Language Learning in a Coffeeshop… I Wish

Tuesday, October 20

We started class by going through the past five chapters of vocabulary and categorizing nouns and adjectives are either masculine or feminine. Since Arabic is a gendered language, the noun and the adjective must agree in gender. For example, a new teacher who is a man is أستاذ جديد [jdiid ustaaz], but a new teacher who is a woman is إستاذ جديدة [jdiide ustaaza]. 

Next, we learned four more letters: ط [Taa], ظ [Dhaa], ع [‘ayn], and غ [ghayn]. I like learning new letters because I get to practice my writing skills. After my professor went through the different written positions of these letters, she went through the chapter’s new vocabulary. The theme for this chapter is a coffeehouse, so we learned the words for coffee, tea, sugar, water, drinking, et cetera. 

To practice our vocab, my professor put us in dreaded breakout rooms of two people each, where we had to create a small dialogue with each other. Needless to say, I hate these kinds of exercises. 

Oh, and our professor made us aware of a quiz next week… yay…

Thursday, October 22

Again, I waited until Wednesday to do my homework. I feel like I can’t get a good grip on things for Arabic. However, my professor did tell us that if any of us were not doing as well as she would like, we would have heard from her. So, since I haven’t received an email from her, I think I’m doing okay. In our group chat, one guy pointed out that she seems to prioritize participation and effort. 

All we did on Thursday was go through the different drills from our textbook. One thing I quickly realized is that some letters sound so alike that I’m having a lot of trouble grasping the latest letters. Only time and practicing will help me. 

During class in the group chat, I proposed a study session for us students so we could prepare for the quiz, which is scheduled for next Thursday. We’re going to shoot for next Sunday. I hope it goes well. I’ll report back how the study session and quiz go next week. 

Arabic Word of the Week

coffee / qahwa / قهوة

This week’s #ArabicWithAlex post is dedicated to my Dad, because I know how much he loves his morning coffee.