A Sea of Vocabulary

My #ArabicWithAlex posts are becoming shorter, and I apologize. There’s nothing new to report as I am sinking into a regular routine of learning new letters and vocabulary and attempting to force my mouth to make new sounds that aren’t found in the English language but are in Arabic. 

Tuesday, September 15

For the first time this semester, I had formal homework due! I emailed my professor a PDF of my scanned homework, and she replied saying my handwriting is beautiful. I genuinely enjoy writing in the Arabic script and find it so much fun… when I remember the correct letters and all their positions!

During class, we were sent into breakout rooms on Zoom, and there’s this one guy who I have a lot of respect for. His parents are Egyptian, so he can speak the Egyptian dialect well but doesn’t know how to write or read it. I asked him if creating a group chat for the class would be a good idea… misery loves company, right? He agreed it would be, so I created a GroupMe. It’s nice to be in communication with the other students in the class. 

Thursday, September 17

We started a new chapter on Thursday and learned four new letters: د [daal], ذ [dhaal], ر [raa], and ز [zaay]. Yes, I’m aware they all look alike. But for someone learning English, b, d, p, q, all look similar. And we also learned our numbers! (I feel like I’m in kindergarten again, haha.) Technically, the numbers we see on a daily basis are Arabic numbers, but the numbers in Arabic script look like this: 

I also learned that since the number 0 is a dot, commas replace decimal points. (#TheMoreYouKnow!)

I’ve spent a good portion of this week working on Quizlet and making flashcards. It’s difficult, however, because I need to quiz myself on the Arabic script and the romanticized Arabic, not to mention the English translation so I can know what I’m learning. I basically need a 3-way flashcard. I’ve made three different flashcard sets per vocab list, per dialect. In short, there’s a lot of flashcards. I might have to switch to a different platform. I really didn’t do a lot of digging before I started making flashcards. As always, I will keep you updated on my progress. 

I have my first quiz next Tuesday, so when I post next Friday, I will let you know how that goes!

Arabic Word of the Week

book / ktaab / کتاب