Lesson 4 and No More, Please

Tuesday, April 27

We started a new unit today in class (and hopefully it’s the last one of the semester). I really like these classes, because it’s pretty chill. My professor spends a large amount of time going over the new vocabulary and explaining it to us. We also learned the conjugation for the verb “was” before moving onto a few class exercises, one of them involving finding the iDaafas in the sentences. Class went by pretty quickly, but I was fairly tired due to getting my second COVID vaccine shot the day before. After my classes, I took a nap. 

Thursday, April 29

Today was all about verbs. In the Arabic language, there are ten different verb forms. Now, the verb pattern is the same most of the time, but the initial verb form differs slightly from form to form. The lecture took up most of the class time, so it was an intensive learning day. However, at the very end, my professor started talking about Middle Eastern culture and different foods found in the region. 

I got several restaurant recommendations located in New York City and I’m looking forward to trying them out when I’m back out east again. I live in a very rural area with not a lot of diversity, but in a large town just north of me there’s a Lebanese café that I’ve been dying to visit. One guy made the remark that “there is no good falafel in America.” While I don’t have much of an opinion on that, I know that food just tastes better when it’s made and consumed in the region it originates from. 

Just four more classes and an exam and I’m done with Arabic for the semester… I can hardly believe it. 

Arabic Word of the Week

childhood / altufula / الطّفولة

P.S. It’s Friday. Be adventurous with your food.