Arabic Language Blog

Listen to the news item below and answer the questions that follow:

Use the following words to aid your understanding:

مناورات = maneuvers

عسكرية =  military

إزالة = removal

الألغام = mines

المتفجرات = explosives

تقود = lead

البحرية الأمريكية = US marines

تهديد = threat

ضمان = ensure

حرية = freedom

الملاحة = navigation

مراقبين = observers

إغلاق = closure

مضيق = strait

Answer the following questions:

1-   What is the aim of the military maneuvers?

2-   Where do they take place?

3-   Who leads the maneuvers?

4-   How many countries take part in them? Give three examples.

5-   What did the spokesman of the US marines say about the maneuvers?

6-   How much of the world’s oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz?

7-   How can the public follow the news of the maneuvers?

Come back again soon for the answers and the transcription of the news item.

   Rasheed or Rashid  رشــــيــد or what is known in the west as Rosette or Rosetta is a city in the governorate of Beheira, Egypt. It is an old port that lies at the mouth of the western part of the Nile where it meets with the Mediterranean Sea. It is considered one of the oldest ports in Egypt. It is a beautiful and quiet city. The Nile passes through the whole of it and meets the sea. It has a nice beach and weather.

     The name Rasheed dates back to the ancient Egyptian name Rakheet رخــيــت which turned later on to Rasheet رشيت during the Coptic Era and then to Rasheed رشــيــد during the modern times. It is the city where the Rosetta Stone حجر رشيد was discovered. It used to be an independent governorate. It is distinguished by its historical architecture and is viewed as an open museum of the Islamic architecture الــعــمـــارة الاســلامــيـــة. It is the second Egyptian city after Cairo that has the most Islamic monuments that dates back to the Mamluki and Ottoman eras. The city has its long historical struggle نــضـــال as it is the city which defeated the first British Fraser Campaign حــمــلــة فــريـــزر in 1807 at the time of Muhammad Ali who forced these forces to move out on September 19^th 1807 and the day became the National Day الــعــيــد الــقــــومـــى of the city and the whole governorate.  Rasheed used to surpass Alexandria in Commerce and maritime transportation. However, it lost its importance later on and was deliberately neglected especially during the long British Occupation to Egypt towards the end of the 19^th century.

    In November, 2007 the Egyptian government decided to revive the city and make it an open museum like Luxor. They declared a plan t develop the city and the ex president visited it.

    Rasheed is famous for its abundant yield of dates, that is why it was called the City of a Million Palm Trees مــديــنــــة الــمـــلــيـــون نــخـــلــة . It is also famous for its manual crafts, fishing, fiseekh (salted fish) industry. It has a large navy of fishing ships and more than 40 workshops that make more than 1000 yachts every year which in turn are exported to the Arab countries and the touristic cities in Egypt. It also has some big villages around it.

      The city has a fort that is very similar to that of Alexandria called Julian Fort قــلــعـــة جـــولــيــــان . This fort is the place where the Rosetta Stone was found by French Soldiers at the Napoleon time. It is also very rich in its Islamic monuments and architecture e.g. Zaghloul Mosque مــســجــد زغــلـــول , Abo-Mandour Mosque مــســجـــد أبــو مــنــدور , Al-Abbasi Mosque مــســجــد الــعــبــاســى and Al-Mahalli Mosque مــســجــد الـمــحــلــى that has 99 columns, six entrances and library full of different books. Rasheed Museum متحف رشيد used to be one its famous houses. It belonged to the ruler of the city during the Fraser campaign and consists of four floors that are full of weapons models of the battles that the city had undergone, coins and a copy of the Rosetta Stone. Some other famous buildings in Rasheed are the Azouz Bathroom حــمـــام عـــزوز , the Abo-Shahin Mill طــاحــونــة أبــو شــاهـــيــن , the Kohiyah House مــنــزل كــوهـــيــــة , the Ma’harim House مــنــزل مــحـــارم and E’lwan House مــنــزل عــلــــوان . 

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Peace  سلام  /Salam/

        Arabic proverbs الأمثال العربية  reflect the beauty of the Arabic Language and the wisdom حكمة of the Arabs العرب and their culture الثقافة . In Egypt, these proverbs are part of everyone’s daily routine. There is no one single situation موقف that would not have the perfect proverb tailored for it. Just for the sake of fun مرح , I am going to share some of these famous proverbs. If you are living in Egypt, you will probably recognize them right away, but if you live outside Egypt, most likely you will have a smile ابتسامة on your face. These proverbs are in the Egyptian dialect.

الـغــايــب حـجــتــه مـعــاه   

/ El-ghaayib Higgitu ma’aah /

• Literal Translation: An absent person has his excuse.
• Hidden meaning: Don’t jump to conclusions.
• Applicability: Don’t blame someone not present until you hear his/her side of the story.

الـلــى فـــات مـــات  

/ il’li faat maat /

• Literal Translation: What is past is dead.
• Hidden meaning: Forget the past and open a new page.
• Applicability: To urge someone to live and let live.

 الــعــبــدُ فــى الــتــفــكـــيــر و الــرَّبُ فــى الــتــدبــيـــــر

/ El-abd fil-tafkeer wel-rabb fil-tadbeer /

•  Literal Translation: Man thinks and Allah (God) takes care of things.
• Hidden Meaning:  Man proposes and God disposes.
• Applicability: Do what you can and leave the rest for God to take care of.

أســمــع كــلامــك أصــدقــك , أشــُـــوف أمــُـــورك أســتــعــجـــب    

/ Asma3 kalamak asad’d'ak, ashoof umurak asta’gib / 

• Literal Translation: When I hear you, I believe you but when I see what you do, I get surprised.
• Hidden Meaning:  Your words contradict your actions. 
• Applicability: When someone’s actions contradict his speech, i.e. doesn’t practice what he preaches. 

 إذا كــان الــكـــلامُ مــن فــضــة , فــالــســُّــكـــُـــوت مــن ذهـــب   

/ Iza kaan el-kalam min fad’dah, f’al-sukoot min dahab /

• Literal Translation: If speech is silver, silence is gold.
• Hidden Meaning:  Silence will always be of more value than talk. 
• Applicability: When someone’s speech is meaningless/harmful.

 بــعــد مــا شــاب ودوه الــكــُــتــَّـــاب

/ Ba3d ma shab, wadooh el-kuttab /

• Literal Translation: After he grew old, they sent him to school.
• Hidden Meaning:  You can’t teach old dogs new tricks! 
• Applicability: When an old person starts a new fade.

 الــفــاضــى يــعــمــِــل قــاضـــى 

/ El-fadi ye3mil ‘adi /

• Literal translation: He who isn’t busy acts like a judge.
• Hidden meaning: If someone has nothing useful to do, he’ll spend his time/energy judging others.
• Applicability: Criticizing a person who has nothing to do but judge others.

 فــى الــتــَّــأنــِّــى الــســَــلامة و فــى الــعــَــجــَــلــَــة الــنــَّــدامـــَــــة

/ Fil-ta’anni el-salamah, wi fil-3agalah el-nadamah /  

• Literal translation: Safety is in caution/slowness, and regret is in haste.
• Hidden meaning: Take your time and don’t rush.
• Applicability: Advice to someone not to hurry up or push his/her luck.

 الــلــِّــى يــتـــجـــوز أُمـــِّــى , أقــُــولــُــه يــَــا عــَــمــِّـــى

/ Il’li yetgawiz ummi, ‘a’ool’luh ya 3ammi /

• Literal translation: Whoever marries my mother, I’ll call him uncle.
• Hidden meaning: you should make peace with people whom you’re forced to deal with (or perhaps who will have authority over you!).
• Applicability: Obvious.

 يــَــا خـــَــبــَــر بــفــلـــُـــوس , بــُــكــرة يــبـــقــى بــبــلاش  

/ Ya khabar bifloos, bukrah yeba’ bi’balash /

• Literal translation: The costly news of today, will be for free tomorrow.
• Hidden meaning: The secrets of today will, in time, be common knowledge.
• Applicability: When someone is going out of his way to find out about something.

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Find more and more Proverbs;

Egyptian Proverbs (1)               Egyptian Proverbs (2)

Egyptian Proverbs (3)               Egyptian Proverbs (4)

Egyptian Proverbs (5)

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To listen to these proverbs in Egyptian Arabic, visit our Youtube Arabic Channel at

http://www.youtube.com/user/ArabicTransparent

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Peace  ســـلام /Salam/