Category: Musings Page 4 of 5

Learn Syrian Slang Phrases from Hilarious Youtuber Amr Maskoun

On November 7, 2018

You probably have heard of Amr Maskoun, a hilarious Syrian YouTuber/Comedian.

Now, while he’s no doubt really funny, his videos are not the easiest to comprehend for non-natives.

So in this post, I will share four of my favourite clips. They are all around a minute long.

And there are tons of Syrian slang phrases that you can learn from them.

Some of the phrases are quite unkind and harsh…but if you’re learning a spoken language, you got to learn all of them, eh? Both the good and the bad.

Ready? Let’s go!

ALEF #01: Ma BaHut Bidimtii

By Lyn

On November 2, 2018

In #ALEF, Levantine Arabic, Musings

A LEVANTINE EXPRESSION FRIDAY (ALEF) #01:

ما بحط بذمتي

Spoken Palestinian Arabic Transcript of Ahed’s Interview with AJ+

By Lyn

On October 13, 2018

In Levantine Arabic, Musings

Do you need listening practice in Palestinian Arabic?

In this post, I will share the Arabic transcript of Ahed Tamimi’s interview with AJ +. I also copied the English translation provided by AJ + so that it will be easy to compare both Arabic and English version of the sentences simultaneously.

Months ago, Ahed Tamimi was released from prison for slapping an Israeli soldier.

Today, you’ll learn some words in Palestinian Arabic from her.

two numbers levantine arabic place emphasis

Place Emphasis By Using Two Numbers in Levantine Arabic

By Lyn

On September 28, 2018

In Levantine Arabic, Musings

In this post, I will talk about two numbers that you can use in Spoken Arabic to place emphasis on a subject matter.

The two numbers are نص (half) and ستين (sixty).

In addition, you can also hear how these numbers are used in contexts via an audio track available online.

So let’s find out how to use these numbers, shall we? Yalla, here we go…

Learning Spoken Arabic from the LGBT voices of the Levant.

By Lyn

On June 19, 2018

In Levantine Arabic, Musings

A few months ago, the Human Rights Watch released short snippets featuring video potraits of people from the LQBT community in the Middle East on their FaceBook page. I have specifically chosen those from the Levant (Jordan and Lebanon) and I will be providing the transcriptions in this post.

The topic may be controversial for some but my intention is to learn spoken Arabic. So reserve your judgements and let’s learn Levantine Arabic!

Ready? Yalla!

6 phrases to tell someone to get get get out of here

By Lyn

On May 12, 2018

In Levantine Arabic, Musings

The title says it all!

Read on to find out the 6 phrases to tell someone to get lost!

I’ve personally never said any of them although I’m probably guilty of muttering some under my breath 😉

Verbs to describe the sound animals make

By Lyn

On March 12, 2018

In Levantine Arabic, Musings

MarHaba y’all, I’m going to provide a few verbs to describe the sounds of 4 animals in Levantine Arabic.

What are they?

They are the Dogs, the Cats, the Birds and the Roosters.

So..let’s get started!

Things Arabs say when they haven’t seen each other in a long while + Bonus

By Lyn

On February 20, 2018

In Levantine Arabic, Musings

So perhaps you got fed up with society and chose to go into hibernation mode. Life’s good, eh? But what happens when you choose to show your face in public again?

Here are a few things you would hear once you get out of that rock you’ve been living under…or when Tawjihi’s finally over 🙂

How to be an Inquisitive Arab #2 -“When are you getting married?”

By Lyn

On February 9, 2018

In Levantine Arabic, Musings

Ahla w Sahla to the second post on how to be an Inquisitive Arab. In this post, you’ll learn how to ask the million dollars question : “When are you getting married?”

The idea of marriage has always been an important part of Arab culture and the young adults above the age of 20 are constantly under pressure to get married.

So how do Arabs ask the question in Arabic? The answer is not a straight word for word translation of the English counterpart.

Below are 2 variations of the million dollars question:

How to be an Inquisitive Arab #1 -“Who do you take after?” + idioms!

By Lyn

On February 7, 2018

In Levantine Arabic, Musings

Ahla w Sahla to the first post on How To Be An Inquisitive Arab – because we all know that most Arabs are curious people who like to ask tons and tons of questions.

Have you ever gotten in a taxi in an Arab country and sat through the journey without being interrogated by the driver? Sometimes you wonder if they even know where to draw the line…

So anyway, one of the most popular questions that Arabs love to ask is “Who do you take after? Your mom or your dad?”

However, is it even a genuine question? Most of the time, the question is asked in an attempt to judge you for your behavior/personality and attribute it to someone (i.e your parents.) Mothers say it to attribute their children’s negative behavioral traits to the fathers and vice versa.