Categories: uncategorized
Date: 18 February 2006 11:23:31
A bit of amusement at the beginning of class. Despite finishing at page 4 last week, we were told to read pages 40-47. It seemed like a bit of a jump, but we thought, "Hey, maybe we're covering this first." It was very difficult. Reading was alright, but understanding it was a completely different story. We got to class today, told Nejmeh [our teacher] we found it a bit difficult [well, most of us: the Arabic among us fared better!]: and then she said, "I didn't say that, did I? Oh no! That is one of the last things we'll cover in this course!" At least we're prepared for it!
Like French and German, Arabic has genders [thankfully no neuter like our Teutonic friends] and of course there is no logic. One must learn them individually. But, thanks be to God, the endings to form masculine and feminine [e.g. male student and female student] are fairly stable. Also interesting is that adding the ending for feminine words changes father to mother or husband to wife, among others. That makes things much easier than learning new words.
We also reviewed how to form the definite article and the associated rules of pronunciation. Basically, you add an "AL" at the front: but if the word begins with certain letters, the "L" is "swallowed up" and the consonant [Arabic words must begin with a consonant] following is doubled. As if that was not enough fun, when the definite article is preceded by another word, the "A" may also be dropped. Rather interesting.
We also learnt how to pronounce various drinks and foods, and in the process found that in certain areas of Lebanon the "ka" sound is dropped -- laziness, perhaps? So kawa [coffee] becomes awa; baklawa [baklava -- no vs or ps in Arabic] becomes balawa. I'm sure we have these things in English [Australian English in particular: we love short-hand], but it's rather disconcerting when learning a new language.
But all good fun. I do love learning Arabic.