I was recently at a conference in Boston, which was about geography (جغرافي). It’s because I have been traveling a lot and very busy, that I haven’t been able to post.

Anyway, while walking around the conference center, I noticed someone left a box on a table which had Arabic writing on the outside. This was completely unexpected, so I went to take a look. The box was full of books and journals, with a sign saying “free, please take these”. The books belonged to someone associated with the Kuwait Geographical Society, but they wanted to get rid of them. Of course, I didn’t think many people at the conference knew Arabic, yet alone would want the books. So, I took a bunch and came back a while later, and the rest of them were still there. So, I took all of them.

(If the person who left them reads this, THANK YOU! شكرا)

I’m working on one of the books, which is entitled العالم الثالث - مشكلات و فضايا, which translates as “Third World: Problems and Issues”. I’m getting so far as reading the preface which talks about the purpose of the book.

Some of the words that I am learning, as I read include:

مؤتمر (mu’tamar) - conference, convention

حضور (hudur) - attendance

لقاء (liqa’) - meeting

تنمية (tanmiya) - development

اقتصاد (iqtasad) - economy

زراعة (zira’a) - agriculture

حاجة (haja) - need

نشر (nashara) - to publish

مسلسل (musalsal) - series

As helpful as it is to learn the vocabulary, especially vocabulary related to a topic I’m involved in, it is also helpful to see the writing style used. The author writes in the past tense, using كان (kan) and كانت (kana), which means “was”. For example, كان جميع or “everyone was …”.

Along with learning Arabic grammar, it is very important to build one’s vocabulary. It helps to focus on learning words associated with particular topic areas and be able to converse or comprehend about that topic. It is not practical to learn so many topic areas at once, but focusing this way works. One tool to help me learn is a workbook called Build Your Arabic Vocabulary which is by Haroon Shirwani. The vocabulary words are broken down by topic area, starting from greetings. There is also a CD that might come with the book, depending on which edition you get. I now know most of the greetings and basic phrases. The next section is “House and home”, which I mostly know. I have also put time into learning the “food” vocabulary, which I think is crucial for being able to travel and order from menus.

The Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage has funded a project that will to start with, translate 100 seminal works in science, philosophy, and other areas into Arabic. That includes works by Isaac Newton, Stephen Hawking, Max Planck, Niels Bohr, Stephen Jay Gould, and James Watson. The project will encourage higher quality translations and support marketing and distribution of the books. Kalima (كلمة) means “word” in Arabic.
Science in Arabic - Jascha Hoffman
Kalima project - Abu Dhabi Culture and Heritage