Lower Intermediate - Speak in Arabic!

Wow, wonderful new challenge! Great one, thanksss!

Dear Ehab and Mohamed,

Some listeners have suggested that you might present a news item in one of your podcasts. I’ve just found an item that will probably unleash a huge roar of laughter in the Arabicpod community. Have you heard about the “alien invasion” of Jordan? Here’s a brief excerpt from a report that was recently posted on the BBC’s website:

A Jordanian mayor is considering suing a newspaper over an April Fools' Day report saying aliens had landed nearby.
Al-Ghad's front-page story on 1 April said flying saucers flown by 3m (10ft) creatures had landed in the desert town of Jafr, in eastern Jordan.

What do you think of that? If you’ve any difficulty in finding the report I’ll send you a copy.

I was told about it actually just yesterday by one of my friends and thought: What!! :)

I will look at it up, and if you got a resource that reports it then please email it to us. It will be nice to take it linguistically as well as having a laugh ;)

Thanks for another great lesson, guys. I could really identify with this one: I'm from a bilingual background, and my husband and I raised our daughters the same way. They are grown now and go to university in different parts of the world.

So speak Arabic with your son, Mohamed. You wouldn't want him to miss this unique opportunity to learn your beautiful language. Children have an amazing ability to assimilate the languages their parents speak to them and to distinguish quickly between them. Even if it takes them a little longer to say their first words.

Keep up the excellent work. And why not take Desmond up on his latest suggestion about a podcast on a news item?

This is an especially helpful lesson! Thanks guys! I've got a couple of quick questions about the transcript: Isn't the command from of حدث actually تحدث? I see this in the picture for the lesson and remember that construction from school, but it's different in the dialogue. I thought it would be تحدثني Also, in the last sentance I see اخاف ان (I'm worried that...). I imagine the انّ is "anna", but the transliteration has "an" (like to)... Which is it? Is it just a matter of elision?

fantastic - enriching vocabulary - very usefull-
think the spelling of inglisii in arabic is wrong no ? there is a jiim instead of khaaf

Dear KarenFaucheux,

I've sent a copy of the article to Arabicpod, and Ehab has accepted my proposal. I think you'll enjoy the podcast about the alien invasion. The story is very strange and very amusing.

I agree with your views on language acquisition. One of my teachers - a native of Vendée - was perfectly bilingual in English and French. He spoke both languages with native ease and fluency, his eloquence was awe-inspiring, his written style was of the highest quality, and he had an encyclopedic knowledge of English, French, Latin and Greek literature. I also had an exceptionally talented teacher who spoke a dozen languages, including Welsh, Irish, Russian, Chinese and Japanese. His children learnt to speak classical Latin and ancient Greek at an early age.

Incidentally, your name suggests that you are bilingual in French and German. That means we share at least two languages.

Thank you, Desmond! I really look forward to hearing what Ehab and Mohamed make of this alien invasion story ...

You are most fortunate in having studied under two such inspirational teachers. And they seem to have left an indelible mark on you too, for the comments you post are evidence that you possess quite an encyclopedic knowledge yourself.

Unfortunately, I do not speak French with native ease but I have acquired a certain fluency, thanks to my husband and countless lunches with his extended French family - listen well, Mohamed! - but I am bilingual in German and English.

Looking forward to many more lessons and further discussions with you all on Arabic, aliens and many other matters.

Dear KarenFaucheux,

Thank you for your compliments. N’en jetez plus, la cour est pleine!

I had several remarkable teachers – some at secondary level, others at tertiary level. They have all had a profound influence on me, and I am extremely grateful to them.

My first Latin teacher did not speak as many languages as the headmaster (who spoke twelve!), but his command of ancient Greek and Latin was impressive, his knowledge of ancient history was stupendous, and he was fluent in modern Greek, French and Italian. It would not be an exaggeration to say that he was unduly exacting, for he was a perfectionist who expected his pupils to translate sophisticated literary English texts into elegant Ciceronian Latin.

My first German teacher, who was born in Kolberg (Eastern Pomerania), and who is still alive, is also a very unusual person. She recently published her autobiography, and in 1998 she was awarded the MBE by Queen Elizabeth II.

Some of the problems associated with bilingualism surface in Ehab's podcast. These problems are very hard to classify because there are so many kinds of bilingualism. Thus, for instance, there are bilinguals who grow up in a bilingual environment and learn two languages simultaneously in childhood, and there are bilinguals who attain an extraordinarily high level of proficiency in a second language after settling in a foreign country. One of my teachers belonged to this category. He was a native speaker of German who left Germany as a young graduate and worked for many years in various English-speaking countries. He spoke German with a Hamburg accent and English with an Oxford accent. His English was so perfect that only his name betrayed his German origins.

I am getting mixed up with the grammar in the second sentence... why the ya-ending in (تتكلمي) and (تفعلي) refers to female in the first place?? And "speak" is used as present tense here, why is it not (تتكلمين)? And why "do" in past tense is not (فعلت) ? It might be a stupid question, but according to Mohammed I will never learn if I don't ask ;-) Also, if I want to say "I am used to" in present tense, is it correct to say (اتعود)? Thanks for your help!

The verb فعل looks like it's conjugated like a present tense verb (addressed to a woman) تفعلي because it is preceded by لم which negates the past, with a "never" connotation. It's a special type of conjugation that follows some of the present tense patterns but not all... Hope that helped.
Anyone have any idea about the question i asked above about the imperative form in this lesson? I'm still curious to know...

Thanks a lot for your explanation, Hexagonmoon. However, the question of why the ya as a suffix for female remains a mystery to me, as the ya at the end normally is related to "myself".... Any other idea which could help or a rule that could be applied here? Would it be a (bad) mistake to just omit the ya in such a context?

Yeah, the reason there is the ي at the end of the verbs is becaused they are addressed to a woman. This is the standard rule for present tense verbs (or past, like in the case here following لم) that are conjugated for second person feminine. It has to be there when talking to a woman because of the gendered nature of the language. تفعل means "you do" when talking to a man. تفعلي means "you do" when talking to a woman.

How to say "Don't be shy, just ask" ? Thanks for support ;-)

You can say
laa ta7'jal, faqa6 is2al
لا تخجل, فقط إسأل

or use (tasta7y تستحي) instead of (ta7'jal تخجل) as both generally mean being shy.

الف شكر يا معلمي
Will use it soonest :-) Just to extend the sentence, how to say "just ask for anything",
فقط اسال لشئ
??
I am asking this because we had customers from the UK over here, they were stuck bcs of the volcano cloud and we tried to make them feel as comfortable here while they were stranded... So this is an important phrase in the current very weird situation!!!

oh, the word (ask) in English can carry different meanings, I thought you meant (ask) for a question while it seems from your last description that (ask) would be more like (request or demand). In this case you can say:
Faqa6 u6lub ay shay2 فقط أطلب أي شئ just ask for anything (you demand).
Hope that helps.

أهلين
أنا بالحب العربية جداااااااااا
دروس ممتازة!

for the last sentence,why wouldn't you say
لن افهم