Arabic Study Group

[voron]

(I intend to keep doing the other book I've been doing with voron no matter what, though).

Because it is a fun book, isn't it? I'll try to do some more exercises from it tonight.

[voron]

So, in the last paragraph of text الصحة بين الماضي والحاضر (Health between Past and Present) on page 14 there are quotations from the Quran and Hadith which warn against overeating, and they are hard to understand. The translations can be looked up here:

Quran: https://quran.com/7/31-41
Hadith: https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi/36/77

Exercise 1 from section مفردات (Vocabulary) on page 15. Match words with the opposite meanings.

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يتشابه - يختلف
صحيح - مريض
مرض - صحة
يزيد - ينقص
سمين - نحيف
كثير - قليل

[vijayjohn]

Shukran, ya voron!

I guess it's fun in its own weird little way. It's kind of like reading in my brother's friend's Iranian first-grade textbook about how we're all Iranians and humans need laws restricting their freedom unlike birds, all interspersed with stories about totally random things like drinking tea, repairing a bike, and farming.

[voron]

Yeah, it's fun in how didactic it is. Yet it teaches a lot of useful vocabulary. From this unit about health I learnt:
يمارس الرياضة - to do sports
يتّبع الحمية - to follow a diet
يقابل الطبيب - to see a doctor
يتناول الدواء - to take medicine
and a number of other useful things.

[vijayjohn]

I'll just do the second-to-last exercise on p. 6 (I'll just fill in what I guess the patient's responses are) since the last one requires a partner anyway. Then I'll read and listen to the next passage at last!

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.١ نعم، أنا مريض
.٢ أشعر بآلام شديدة في رأسي
.٣ نعم، تناولت الدواء
.٤ نعم، الحمدلله أنا بخير

[voron]

Your answers look correct to me Vijay! Move on to the next text, I bet you'll love it!

Meanwhile I'm going through the text on page 20 'On the harms of smoking'. It's quite difficult so it's going to take me a while.

[voron]

And I finally finished the text.
I looked forward in the book and noticed that there is a large and difficult text at the end of each chapter which discusses the main topic of the unit from the viewpoint of Islam. This is both interesting and challenging.

I did the exercises after the text mentally. I am only going to post the answers to the exercises in the section مفردات on page 22.

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Exercise 1
1 - ب
2 - ه
3 - ا
4 - ج
5 - د

Exercise 2
1 - ج
2 - د
3 - ب
4 - ا
5 - ه

And I am done with Unit 1.
Vijay, can I move on to Unit 2? Can I help you in any way with Unit 1?

[vijayjohn]

Yes, of course you can move on! Your Arabic is way better than mine anyway. All these passages in MSA are kind of killing me. Well, maybe not so much now, but it's still a slog for me. I'm not sure what to ask for help with, really, unless you want to help me cheat through the exercises or something. Or more realistically...are there some exercises I just shouldn't bother with? Idk.

Sorry, I don't really have any ideas right now, and I'm being super-duper slow with Arabic (probably in part because I've barely found any real-life opportunities to use it at all recently...). Don't let that stop you, though!

Anyway, I did exercise #1 after the second passage in Unit 1:

► Show Spoiler

١ - صحيح
.٢ - خطأ: تريد مريم أن ينقص وزنها
٣ - صحيح
٤ - خطأ: مريم تريد أن تكون نحيفة
٥ - خطأ: زاد وزن مريم، ولكن لم زاد وزن زينب

So they both just ate a lot? Wtf

[voron]

Or more realistically...are there some exercises I just shouldn't bother with? Idk.

If you think you understand the text well then you can safely skip all the exercises that deal with the text. Most of them are trivial anyway.

Your answers look correct to me.

So they both just ate a lot? Wtf

Yeah. Essentially, Zaynab is the thin one, she started eating a lot to gain weight, but she couldn't succeed (لم تنجح); and Maryam is the fat one, she stopped eating sugars and carbohydrates (السكريات والنشويات), but it didn't work, so she started eating much again. (اخذت تأكل كثيراً)

[voron]

I'm reading the first dialog from Unit 2 (الترويح عن النفس - Recreation), and it has this phrase:
أُغْمِيَ عليَّ, و أنا في الشركة

Apparently it means 'I fainted when I was in the company (i.e. at work)'. The way of saying 'I fainted' is really interesting. It's 3rd person of a verb in the passive voice, which doesn't have any meaning in the active voice, plus the expression 'on me', so it's approximately something like:
It was lost on me.

[Saim]

New vocabulary from Unit 1:

عسل honey
شفى, يشفي‎ to heal
شِفاء cure (noun)
سقَى, يسقي‎‎ to water, give drink
شكا, يشكو to complain (probably the origin of Urdu شِکایت complaint)
معِدة stomach (plural مَعِد‎ or مِعَد; dunno what the difference between this and بطن is)

صواب =/= خطا
wrong =/= correct

Vocabulary from videos you've shared:

بالصُدفه accidentally, by chance
ارتفاع height
ملحوظ noteworthy
شغف passion
تفقَد يتفقَد to inspect
محصول yield
جائزة prize
متطوع volunteer
مُرَشَّح candidate, nominee
نَيْل acquisition, attainment
نال ینال to acquire
قُطْب (north, south) pole
كشف يكشف to reveal
موجة wave
إنها تجتاح العالم it's sweeping the world

[voron]

شفاء , شكاية , معدة exist in Turkish, too -- as mide, şikayet, şifa.

[vijayjohn]

Saim bhai, all the words you listed exist in Urdu, too, except of course that the verb forms don't exist in Urdu, only their nominalized forms (including سقا 'water-carrier'). But those are the only words you didn't already know? I feel like I have to look up every other word in these reading passages.

So they both just ate a lot? Wtf

Yeah. Essentially, Zaynab is the thin one, she started eating a lot to gain weight, but she couldn't succeed (لم تنجح); and Maryam is the fat one, she stopped eating sugars and carbohydrates (السكريات والنشويات), but it didn't work, so she started eating much again. (اخذت تأكل كثيراً)

I got all of that except the part about carbohydrates, but it's just a weird story to me.

Btw where did you get this exercise? I'm looking for it in the book and can't seem to find it anywhere.

My next exercise from the book.

Chapter 1, Lesson 2, text زينب و مريم صديقتان
Think about answers to the following questions.

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1 - ماذا تفعل اذا اردت ان تكون نحيفا؟ اكل اقلّ و افعل رياضة مثل الركض او السباحة.
2 - ماذا تفعل اذا اردت أن تكون سمينا؟ اكل اكبر (ولكن يجد الأكل يكون صحيح!), و افعل رياضة لزيادة العضلات.
3 - ايهما تفضل ان تكون نحيفا ام سمينا؟ - افضل ان اكون نحيفا.
4 - ما الطعام الذي تأكله كثيرا؟ - اكل ثمر كثيرا مثل تين او عنب.

I just listened to the dialogue for Lesson 3 in Unit 1 but haven't gone through it carefully yet in case there are any exercises from Lesson 2 you think I really should do or something.

[voron]

Btw where did you get this exercise? I'm looking for it in the book and can't seem to find it anywhere.

It's just before the text, on page 7.

I just listened to the dialogue for Lesson 3 in Unit 1 but haven't gone through it carefully yet in case there are any exercises from Lesson 2 you think I really should do or something.

Nah, go ahead. As long as you've remembered the words for 'thin' and 'fat', you are fine.

I wonder why it is more difficult for you to read passages in Arabic than in Kurdish. The texts from our Kurdish book are quite real -- you would encounter the same type of texts in a Kurdish newspaper -- because we're using the 3rd book from the series; whereas the texts from the Arabic book are simplified. Is it because the Arabic grammar is harder? Or because you have knowledge of Persian and Hindi/Urdu?

[vijayjohn]

Btw where did you get this exercise? I'm looking for it in the book and can't seem to find it anywhere.

It's just before the text, on page 7.

Ohh, right! I completely ignored those.

I wonder why it is more difficult for you to read passages in Arabic than in Kurdish. The texts from our Kurdish book are quite real -- you would encounter the same type of texts in a Kurdish newspaper -- because we're using the 3rd book from the series; whereas the texts from the Arabic book are simplified. Is it because the Arabic grammar is harder? Or because you have knowledge of Persian and Hindi/Urdu?

Oh, don't get me wrong; I have to look up every other word in Kurdish, too! (Although I can sort of get away with not doing it occasionally when the exercises don't actually have anything to do with the text ). The difference is that at least I sort of know where to look things up in Kurdish (and if I don't, you tell me ) whereas in Arabic, I have no clue how y'all know words like نشوية and تَناول because they really don't seem to be on Wiktionary at all. Also, unlike in other study groups, I'm such a noob in this one. I'm the only one using this textbook who had no clue that it existed before the group started and also the only one in the group who's completely self-taught. (Or am I?).

Lol honestly, all of these study groups are a challenge for me except the Tamil one. But you know me, I can't resist any language.

[voron]

whereas in Arabic, I have no clue how y'all know words like نشوية and تَناول because they really don't seem to be on Wiktionary at all.

Two dictionaries I use to work through the book:

• http://aratools.com/ - This is great in that you can input any conjugated* or declined form of a word, either vocalized or unvocalized. Also useful when I need to vocalize something unvocalized, for example when adding words to Memrise. Try it out, it saves a lot of time.
  
  *Except that it doesn't seem to recognize imperatives of verbs. Then you just need to drop ا (if there is one) and prepend it with ي, to get the present tense.
  
• http://livingarabic.com/dictionaries.html

and also the only one in the group who's completely self-taught. (Or am I?).

I'm self-taught as well, if you don't count a few lessons on italki, and another few with a private tutor (like 10 in total).

[Antea]

Arabic is a difficult language. I am also learning new words everyday, and I listen everyday to Arabic audio material in order not to lose it.

[vijayjohn]

Thanks, everyone!

I'm self-taught as well, if you don't count a few lessons on italki, and another few with a private tutor (like 10 in total).

That's still more than me! I think another difference may be just that I'm not nearly as focused on Arabic as everyone else...but hey, if I can attempt to learn endangered Papuan languages from short text fragments I find in random places on the Internet, I can attempt Arabic.

[Antea]

What about some Arabic poetry? I am reading some short poems of Nizar Qabbani (the ones I can understand ), and it’s amazing
Like this one (you can easily find the translation online, but this one is not very difficult to understand).

If you have some favourite ones (also from other poets), please post them

نزار قباني

“في أيام الصيف ..
أتمدد على رمال الشاطئ
وأمارس هواية التفكير بكِ ..
لو أنني أقول للبحر ..
ما أشعر به نحوكِ
لترك شواطئه ..
وأصدافه .
وأسماكه ..
وتبعني ...”

[vijayjohn]

That reminds me, Antea: Are you by any chance familiar with http://www.thearabicstudent.com/? It hasn't updated in years but has some dialect-specific (and MSA-specific) resources (that is, it has resources for learning or at least gaining exposure to many varieties of Arabic). It also has links to GLOSS and LangMedia, both of which are rather useful as well (though LangMedia may be less useful for MSA since it's mostly focused on the spoken language).

Also, I know some national anthems from the Arabic-speaking countries. They're all in MSA and don't seem too hard.

I read Lesson 3, but I'm confused by the term سنة أشهر. Does that mean six months/half a year?