A (very) short lesson in Arabic

درس قصيرة (جداً) في اللغة العربية

Last fall, I saw the ‘Conversational Arabic” course offering at The Club.  I could not attend the all-important first 3 classes because I was in India, and have been searching for a class ever since.  I haven’t yet been able to find one.  I’m told it will likely be offered again at The Club, but I cannot be sure I won’t be in India again, and am keeping my fingers crossed timing works out.

That said, I am really confused about why there aren’t multiple courses available.  Other expats here have said that they believe the locals simply don’t want us to learn it, or they all speak English and it isn’t necessary, etc.  But the truth is they DON’T all speak English.  Those that do have varying degrees of mastery, and I find that very few have a full command of the language.  So why not offer more classes in Arabic for those of us willing to learn?

As I’ve said before, actual Emiratis are one of the largest minorities here.  Sure, there are people from other Arabic countries and that adds to the number of people who speak Arabic.  But really, if you want to be able to converse with the majority of the people here, it would probably be better to learn Hindi/Urdu, or Tamil, or Bengali, or Punjabi (or one of the other 20+ languages or hundreds of dialects of India.)  Knowing Tagalog, Malayalam, or Filipino would also allow you to converse with a large percentage of the population here.  However, we are in an Arabic country, and we should have at least some rudimentary knowledge of the language.

While saying it isn’t necessary to know, the locals always smile whenever I put forth any sort of effort.  Truth be told, I have found this to be the case almost everywhere I have ever been.  So I try to learn.  Here is what little Arabic I have learned so far:

Shukran (SHOOK rahn) means Thank you

Aafwan (AHF wahn) means You’re welcome

Inshallah (in SHAW lah) means God Willing (usually used when somebody is agreeing with you)

Alhumdalillah (al HUM da lil uh) means All Thanks goes to God

Hallas (hall AHS) means Enough, or Finished, or That’s all.

Naaam (Nahahm) is Yes.

Laa (leh) is No.

Maa Ismuk (meh isMOOK) means What is your name?

Seriously.  In my time here this is the extent of my Arabic vocabulary.  7 words and one phrase.  In 9 months.  It’s very sad.  I haven’t even learned Please yet!  In my defense, I have asked and nobody has shared.  I am not sure if that’s because they don’t use it much, or because it requires a larger vocabulary to actually have a need for it.  As in “Please pass the olives” or “Can you help me, Please”.

Sadly, there is no way I will ever be able to read anything.  The writing is beautiful, but I am told quite complicated.  Arabic (like Hebrew ironically) is written and read right to left.  That makes menu printing easy since everything can go on the same line.

That’s where the easy part ends though.  The shape of each letter depends on the tense, the gender, and what is being said throughout the sentence.   There is no ‘standard’ way to write.   In the example below, notice that Abu Dhabi Airports changes when the word ‘company’ is added to the script.  It is hard to discern the minute similarity.

At the top of this page is the Arabic writing translation of “A (very) short lesson in Arabic.”  I should add… Or so the online translator claimed.  It could say “This (really) big idiot thinks we translated for her.”  I don’t really know.

To confuse you more, numbers are written left to write, as ours are.  I have learned the numbers.  They aren’t hard to learn at all if you ever go to a grocery store here.  I can recognize and translate them, but have no idea how to say them in Arabic.  

I can only write them and give the corresponding English number to the symbol.  Obviously the dot mid way up the line is 0.  They do not use decimal points to separate whole numbers from partials.  Instead they use commas.

There are 3 primary forms of Arabic.  They are Modern Standard Arabic (or MSA).  This is the one that us taught in schools in all Arabic countries, and recognized as the official version of Arabic.  To a large degree it is also used in business dealings throughout the Arabic world.  The other two versions of Arabic are Classical (or Qu’ranic) Arabic, and Colloquial Arabic. There are also 7 major regional dialects, and even those are broken down more by specific location within the region.  So far, our experiences have been primarily within the Gulf States – UAE and Oman – which speak the Gulf Arabic dialect.  They claim it is closest to MSA, but I am not in a position to confirm that or not.  Day after tomorrow we are off to Tunisia, which speaks Mahgrebi Arabic.  This is supposed to be the dialect with the largest number of speakers.  I am told however, that the specific Tunisian regional use is unrecognizable (this from a local Emirati).  I have no idea how well I will do with my standard ‘Thank you.”  We shall see.

NOTE: Speaking of Tunisia, tune in next week for the continuing boat saga.  Will this be the one???  Our dialogue changed again after the last experience, and we think it could be.  I promise more photos if it is.