Axis of Evil
I am now the gleeful possessor of several *really cool* books about Arabic. Top find: an English-Arabic dictionary of the Levantine dialect I've been learning for the past couple of years. So much better than asking someone for each word... I even found a reference grammar for the same dialect!!! Dialect heaven (except we are missing the Arabic-English half of the dictionary...).
Another great book is "Using Arabic". This covers the different levels of formality, and how they differ in grammar, vocab, etc. Best of all- the dialect used for all the vocabulary examples is Levantine! Yes!!!!!!
The other day my long-awaited copy of "The Top 1,000 Words for Understanding Media Arabic" arrived. This is a really cool little book. I have wasted a lot of time trying to find words I heard on the radio in the dictionary, with a really low success rate. Yes, I was looking forward to learning words for "journalist", "high-level sources" and "to refute, deny, repudiate", in addition to all the names of organizations. What is the point of listening to Arabic news if you don't even know what their take on terrorists and hostages are, because you don't know the words for them?
Thumbing through in the most geeky way, planning which words to memorize first, I suddenly saw, "Axis of Evil". Goodness. The thought of someone coining an Arabic phrase for this really had me ROTFL!!! I suppose it was necessary. In such an evil world, it's a good thing some of us are still "optimists".
BTW, I can now say, "Elementary, my dear Watson" in Arabic.
Another great book is "Using Arabic". This covers the different levels of formality, and how they differ in grammar, vocab, etc. Best of all- the dialect used for all the vocabulary examples is Levantine! Yes!!!!!!
The other day my long-awaited copy of "The Top 1,000 Words for Understanding Media Arabic" arrived. This is a really cool little book. I have wasted a lot of time trying to find words I heard on the radio in the dictionary, with a really low success rate. Yes, I was looking forward to learning words for "journalist", "high-level sources" and "to refute, deny, repudiate", in addition to all the names of organizations. What is the point of listening to Arabic news if you don't even know what their take on terrorists and hostages are, because you don't know the words for them?
Thumbing through in the most geeky way, planning which words to memorize first, I suddenly saw, "Axis of Evil". Goodness. The thought of someone coining an Arabic phrase for this really had me ROTFL!!! I suppose it was necessary. In such an evil world, it's a good thing some of us are still "optimists".
BTW, I can now say, "Elementary, my dear Watson" in Arabic.
posted by Goldberry | 11:17 PM
4 Comments:
I've got to ask... what led to your interest in Arabic? I've wanted to study it before, just because I think the writing system is so beautiful, but I went with Hebrew instead.
You really got me laughing w/ the Watson line. :-)
Good question, Laura. I think my interest in Arabic began with an interest in Islam. My bachelor's was in South Asian Studies, so I learned Urdu, the language of Pakistan and Muslim India, which is written in Arabic script. Then I started liking Arabic music and food, and of course it's hard to understand lyrics without knowing Arabic... I also found an Arabic radio station, and it drove me nuts listening to the news, etc. and not being able to understand it. I kept listening for 5 or 6 years before the opportunity came to start learning. Now finally the job market looks good for Arabic enthusiasts, so I decided to go back to school! Arabic is very poetic, very strong and rhythmical. When I speak it, I feel like I am really saying something! It is so different from English that it really opens a window on the Arab mind...
P.S. Arabic and Hebrew are incredibly similar, so if you learned the Arabic alphabet, and you know Hebrew pretty well, you could probably pick up Arabic without too much trouble. (Not that I know Hebrew.)
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