالزفة (zay al-atrash bil-zeffi)

GLOSS now has Arabic dialects!

2010-05-31T17:58:00.006-04:00

It's been a while since I visited the GLOSS website. For the past few months I've just been watching Arabic TV shows, but when I saw it yesterday I noticed that it now has Arabic dialect lessons! There are lessons for Levantine, Iraqi, Gulf, and Egyptian. When I looked at the Levantine lessons the first few I went to were all recorded by someone reading something that was written down. The way people read is a lot different than the way they talk off the top of their head with nothing to look at. Talking is a lot harder to understand than reading since talking is usually a bit jumbled and not so proper. Even natives make mistakes when they're talking. Things being read are great if you're starting out on a dialect because everything is really clear and spoken slowly so you can hear every syllable and learn new words, however if you only ever hear speech like that (slow, clear, meant for learners of the language) then you'll have a lot of trouble with fast everyday speech spoken between natives of the language.

There are also authentic materials from the media on GLOSS though, so you'll find something that suites you. And best of all there are transcripts of what is being said. That way you don't have to wonder if you're hearing the word correctly or not. Some of the audio is very distorted and low quality which is good for advanced learners in my opinion, but if you're just beginning it can be frustrating. If you find a clip where the audio quality is bad you can click the button at the bottom labeled "alternate audio" to get the audio of someone reading the text. I used GLOSS a lot when I was studying MSA and now that they have dialects I plan to go through all of those lessons too. I don't actually do the lessons. I just open the audio and transcript and go through it until I can hear and understand everything. If you want you can go through the questions they ask, but personally I haven't found them to be very useful. GLOSS is also starting to add videos with transcripts and they have 22 right now for MSA, but currently there are no videos for the dialects.

Trip to Jordan

2010-05-29T16:35:00.013-04:00

It's been a while since I've posted and the reason for that is that I've been vacationing in Jordan for a month and a half and the internet at the hotel was slower than dial-up. I saw a lot of the tourist stuff. I went to Petra البتراء, Jerash جرش, Um Qais ام قيس, Aqaba العقبة, and The Dead Sea البحر الميت. All of them were amazing, but what was even better than the sightseeing was the chance to practice Arabic. Everyone is really happy to speak with you, but sometimes you run into the problem of them wanting to speak English and you wanting to speak Arabic since most people have at least basic English. There were positives and negatives to the trip as far as my language learning goes. Something positive was that I was mistaken for being Lebanese almost every time I entered a taxi and any time I started a conversation. I imagine that is due to all the LBC I watch. If the other person started the conversation it would usually be in English because until I start talking I don't look like someone who speaks Arabic. On the flight home the Jordanian man next to me who I was speaking Arabic with asked me if I was from the West Bank or Jordan because he couldn't tell. It makes all the hard work you put into learning a language worth it when someone mistakes you for being a native speaker even when you don't look like you're "from around these parts". I mean I don't exactly look Arab. I'm pretty much the most pasty white person you'll ever meet (Irish and German decent) and I have a lot of freckles.

The negative part of the trip is that now I realize that I still have a lot of studying to do before I can understand everything being said. The Jordanian dialect is like a mix of Iraqi, Palestinian, and Bedouin. They use بدي (I want) but most people pronounce the ق as a 'g'. There were some people I could understand easily and others with whom I was totally lost. Most of the times I was lost were when I was talking with less educated people, and I suppose it's this way wherever you go. When you learn a language your teachers are most likely very educated people as are all the news anchors and media personalities you listen to. Even in soap operas that are in dialect the speech is usually very proper and without too much slang so that Arabic speakers from other areas can watch and understand. The language you learn is, more often than not, the language spoken by people who have college degrees. This is good in a way since you are learning the "proper" way to speak the language, but bad in that you're not getting exposure to less educated ways of speaking. Even when teachers speak in their dialect I find that it's an educated form of the dialect and very different than what is spoken by the poor and uneducated. I'm not really sure how to get exposure to this kind of language aside from living in a few Arabic countries for a while since you can't really find the slang of the streets on TV or online.

All in all I am very pleased with my time in Jordan. It's a great country and even though it is in smack dab in the center of the Middle East and is surrounded by countries plagued by violence it has an extremely low crime rate and the government takes preventing terrorism very seriously. When we went to eat in a 5 star hotel the taxi dropping us off was wiped with a cloth on the steering wheel and the dashboard. We asked the taxi driver why they did that and he told us that it was to test for traces of explosives. Jordan realizes that terrorism is bad for tourism.

Arabic Travel Show: Aishha Marra عيشها مرة

2010-04-03T19:46:00.003-04:00

Aishha Marra (Live It Once) عيشها مرة is a new travel show on MBC hosted by an Irishman named Sean Redmond. As far as westerners speaking Arabic goes he is the best I've seen. His accent is just like a native and if you saw him dressed in Arab clothes you'd think he WAS an Arab. It's just so rare to see anyone who isn't an Arab, especially someone from the west, speaking Arabic. I was in Jordan one time at a conference and there was a man from China or Taiwan (I don't remember) who was speaking Arabic. He didn't speak it without accent, but it was really good. As soon as he started speaking you could hear the whole room gasp. I mean how often do you see someone from China speaking Arabic? Everyone applauded loudly after he was done.

Sean Redmond studied Arabic when he was in college and then moved around the Arab world teaching Arabic and English. This clip is in MSA as is most of the show, but he throws in some Saudi dialect and accent from time to time. The entire clip can be found here. If you want to see him switching between English and Arabic on a cooking show he hosts called Traditional Meals with Sean Redmond go here. I had never heard him speaking English before seeing that.

حياكم الله. أنا شون ردموند و اهلا و سهلا فيكم في برنامج عيشها مرة, البرنامج إللي رح يأخذكم في جولة حول العالم و أنتم جالسين ببيوتكم (Hayaakum allah. Ana Shawn Redmond wa ahla wa sahla feekum fee burnaamaj aishha marra, al burnaamaj illi rah yakhudhkum fee jawla hawl al aalam wa entum jaaliseen ib byootkum.)

God bless you. I am Shawn Redmond and hello and welcome to Aishha Marra (Live It Once), the program that will take you on a trip around the world while you are sitting in your homes.

اليوم عيشها مرة بإسطنبول إللي كانت لمدة ألف و سبعمئة سنة عاصمة لروما و بيزنطة و الدولة العثمانية. و الآن بعام ألفين و عشرة عاصمة اوروبا الثقافية (Al youm aishha marra bistanbul illi kaanat li muddat alf wa seba miat sena aasima li roma wa bizanta wa al dawla al uthmania wa al aan bi aam alfayn wa ashara aasimat awrooba al thaqafiyya.

Today Aishha Marra (Live It Once) is in Istanbul which was, for the duration of 1,700 years, the capital of Rome, Byzantium, and the Ottoman empire, and now in the year 2010 the cultural capital of Europe.

تعتبر إسطنبول المدينة الكبيرة الوحيدة الواقعة بين القارتين آسيا و اوروبا. صحيح ان انقرة هي العاصمة التركية إلا أن إسطنبول بقيت أهم مركز لالسياحة و الثقافة و التجارة و الصناعة في الصيف و الشتاء. و زيارتي لإسطنبول صادفت أنها في عز الشتاء (Tu'tabar istanbul al madeena al kabeera al waheeda al waqi'a beyn al qaaratayn aasia wa awrooba. Saheeh anna ankara hiya al aasima turkiya illa anna istanbul baqiyat ahem markaz lil siyaaha wa al thaqaafa wa al tijaara wa al sinaa'a fee al seyf wa al shitaa'. Wa ziyaarati li istanbul saadafat annaha fee 'iz al shitaa'. )

Istanbul is considered the only big city located between the 2 continents Asia and Europe. It's true that Ankara is the Turkish capital, however Istanbul has remained the most important center for tourism, culture, trade, and manufacturing in the summer and winter. And my visit to Istanbul happened to be in the dead of winter.

في حلقتنا قصر السلطان من ألف ليلة و ليلة. الغراند بازار, أكثر من أربعة آلاف محل فقط. سجادة حصلت على جائزة الاوسكر للسجاد. الطبخ التقليدي التركي خرب للدايت (Fi halqatna qasr al sultaan min alf leyla wa leyla. Al grand bazaar akthar min arba't aalaaf mahal fuqut. Sijaada hasalat 'ala jaa'izat al oscar lil sijjad. Al tabkh al taqleedi al turky kharrab lil diet.)

In our (this) episode, the Sultan's palace from 1001 Nights. The Grand Bazar, more than 4,000 stores only. A rug that got the Oscar prize for rugs. Traditional Turkish cooking destroys the diet.

Vocab List:

و انتم جالسين ببيوتكم - Literally this says "and you are sitting in your homes", but this is how you express "while (when) you are sitting in your homes" as well. So the first sentence of the clip is best translated as "the program that takes you on a trip around the world WHILE you are sitting in your homes." not "AND you are sitting in your homes" like it literally says. You will hear people say كنت أنا و صغير. It doesn't mean "I was me and little". It means "when I was small" or "when I was a kid". It isn't as common to say لما كنت صغيراً , literally "when I was small".
إللي - the dialect word for "which". It replaces الذي and التي and all the other words like that. It's MUCH easier to use since you don't have to think about which gender or conjugation is correct.
صادف - to happen by chance. You can also say شفتها بصدفة (shifta bi sudfa) "I saw her by chance (coincidence)."
خرب - to destroy