“How Many?”, More like “Are You Okay?”

Tuesday, September 14

Well, I didn’t have any Arabic homework over the weekend… I kept waiting for the email with the assignments but it never came. So, yay, no Arabic homework!

We talked about the question “how many?” and the correct way to answer with numbers. If someone asked me, “How many books have you read this summer?”, my answer grammatically changes based on the number.

• How many books have you read this summer? = كم كتب قرأتِ هذا الصّيف؟

• I read one book this summer. = أقرا كتاب واحد هذا الصّيف

  • If my number answer is 1 (١), the gender of the number matches the noun, and the noun comes before the number. 

• I read two books this summer. = أقرا كتابين هذا الصّيف

  • If my number answer is 2 (٢), there is no number in the sentence, and the noun is changed into its dual form. Yes, there is a dual form in Arabic to signify two things. I’m pretty sure that my professor has said that Arabic is the only language to have a dual form, which is cool from a linguistic point of view but annoying from a language learning point of view. 

• I read seven books this summer. = أقرا سبعة كتب هذا الصّيف

  • If my number answer is 3–10 (١٠–٣), the noun is plural, the gender for the noun and number do not match (WHY?!), and the number comes before the noun. As you could probably imagine, my face was incredulous when my professor said this. She was sympathetic and said “I don’t know why they do this.”

• I read twenty-four books this summer. = أقرا أربع وعشرين كتاباً هذا الصّيف

  • If my number answer is 11 or higher (١١+) the noun is singular and اً- is added to the end as a suffix (it adds the sound “an” to the end), and the number comes before the noun; gender agreement does not matter in this instance.

  • (Also, true story! I did read 24 books this past summer.)

Aren’t you glad you aren’t taking Arabic? I honestly don’t know how I am going to remember all of these rules. Part of me is really glad that I am blogging about my language-learning journey, because now I have this handy chart I wrote and thought through. 

We also talked about adverbs and how to make them. Most of the adverbs in Arabic are easy to spot because they have the suffix اً- at the end (which, again, adds the sound “an” to the end of the word). 

Remember when I was happy about having no Arabic homework over the weekend? Well, unfortunately, that happiness has bitten me in the ass. We have our first quiz next Tuesday, and my professor has saddled us with so much homework. Parts of it are due tomorrow, next Tuesday, and the following Thursday. At least I have the weekend to do the bulk of my studying for the quiz, but goodness—there’s a lot!

Thursday, September 16

In the past I have complained about class many times. However, I have never sat through a class so brutally painful as today. In fact, I had to call my mom after class. Yes, it was bad. 

Some professors you hate to disappoint, and when you do, it’s kinda like disappointing a parent. Yeah, that happened today. My professor piled on so much homework for us to do. I thought a majority of it was due next Tuesday, to help us prepare for the quiz. 

That was a very bad assumption to make.

I did the homework that I thought was due today and went on my merry way. At the beginning of class, my professor pulls up a worksheet she had put on Blackboard, as well as the powerpoint that she created for this lesson. I thought the work for those was due on Tuesday—it was not. They were due today. 

Then we started going over the exercises she had created for us. It was like pulling teeth. I have a fairly good grasp on the grammar concepts of Arabic. However, my vocab memorization, as you know, is in the pits. And my reading is horrible. And my pronunciation is terrible. 

And I just felt like shit after class.

It’s not my professor’s fault. She’s a good teacher. But I didn’t know how to study my first semester of Arabic, and now there’s no possible way for me to catch up on two semesters of vocab. I feel like a lost cause. 

And then I called my mom on my way to my next class. I cried outside by a bench, trying not to sob. I blew my nose, drank some water, and chewed some gum. I told her that my focus was to army crawl to the finish line, because I truly believe that is the only way I am going to survive. 

Our quiz is now rescheduled for next Thursday. I’ll be studying my ass off this weekend, memorizing vocab and reinforcing the new concepts I learned. 

When I was home last semester, I forgot what it’s like to cry over a class. I don’t miss that feeling. But at least I didn’t set a new personal record for calling my mom crying in the semester. No, that record is two weeks. Impressive, huh?

Say a little prayer for me or light a candle and think of me this coming week. I’m really gonna need it. 

Arabic Word of the Week

one hundred / miaya / مائة