Lower Intermediate - At the dentist

I'm impressed with your dental hygiene habits, ya Mohammed and Ehab. When I was in Yemen last month I was quite shocked and dismayed to see the condition of the Yemeni people's teeth. I noticed that people use a wooden stick to clean their teeth, rather than a proper floride toothpaste plus flossing... but probably the biggest reason for the bad condition of teeth in Yemen is the chewing of Khat. I was also told that folks from Taez (in southern Yemen) suffer from black stripes on their teeth (as babies) and that it might be due to the water. Anyway, I'm sympathetic to anyone who has to suffer from gum disease and bad teeth... it's one of the most painful diseases to have.

Hi Guys,

Just want to say great work as usual. I have been listening since 2007 and thoroughly enjoy your work. I just want to say that I find it really helpful when you guys say something in English and then say it in Arabic. For example, when you are talking to each other at the beginning of each program you sometimes speak in English (or when you tell stories)and then translate what you said in Arabic. I really find this helpful. I would encourage you to do it more because it helps the listener understand the Arabic language better. Your lessons have helped me so much that I decided to hire a weekly tutor so that I can have someone to talk to. My tutor is from Lebanon. I take what I learn from you and then use it in my dialogues with him. Keep up the great work!

Agree with Bri here. I guess an additional clarification might be in regard to lesson techniques which I have found to have been more difficult for understanding than others over the years. The difficult techniques have included, first, blocks of uninterrupted Arabic followed only by a general reference to what is meant by the entire block, without identifying the meaning of individual words. I seem to recall that an early intermediate lesson on "Palm Trees" may be a good example of this issue. Second, lessons where meaning of some of the key words has been assumed and not identified (Joha Goes To War might be an example). Third, lack of summary repetition of a whole sentence (Sierra & Elias, while their lessons were excellent, did not do as much of this type of summary as desired, especially when they jumped to explanation of words out of sequence).
Ironically, I am going back and getting quite a bit more out of Sierra/Elias lessons. They had a considerable amount of vocabulary.