I The Plan I went into this project wanting to study Arabic graffiti in Berlin. Having learned Arabic (MSA) for the past year, I’ve not only fallen in love with the language but, combined with my interest in the politics of public space, have also learned a great deal about Arabic graffiti in Arab countries […]
Tag: Arabic
! لبنان – بيروت
I have just completed a full academic year of Arabic. !ممتاز I’ve been timid about writing a lot in Arabic, except when we have to write short essays and compositions for tests and the final exams. I sometimes forget that I’m capable of saying quite a bit. So, in an effort to remember all I’ve […]
Take two!
If you’ve been reading along, you may remember me talking about a study abroad program to Berlin that I had been accepted to for last Fall quarter. I wound up deciding to withdraw for several reasons – some that I won’t go into detail here (but quickly summed up as lack of faith in the […]
!لحَمْد للها
لحَمْد للها means “Alhamdulillah!” which literally means “praise God!” “God” figures quite largely within the Arabic language, but I (and many Arabic speakers) are atheists so in that case it’s an exclamation of joy, for example: I’m feeling better – Alhamdulillah! The bus showed up on time – Alhamdulillah! I found some chocolate in the cabinet – Alhamdulillah! Or, […]
اللغة العربية
اللغة العربية School is rough going this quarter. I was so excited about my classes last quarter – well… if I think about it, I was really excited about ONE class but it was enough to make the entire quarter exciting. I was also really excited about the major I had switched over to. This […]
قهوة
That word up there is “coffee”, btw. A very important word, always but also one that took me some time to get accustomed to in my Arabic vocabulary. Someone asked me, a few days ago, if I could say a bunch of things in Arabic now and I laughed. It’s been, what… three and a […]
right left right left
marHaba! The quarter began mid last week and this Monday marks the beginning of the first full week of classes. My classes are all interesting and fun and OH MY GOD, I mentioned that I’m learning Arabic, right? On one hand, it’s no big thing – this is what I do! I learn languages! I […]
right to left
Hey, guess what! I’m not just learning German now, I’m learning Arabic, too! I am not entirely sure how that came about other than that Arabic is another language that’s been at the top of my list to learn for many, many years. And I expect Arabic to be quite useful if what I want […]