Beginner - Buying a SIM card

good one very practical

@ Mohamed

In the podcast you said “if the last letter sounds silent like ﻜﺘﺎﺐ (kitaab)”. Would you have used the word ﺼﺎﻤﺖ if you had been speaking in Arabic?

The words for "decade" and "contract" look and sound identical. Are they two separate words? If not, what is the connection between the two meanings?

When the words for "contract" and "necklace" are written without diacritics they look like identical twins, but the difference between the two words becomes apparent when diacritics are added. When "'aqd" means "contract" there is a fatha above the first letter, but when it means "necklace" there is a kasra beneath the first letter.

The strange resemblance between the words for "decade" and "necklace" was mentioned in the podcast about Lehmann Brothers, and a brief reference to this podcast would have been helpful here (cf. erankap's recent comment on "Fill the form").

@Desmond

The lack of short vowel signs in written MSA is indeed a problem while reading, for beginners like me!

عَقْد (3aqd) means both ‘contract’ and ‘decade’.
عِقْد (3iqd) means ‘necklace’.
And, قُقَد (3uqad) means ‘knots’ or ‘nodes’ (plural).


So far, I have noticed two instances, where you can use any of the three short vowel signs on the first alphabet of the word, and based on the short vowel used, the meaning becomes different.

مَدّة (maddah) = sign over alif in آ denoting aa
مِدّة (middah) = pus
مُدّة (muddah) = duration, period of time

فَطْر (fa6r) = crack, fissure
فِطْر (fi6r) = fast breaking
فُطْر (fu6r) = fungus

Obviously, there must be many more like these!

The second paragraph in my previous comment should be read as,

3aqd - عَقْد - means both ‘contract’ and ‘decade’.
3iqd - عِقْد - means ‘necklace’.
And 3uqad -عُقَد - means ‘knots’ or ‘nodes’ (plural).

@ vinod

I agree. The omission of the diacritics that represent short vowels makes written Arabic very difficult. English is much easier to read, yet the English alphabet isn't very practical either. We could do without the letter "c". In words like "silly" and "city" the same sound is represented by two different letters.

"'Alif madda" (one of your examples) is a difficult term which seems to have no precise English equivalent. It could be described as a double or lengthened alif expressing both a glottal stop and a long vowel.

I've already collected a lot of homographs. Here's another one for your collection. "Dhuhr" (noon) is a homograph of "dhahara" (he appeared).

Hello,

Your lessons are wonderful! May God greatly prosper you.

I have a suggestion. My family finds that it is enough to listen to your lessons just twice or so to understand the points you are teaching. (Your teaching is very clear.) But we would benefit from listening to the dialogues alone (with translation) over and over. Is there any way you could make available a condensed file for each lesson with just one reading of the dialogue, including english translation after each line? Thank you.

I would love to have something like what lukeandrews is requesting, and note that other podcasts do something like this, charging extra or making available only to certain types of premium members. Personally, I would be happy to pay extra. I have used Audacity to cut out the intros and stuff at the end, but I got lazy and now just listen through. I listen to each podcast at least five times (the lower intermediates and intermediates at least ten-fifteen times).

Guys, thanks for your suggestions. We’re always interested to hear your requests. Have you looked at the audio transcripts? The audio transcripts read out the dialogue when the embedded AP icons are clicked, and you can see the translations + pronunciations.

If we were to introduce dialogue-only MP3s, they will only be accessible to premium members, same membership level as the audio transcripts. We’re happy to add these to the website, but only if they will truly be used as we don’t want to waste our resources.

It would be interesting to hear other people’s opinion on this and whether the audio transcripts are sufficient or not. If the demand is there, then it would be our pleasure to fill that demand.

Thanks for sharing your suggestions/thoughts.

I use the audio transcripts for every lesson a couple of times, and they are absolutely splendid. Where I could use pure Arabic audio practice cutting out all the explanation, intros, etc., is for periodic review at the gym or in the car. The majority of the time I listen I am commuting or I am exercising at the gym. Like LukeAndrews and his family, I very much appreciate the explanations the first few times, but I don't need them repeated more than a few times. I also note you've been putting a little teaser Arabic right up front in the lessons -- for me, that's great -- then that repetitive experience is not totally wasted on hearing English. I also wouldn't mind paying extra for a special CD cutting out all that stuff - you guys already provide terrific value for our premium membership.

Also - I want to point out that for me the ideal files would exclude all the intros yet repeat the dialogue two or three times without translation and then repeat the dialogue with translation - much like your lessons do in the first part. So all you need to do to fulfill the request is take your basic lessons and provide files which cut out all the rest of the stuff. You could splice these segments together in mega files (like the first twenty beginner lessons in one file, the second twenty lessons in another, etc.). I am sure that there are many people out here who would use such files. I would gladly pay extra for them.

interesting point - indeed would be a nice "to have"as an "add-on" so one can listen through and not loosing time on intro's - it does complete the tools that we already have for the learning proces
cheers

On the topic of SIM cards... has anybody had any experience with 3G data cards in Arab countries? I'm particularly interested in Syria and whether 3G data (HSPA) is working there.

Hi Jenkki, I believe 'MTN Syria' provides 3G data cards in Syria. 3G is widely available now throughout the Arab countries I think

شكراً كثيراً يا محمد! أنا سوفة أذهبة إلى السورية في الصيف، لأنّة هنا فيها درس اللغة عربية مع الجامع هلسنكي ولكن أريد أن أخد كمبوتري... لا عرف هل تسمحهم إذا يجبه...

I talked to a man from Cairo who said that they use word محمول for mobile in Egypt. Is that one also used in other countries?

Yes indeed, (محمول) means the thing that you always carry it with you.