BBC Arabic radio has a regular feature to teach some English language (اللغة الانجليزيه - lughata inglizia) to Arabic listeners. BBC also posts these audio clips on its website, along with accompanying written information. While intended for people learning English, these BBC features are useful the other way around, for learning Arabic, to hear the Arabic equivalents of the words spoken and how they are used in sentences.
In this segment, they discuss the words (كالمات) “prefer” (أفضل - afadil) which is a verb (فعل), and how it differs from the word “preference” (مفضلة - mufadila) which is a noun (اسم). For example, انا افضل الموز (I prefer bananas). Examples they use are music preferences, such as يفضل موسيقى الكلاسيكيه (yufadilu musica clasikia), “He prefer classical music”.
The segment also discusses the words “popular” (محبوب - mahbub) compared to “popularity” (شعبية - shabiya). For example, يتمتع محبوب (yatamatta mahbub) - “he enjoys popularity”, with the word used as a noun.
The segment ends with discussion of the English phrase, “to make your mind up”, using the Arabic word “to decide” (قرر - qarrara) and “decision” (قرار - qarar).
Al Jazeera posts video clips and programs on YouTube. Watching these helps with learning vocabulary, pronunciation, and improving listening comprehension. This video is from last spring, about the Mahdi Army in Iraq. The word for “army” is جيس (jeish).
In December, scientists announced the discovery of fossils of a species believed to be the ancestor of the whale. It is a deer-like creature, the size of a raccoon, that lived in the Kashmir region. The discovery was reported in numerous news articles, including BBC News:
The title of this article begins with the phrase “scientific discovery” (كتشاف علمي). This is an example of how adjectives are used. Adjectives follow the noun that they describe or modify. In this case, the noun is إكتشاف (iktashafa) - discovery. The adjective is علمي (a’lmee) - scientific, which is a variation of the word علم (a’lm) - science. Turning nouns such as “science” into adjectives (”scientific”) is a nisba (relative noun). Forming a nisba involves adding ي (ee) for nouns ending in a consonant.
Other words in the title here include:
حيوان (hayawan) - animal
اصل (asl) - original
حوت (huut) - whale
شبه (shibh) - resemblance; شابه (shabaha) - resemble
غزال (ghazal) - gazelle
The title of the article translates as “scientific discovery: origins of the whale, an animal resembling the gazelle”.
Hosam El Sokkari, head of BBC Arabic, has announced that the BBC will launch an Arabic-language television channel in the new year. This is on top of the BBC Arabic radio service (streaming online) and the BBC Arabic news website.
The radio broadcasts have already been useful to me, helping me learn pertinent (”in the news”) type vocabulary. such as سيارة مفخخة (car bomb) and الرئيس “al rees” (president), along with basic vocabulary including السنة “senata” - year and بين “beyna” - between. It also helps to reinforce what I have learned in class and studying with my texts.
Though, I learned of BBC Arabic streaming audio before I discovered excellent material on YouTube in Arabic, including videos that Al Jazeera posts. Hopefully, BBC Arabic will be posting videos on its website. Having pictures to go along with what they say is very helpful for picking up new vocabulary.
Family Guy, which is a popular animated show in the United States, is also aired in parts of the Middle East (Kuwait, elsewhere?). This clip shows Stewie and his mother.
The word for mother is أم (umm). Father is أب (ab) or والد (walid). As with most any noun, you can indicate possession by attaching a pronoun suffix to the word. The suffix for first person singular (my) is ي (ee). Thus, to say my father, it’s أبي (abee) or والدي (walidee), and my mother is أمي (ummee).
Stewie is calling his mother (Lois), saying أمي (ummee) (mommy). He also uses some slang, saying “mama”. He also says “yo ma”. This sounds like slang, though in Arabic, using “yo” or “ya” when calling someone (e.g. ya sammy or ya ummee) is a common way of addressing people.
His mother responds, saying وجع (waji’a). I’m not 100% sure if I understand this correctly, but I don’t think there is a direct, literal translation for this in the context here. وجع (waji’a) translates as “pain”, “to voice one’s pain”, commiserate, and as a noun, وجع (waja’) means pain, ache, or ailment. In the English version of this video clip, the mother responds by saying “What!!!”. In the Arabic version, she may be saying that Stewie is being a pain or annoyance.
After the mother responds, Stewie says كَيفَ الحال؟ (kayf hal) - How are you? In the English version, Stewie just says “Hi”. Here is the English version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2jNk57uHGw
Being able to surf the web, search Google in Arabic, use Microsoft Word in Arabic, and other tasks on the computer is an immense help in learning the language. On the other hand, setting up the computer for typing in Arabic seems complicated? Actually, Windows XP and some other operating systems make it simple to do, if you know where to look to change the settings.
Enabling Arabic in Windows XP
If you have Windows XP, go to the “Control Panel” -> “Regional and Language Options”. Then, click on the “Languages” tab, and check the box, “Install files for complex script and right-to-left languages (including Thai)” . This also enables Arabic language features.
After you do that, you should add the “Language bar” to your task bar (the blue bar, with the start button, icons, …). Do that by right clicking, and go to “Toolbars”. Having that available allows you to easily switch the keyboard from English to Arabic, and back again.
If you have other operating systems, then take a look at this Multilingual Computing article.
Arabic keyboard
How to know what letters correspond with which keys on the keyboard? There is a built-in “On-Screen Keyboard” in Windows XP, which can be accessed from “Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Accessibility”. You can use that to learn which keys go with which Arabic letters.
Another option is to print off a “cheat sheet”, such as this Arabic Keyboard diagram and reference that when typing. The shift key can be used to access extra letters and diacritical marks.
Lately, I have spent time learning vocabulary and focusing on adjectives. This includes words such as طيب (tayyib), which means “good”, مبسوت (mabsoot) which is “happy”, as well as adjectives to describe not so happy situations or conditions. The word for “awful” is فظيع (fathee). To reinforce these words, it helps to find examples where they are used on sites like YouTube.
Searching for فظيع, over 30 videos come up in the search. One of these is titled حادث قطار مصر. I already have seen the word حادث (hadath), which can translate as “event”, as well as “accident” or “incident”. مصر (misr) is the word for Egypt. قطار (qitar) is the word for “train”. In Arabic, adjectives will follow nouns that they describe or modify. In this case, it’s حادث (accident, event, …). What kind of accident? The word قطار (train) serves as an adjective, describing what kind of accident.
The video was posted to Google Video in October 2006. On English-language news sites, I quickly found out what this is.
I assume the video is of the August 2006 crash, though apparently train wrecks are not so unusual in Egypt, with the rail system very antiquated. When I’m in Egypt in the summer, I will need to travel around, beyond Cairo. This includes traveling to Alexandria. Traveling by train seemed like a good option, but now I don’t know. It’s probably still safe, but who knows?
Anyway, here is the video footage that I found. فظيع (awful) is indeed appropriate to describe it, so caution.
When reading news stories in Arabic, you will find that names of people are spelled out using Arabic letters. Here are some names in the news in the United States:
جون ادواردز translates as “John Edwards”
هيلاري كلينتون is the name, “Hillary Clinton”
باراك أوباما translates as “Barack Obama”
Another name that is often in the news is جورج دبليو بوش (George W. Bush).
I am studying Arabic at the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC, and will be in Egypt in the summer. This site covers Arabic grammar, vocabulary, and other aspects of the Arabic language, and makes frequent use of YouTube videos, news, and other Arabic language resources on the Internet.
In December, scientists announced the discovery of fossils of a species believed to be the ancestor of the whale. It is a deer-like creature, the size of a raccoon, that lived in the Kashmir region. The discovery was reported in numerous news articles, including BBC News:
