Tag: dialect

Learn Spoken Arabic and explore stereotypes via an entertaining Jordanian series.

On March 1, 2018

MarHaba!

Let’s build our vocabulary and practice listening through clips that are available on YouTube. In this post, I will provide the transcript from various parts of Episode #12, اختي [my sister] from the series رجائي كائن عدائي

Background information:

The series explores the various negative behaviours/mindsets that are prevalent in society.

The title itself means “Rajae being hostile” or simply put “Rajae being a jerk” (Rajae is a famous Jordanian actor and comedian.)

I enjoyed watching the series when I first started learning Levantine Arabic. And I hope you will too!

The video:

#رجائي_كائن_عدائي: الحلقة الثانية عشر - أختي

Watch this video on YouTube.

clip starts at 1:05

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.

How do Arabs end an argument (or turn a deaf ear to replies)

By Lyn

On January 29, 2018

In Levantine Arabic, Musings

Ahla w Sahla fiikum to another post of #How do Arabs 😉

In this post, I’m going to list out a few phrases that are useful for ending arguments.

In general, they are to mean “My words are final” and thus any replies would not be tolerated. It is also important to note that most often it is a person of a higher authority than the other who would be saying these phrases (Eg: a mother to her children)

The first phrase is…

How do Arabs express their doubts?!

By Lyn

On January 24, 2018

In Levantine Arabic, Musings

MarHaba guys!

Recently I’ve learned a few Syrian expressions with regards to expressing doubts which are pretty funny so I figured I might as well write a post on them.

But before I do that, let me throw out some simple phrases that I’ve known previously.