Learning Arabic... Finally.

[Awesome]

What's the problem with the Egyptian dialect? Is it radically different than the one spoken here?

To you or me, probably nothing. But I think among Arabs, Egyptians have, what will be most closely described as a Pathan like status among Arabs.

But this I'm talking about pre-Mubarak. Post Mubarak its just weird. They were supposed to be the fun loving guys. In our school, the funniest kid, class clown would be an Egyptian. Now I'm not so sure. Haven't interacted with an Egyptian for a while. Come to think of it, I think they have really reduced around UAE, especially since when I was in school there would always be like 1/5 Egyptians.

 

[Imran Khan]

i learn read and write long before but its only arabic of ksa

 

[A.Rafay]

I can understand and talk Arabic but not fluently, i have only learned it by hearing and talking with some saudis i meet in day to day life. i have spent 10 years here in saudi, I have seen bangalis speek arabic fluently only after a year.

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

To you or me, probably nothing. But I think among Arabs, Egyptians have, what will be most closely described as a Pathan like status among Arabs.

But this I'm talking about pre-Mubarak. Post Mubarak its just weird. They were supposed to be the fun loving guys. In our school, the funniest kid, class clown would be an Egyptian. Now I'm not so sure. Haven't interacted with an Egyptian for a while. Come to think of it, I think they have really reduced around UAE, especially since when I was in school there would always be like 1/5 Egyptians.

I have noticed that too, they have changed and not as funny as they used to be.

 

[Zarvan]

So after spending 30+ years in the UAE, I've finally decided to learn some Arabic. Unlike other Arabian countries, English and Urdu have a very strong presence here and people like me just never felt the need to learn Arabic.

Of course its a massive asset, you can get by without knowing a word in Arabic as 99% of UAE's non-Arab expats do everyday, but you can't excel in the core governmental departments without knowing Arabic.

Unlike in most other countries, in UAE anything governmental is always the best. Like Government hospitals, Government Universities (not so much for schools) and even Government run organizations. They give the biggest pay checks too.

Now the CDs I got for learning are very good. The instructor is some western accent woman but she explains it very nicely. The emphasis is on spoken Arabic (I can read Arabic obviously because of the Quran) and getting you conversant really fast. Although the instructor mentions that she's teaching Egyptian Arabic, since that's understood everywhere. I don't know how true that is. She says that since the cinema is mostly Egyptian, all Arabs have been exposed to Egyptian Arabic thoroughly.

Coming from an Urdu background, I picked up a lot of the foundation things really fast like grammar rules.

So has anyone else tried to learn Arabic and what were their experiences?
@Mosamania @BLACKEAGLE @nuclearpak @Imran Khan @JonAsad

what CDs did you bought please give me the name off this CDs I would also like to study and learn from them

 

[livingdead]

what CDs did you bought please give me the name off this CDs I would also like to study and learn from them

Even you dont know arabic?

 

[Awesome]

what CDs did you bought please give me the name off this CDs I would also like to study and learn from them

Learn Arabic - Learn to Speak Arabic with The Michel Thomas Method

 

[Awesome]

Today I got something called Learn Gulf Arabic. The instructor wasn't as good, but again there were some weirdness.

Kaif el Halak? How are you? Simple enough...

But if you're asking a woman, its supposed to be Kaif el Halish?

I thought its just supposed to be like Halak, and Halik...

I think I'm going to try and find something that will teach me Emirati Arabic. Man choosing the "right Arabic" (right for me) lessons is so stressful.

 

[Mosamania]

What will be better to use in the Gulf Region

Where is he?

Huwa Fain?

Fain Huwa?

Also, is it it Fain or Wain? I've grown up hearing terms like Wain bataka? I'm happy to learn the slang and the shortcuts, as long as they are acceptable in the UAE. Also thing to note is, some slang only sounds good out of a particular nationality. An Egyptian would get by saying Eh da? A Pakistani would probably send others ROFL.

You see my goal is not to pass an Arabic Literature exam, it is to be conversant. So technically Fussha Arabic would be counter productive as its probably not used... Or I think its only used by Sudanese people.



Just 1 hr ago I was discussing my predicament with an Emirati colleague and his suggestion was to "Go slap your teacher for teaching you Egyptian dialect". I told him its a CD, he said slap her still

About the Omani thing he said, just stay away. Egyptian is better than Omani as you can't even call it Arabic. Khair, I'm not really out here to judge. To me they all sound Arabic-ish. But when I noticed a few differences, I was sure native speakers would definitely call me on it.

On the CD the instructor had said the Egyptian dialect is the most widely accepted dialect. Now I'm not so sure how correct it is.

Both Howa Fain and Fain Howa works, Also Fain and Wain are interchangeable. Most people use Wain for every object, while use Fain for people.

Today I got something called Learn Gulf Arabic. The instructor wasn't as good, but again there were some weirdness.

Kaif el Halak? How are you? Simple enough...

But if you're asking a woman, its supposed to be Kaif el Halish?

I thought its just supposed to be like Halak, and Halik...

I think I'm going to try and find something that will teach me Emirati Arabic. Man choosing the "right Arabic" (right for me) lessons is so stressful.

Apparently the "Gulf Arabic" the instructor is referring to is Kuwaiti Arabic, only Kuwaitis and Iraqis change the female "ek" with "esh".

 

[khanboy007]

@Awesome i got some info from my egyptian friend he said the arabic spoken here (UAE) is comprising of farsi/urdu accents and a few words from them too....while the egyptian one is a bit more dedicated towards the proper arabic maybe thats why we have egyptians as arabic teachers and well maybe thats because they are able to differentiate better (in dialects)

 

[Thəorətic Muslim]

.PDFالناس تعلماللغة العربيةعلى

اعتدت Al-Kitaab Companion Site - Home

 

[MastanKhan]

Im tired of speaking English when Im leaving in Arabian Country. This makes no sense. Knowing language is the first step in understanding the culture.

Hi,

Thank you very much for the last sentence in your post---. To know thy enemy---you got to know his language---then you got to start to learn to think in his language. To learn to start to think in that language is the most difficult and crucial part.

For some it never happens---they can just speak the language.

I wish our pakistani cricket team players knew that.

 

[Silverblaze]

Both Howa Fain and Fain Howa works, Also Fain and Wain are interchangeable. Most people use Wain for every object, while use Fain for people.



Apparently the "Gulf Arabic" the instructor is referring to is Kuwaiti Arabic, only Kuwaitis and Iraqis change the female "ek" with "esh".

The problem is that unlike english, arabic does not have the universal standard even within the Arab world. It is very diverse.

I have heard that people now like to learn Modern Standard Arabic which is mostly used for employment purposes.

Some say learn the dialects, but Modern Standard Arabic is better as it gives a new learner some base.

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Today I got something called Learn Gulf Arabic. The instructor wasn't as good, but again there were some weirdness.

Kaif el Halak? How are you? Simple enough...

But if you're asking a woman, its supposed to be Kaif el Halish?

I thought its just supposed to be like Halak, and Halik...

I think I'm going to try and find something that will teach me Emirati Arabic. Man choosing the "right Arabic" (right for me) lessons is so stressful.

It's up to you after-all, but trust me, those CDs or Learn Arabic in Five Days Books will help very little and even could confuse you more especially when you try to learn dialects, there is no such thing as Learning Emarati Arabic or Saudi Arabic, of course you can learn it as only spoken by intermingling with it's people and have a lot of talks, the thing that you didn't achieve after being there for years. Not only every gulf country has it's own dialect but within every country there are different dialects, can you believe that we have in the small Jordan about 10 different local dialects?

You get to learn the standard Arabic and then move into dialects as they are all revolve around it. I have never been to GCC but I can speak their dialect and that's due to getting the standard Arabic first.

Good luck

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Kaif el Halak? How are you? Simple enough...

But if you're asking a woman, its supposed to be Kaif el Halish?

I'll explain this:

The second person pronoun "you" in Arabic is "Ant" (ان&#1578, masculine as in "Anta" and feminine as in "Anti", however, those pronouns can be in some cases omitted and replaced with "Harakat", kasra as in "i" referring to the feminine one and "fatha" as in "a" refering to the masculine. For example:

How are you? is in Arabic Kaifa Haluk? here the second person pronoun you "Ant" is omitted and replaced with harakat, Kaifa haluka? for males and Kaifa haluki? for females?

It's close somehow to the local dialects, Keef Halak? for male gender and keef halish for female one.

It could seem complicated, and that's why I would prefer making a language part of my life rather than just learning it in books.