Archive for 'Culture'
Oman عُمان: through my eyes (1) Posted by Hanan Ben Nafa on May 4, 2020
As an Arab, Oman عُمَان was not a country that I knew or heard much about as is the case with the rest of the Gulf countries. It wasn’t until 2013 when I had the chance to go there when I was invited by a family member who used to live there temporarily. In this…
Locked down together during Ramadan Posted by Hanan Ben Nafa on May 1, 2020
From the beginning of Ramadan, I’ve been following a comic show on YouTube called كملت معي Kimle-t ma-ʕi and I would like to share with you its theme song or الشارة iš-šaarah as it’s called in Syrian Arabic (the variety used in the show). The show’s theme song can give you the gist of what…
Arab’s deep appreciation for food Posted by Hanan Ben Nafa on Apr 24, 2020
As it’s the first day of Ramadan, I would like to start by sending my warm regards to all learners who celebrate it 🙂 Ramadan Mubarak رمضان مبارك Since food is a popular topic موضوع شائع in this month, I decided to share with you some thoughts about the way food is perceived يُنظَر له …
Sham En-niseem Holiday in Egypt Posted by Hanan Ben Nafa on Apr 20, 2020
Today marks اليوم يصادف the day of Sham En-niseem شم النسيم which is an Egyptian national holiday عطلة وطنية مصرية that is celebrated every year, on the Monday following Easter Sunday عيد القيامة , which was yesterday 19th April, according to the Eastern Orthodox church الكنيسة الأرثوذكسية الشرقية, that is based والتي يقع مقرّها in…
Self-isolation hashtags in Arabic (2) Posted by Hanan Ben Nafa on Mar 27, 2020
Welcome to the second part of this post. Last week, I started sharing with you some of the popular hashtags and phrases that people circulated on Twitter across the Arab, with regards to the Coronavirus. The diversity of Arabic تنوع العربية and its dialects ولهجاتها was clearly reflected in انعكس بوضوح في how Arabs responded…
Self-isolation hashtags in Arabic (1) Posted by Hanan Ben Nafa on Mar 24, 2020
As is usually the case at times of crisis وقت الأزمات, the way people respond online – particularly on Twitter in this digital age العصر الرقمي – is interestingly from a linguistic perspective. In thi blog post, I’m going to report on the creative ways الطرق الإبداعية Arabic speaking people responded to استجابوا إلي and commented…
Winter in Fairuz’s Love Songs (2) Posted by Hanan Ben Nafa on Feb 21, 2020
This is the second part of my previous post where we started looking at the common theme of the connection between winter الشتاء and love الحب in Fairouz’s songs. The second song I chose is رجعت الشتوية “Winter is back”. As in the previous song, the tone in this song is sad. The singer/girl (main…