Beginner - Feeling hungry

Tomes wrote:
Great podcast! Very useful phrases that after 3 years of Arabic study, i did not learn in books! The explanations were clear and concise. I look forward to seeing you great teachers tackle higher levels! You're doing great stuff!

Boo wrote:
Thank u so much for giving me a good chance 2 learn arabic, but when i try to practice with my friend. They laugh and say your arabic is too formal. Beside teaching some formal arabic, can you also try to introduce some common arabic.

Thanks guys for the great comments.

Boo, if your friends understand your Arabic then that’s a great success. Let them laugh, maybe to them your Arabic sound too formal but to others from other countries who speak other dialects your Arabic is not. In our lessons, as well as teaching formal Arabic we teach common Arabic. Our main aim is to teach you Arabic which can be understood anywhere in the Arab world.

Keep it up!

Henda wrote:
I confirm,
my friends understand as well and more over, ask me about the adress to learn speaking as well (because they just speak dialect)!

Thanks a lot, great job!

Medina wrote:
lolll your arabic is so pretty ehab
yall are funny
thanks for this great lesson
you guys rock

thanks Medina ;-)

QAFAR wrote:
مرحبا ! كنت اريد أن أقول بأن توجد الأخطاء فى بعض التعبيرات مثل أنا جدا جائع. و يجب ان يكون أنا جائع جدا !! و عليكم أن تهتموا بمثل هذه الأمور. و شكرا لكم

شكرا Qafar
ملاحظتك جدا مهمه -- المعنى لا يختلف - لكن الاصل ان تكون أنا جائع جدا
دعني أنوه أن الترجمة تفرض علينا احيانا انماطا معينة لتسهيل المقارنة بين النص العربي و الانجليزي - لو قارنت بين ترتيب الكلمات بالعربي و ترتيبها بالانجليزي ستلاحظ أننا حاولنا ابقاء نفس ترتيب الكلمات-- لكن بالتأكيد هذه يضفي طابعا من الضعف على جزالة النص
شكرا لك مرة ثانية على الملاحظة و يسعدنا دوما قراءة ملاحظاتك
ايهاب

May Allah(gloryB2 him he is free from all imperfections)guide and reward all those involved in this important undertaking. Fusha, or classical Arabic is the MOST important because it's form is the original, it is the language of the book of God, the foundation of our religion, and if one can speak it, they WILL be understood anywhere, in all Arabic speaking countries, inshAllah. As with ANY language, when knowing the "classical" or roots, one has a wider understanding and that encompasses the more common "slang" or dialect.
So don't feel bad that some ppl laugh! They are brutes, lol, actually even Arabs have to study fusha so if we non-speakers learn it, we are ahead! THE VITAL IMPORTANCE OF A TEACHER :Kamal qala al ulema min dhakhala an wahdahu khadaja wahdahu ~ whoever enters knowledge by himself then nothing will come out but himself. Lee madha?(why?) ilm (knowledge) is obtained by someone passing it down to another.

i'm sure the teachers will let me know if the above transliteration is wrong! :)

Ahlan sisterseekingilm;
Shokran for your nice du3a and your nice comments, this encourages us to bring our best to the website.
Your are right, fas7a is the key and nothing can replace it, however, we teach dialects from time to time to cover some requests, basically this website is for everyone and we hope what we do make everyone happy inshallah.
Just one comment about the statement: (whoever enters knowledge by himself then nothing will come out but himself) if I translate it, I would say: man yad7’ol al3elma wa7dah, falan ya7’roja illa wa7dah.
Try to use Arabic alphabets to write Arabic words, and if you use English letters, then it is better to use some numeric letters that we use for those Arabic letters which does not exist in English.
Bettawfeeq sisterseekingilm
Salaam

Hi Guys!!!!! I'm from Mexico City and I love ya podcast, it´s awesome, actually I speak spanish but my grandfather was from Iraq, so I'm very interested to learn Arabic!!!Anyway I have a question: I can´t found the lesson #8 either lesson #13, why??????!!!!! por que no estan disponibles???
(And sorry about my english, it's not quite good yet)

Besos

Hi Khia,

Welcome to the site :) Lessons 8 & 13 can be found under the lower intermediate lessons section.

I find it difficult to pronounce 'hamza' when it appears on its own in the transcripts (as '2'), since I do not know what vowel-sound to associate it to. I have no difficulty, on the other hand, figuring out how to pronounce 'hamza' when it sits atop 'alif'. Can you tell me how 'hamza' on its own is to be pronounced?

Hi Mwanafunzi,

It's hard to explain what the hamza sound like on its own as it depends on its location in the word. Generally it sounds something like 'uh'. I wouldn’t worry about it too much, as you will be able to pick it up once you hear it often. You will get used to it and then it will come naturally, so the best thing is to try to listen to how it’s pronounced in different words throughout our lessons.

I have a question about the Arabic word for tomato. I was trying to find some more lists of Arabic words on the net for different types of foods and I thought I knew the word for tomato already but it turns out I don't.
I had been told (in Jordan) that the word for tomato was "pandora". Ofcourse I remembered that one the first time thy told me but when looking around on the web I found out that it's simply 'tamaatem' or something like that...

Were they just messing with me (which wouldn't really surprise me :P) or is pandora also used for tomato? And if it doesn't mean tomato, does it mean something else in Arabic?

Thanks, guys!
I am ever greatful for your lessons and enjoy your good spirits!

Alright Epi, to make it very simple for you, both words are used for "tomato", it is just a matter of dialect.
(bandoorah) is used in the Shaam (Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Lebanon), while (tamaatem/tamaates) is used in the Gulf and in Egypt.
So either saying (bandoorah) or (6amaa6em), people would understand you anywhere you go.
Easy ;)

hi guys.....do you teach how to read arabic also???? i still don't know how.....but i am trying to learn arabc just by listening.....

please i want to learn how to read arabic too

We've done some work to help in the pronunciation side. Just go to the Sharepoint if you have access to it, in there go to Flash on the left of the page and find Arabic Pronunciation Guide which will help you in learning the pronunciation.
Inshallah we'll do more things for Beginners to teach how to read Arabic and assemble words.

#Whoever enters knowledge by himself, then nothing will come out but himself.# I couldn't quite catch what it means - could you elaborate please?

In PDF you have transliterated بعد as #ba3ad#, however, when you listen very carefully and attentively to Ehab pronouncing it, it does sound more like as #ba3da#. So which one is correct? Shukran for these wonderful lessons.

It is the flow of speech that makes me pronounce the 7arakaat precisely, which is recommended if you know them, so you can use it as ba3da all the time because it is the proper classical way of saying (after).
In the transcript, because it is beginner, we've chosen to keep it simple because some beginner listeners might come to this lesson without even knowing the 7arakaat.

You guys are great!

I like it.

Assalaam aleikum
How would you translate this into English? I think this saying puts great value on teachers. I like it as a teacher :).

man yad7’ol al3elma wa7dah, falan ya7’roja illa wa7dah


Shukran

Wa 3alaykum assalaam,

Yes @akaplan, this is a nice saying, it says: Whoever enters to get knowledge alone, will get out of it alone.