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Khalil Gibran Posted by aziza on Apr 1, 2010
Gibran (جبران خليل جبران) was born in Lebanon to a poor family that could not afford to give him formal education. However, priests taught him about the Bible, as well as the Arabic and Syriac languages. Around 1891, his family’s property was confiscated by the authorities. With no home, Gibran’s mother decided to immigrate to…
Tabbouleh Posted by aziza on Mar 29, 2010
Tabbouleh (تبولة) is one of the best salads I have ever tried. It is very common in the Levant (الشام), i.e. in Syria and Lebanon. It is a very healthy and delicious salad (سلطة), made mainly of fresh chopped vegetables (خضروات), spices (توابل), oil (زيت) and lemon juice (عصير ليمون). Below are two recipes that…
Arabic Numbers 1-100 Posted by aziza on Mar 25, 2010
Here is another post that deals with the writing and pronunciation of Arabic numbers. The table below gives the numbers in writing and transliteration of the sounds. The following video gives the numbers in a sound file with the writing. Please note that the youtube clip includes nunation (تنوين) at the end of each number…
Mother’s Day in the Arab World Posted by aziza on Mar 23, 2010
Mother’s Day (عيد الأم) is celebrated all around the world on different days of the year to honour mothers and to express gratitude to them. It is believed that Mother’s Day originated from a Greek Festival that celebrates the mother of Greek gods. Mother’s Day in the Arab world started with an idea proposed by…
Arabic Vocabulary: Geographical Terms Posted by aziza on Mar 17, 2010
In this post, I present some vocabulary items related to the topic of geography (الجغرافيا). continent قارة ocean محيط sea بحر lake بحيرة river نهر spring نبع well بئر country بلد state دولة / ولاية city مدينة town بلدة village قرية capital عاصمة mountain جبل mountain range سلسلة جبال plateau هضبة hill تل valley …
Making Exclamations in Arabic Posted by aziza on Mar 15, 2010
Expressing exclamation in Arabic is done using a special style called (أسلوب التعجب). The particle used in this style is (ما), and it should be followed by the form (أفعل) of the appropriate adjective, e.g. الشارع واسع. “The street is wide.” ما أوسع الشارع! “How wide the street is!” It should be noted that the…
Why learn Arabic? Posted by aziza on Mar 14, 2010
Learning a foreign language is often a hard and taxing activity, but at the same time rewarding. People learn languages for all sorts of reasons. Most people quote practical reasons for learning a foreign language, such as wanting to find a good job, to live in a different country; others give intrinsic or personal reasons…