Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Arabic lesson 1

I recently came across a how to learn Arabic books for English speaking students, and the series looks pretty promising. Promising as in when I opened the first chapter I didn't feel like throwing the book away because it looks too hard. And so I asked my other half to join me in the quest of mastering this strange language that ironically, was the first language we heard when we were babies.

Last night the first lesson occurred.

me: Ok...our first word is 'hazaa' or this is.

him: hazaa lamb madghut! hazaa lamb kabsah! hazaa sishtawa! haza haza haza!

me: LAMB is english. now concentrate. ok 'dikun.' guess what is it? it sounds like 'kooo koooo koooo.'

him: owl! man, your owl sound is terrible! but its an owl nevertheless.next!

me: no, that was a rooster. koooo koooo koooooo!

him: a rooster? are you nuts?

and then we argued about the sounds of rooster and owl for ten minutes.

me: ok... haza mindilun (wave something around)

him:...... mmm tak faham.

me: ok (pretending to wipe my face)

him: oh i know i know! orang asli!

me: its a handkerchief!!! why would they teach orang asli in the first vocab group?

him: but you looked like you letak tepung kat muka. orang asli!

me: ok hazaa hazaa mindilun. HANDKERCHIEF.

him: naam naam naam. now you teach next (weird arabic accent coming)

me: hang on, why are you starting to sound like my foreign students?

him: so you get the culture yes! Arab arab! (weirder Arabic accent heard, and yes with hands waving)

me: ok...hiss..hissoo...hissan, with a 'sod'

him: gee... you sound italian. you italiano? where you come from? (Italian accent coming)

me: shut uppppp!!! ok qqqqiit qittun.

him: qqqqqiiitttunnn no?? you French I know from your accent!

and he laughed at me for 10 minutes and couldn't stop.

me: okayyyy..'ahaaza' is this. (showing a picture of key) 'ahaaza najmun?'

him: naam naam. la' la' la' hazal miftah.

me: miftahun.

him/ Arabic stranger: no no no.. i say AL so no sukun at the end. I Arab. I very clever. AL no sukun. naam? AL is here. sukun delete. you get? you understand?

me: naam weird Arabic guy...ok ahaaza babun?

him: naam naam naam! (shouting now very excited)

and then we learnt about the Arabic alphabets, the division of solar and lunar words.

him: solar sun!!!! lunar moon!!!

me: yes...hmm calm down. the solar uses the tip of the tongue like t, n,

hi: ttttt, nnnnnnn

and it goes on a bit like that. when I asked him to be my study partner I envisioned nights of serious studying and discussions...and now...I wonder what I've gotten myself into.


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