Starting Off Again (Egyptian Arabic Alphabet Primer)

Well, yesterday I began with doing the things I have to do to get back to Egypt.  At the same time Corey was sending off her applications to Cornell and a couple of other schools.  So we will see which way things ultimately go, but for now I am learning Arabic.  I feel like such a kid.  At least I have my younger children to learn with me.  The reason I feel like such a kid is because I have to learn the ABCs all over again.  I mean, here I am, just about at 40, learning the Arabic ABCs.  To make matters even funnier, I have this youtube link that I watch with the kids with some children saying them, sort of like Sesame Street. I got it from this blog where this guy presents plenty of learning resources.  I will share them below, just in case any of you might want to learn Arabic with me, while I am learning.

Anyway, here is the video:

Like I said, at least the younger ones are really getting into it, especially CJ and Jacob.  Asari too though.  One kind of funny thing is that Jacob doesn't know all of his English ABCs, but he is learning these, so it is kind of funny.  I am sure he will do fine though.  I was asking them what one of the letters was and he knew it.  If I can do this every day for a few weeks, we will have a good start.

Some things to consider about the Arabic ABCs.  The reason I am learning them is because they use a completely different script to write.  In addition, they write from right to left.  So, if you really want to know how to get around, it is wise to learn the written language.  Another fact, the letters have four different ways they can be written, depending on the position they are in, within a word.  First letter, last letter, middle position or alone.  Arabic only has three vowels, the first letter - alif, and the last two (I haven't gotten to them yet).

The way we are doing this is learning about seven a day, while we learn them we learn the symbol and the name.  I am going to get the kids writing them more too.  In addition, I have to start incorporating a few simple words.  So if you are going to learn along, learn the first seven letters today.  Alif, beh, teh, theh, geem, hah and kah.  They will be listed on a chart below us.  I am going to list all my learning resources so I can use this blog to chart my progress.  Kind of there and back again to Egypt.

So this blog is the first resource, I am going to copy a bit verbatim from him, just in case his blog goes down, we will have it.  However, I have to give him proper respect.  His thing is learning through music, which I think is an excellent idea.  I will be living on his site for a while, I suggest you do the same.  One other thing to note about Arabic and language in general (although I typically struggle learning them) , language is regional.  So don't be put off if a sound of a letter in one source is slightly different than from another.  For example, in Egypt, up in Cairo, they pronounce the J sound more in words, in Luxor it is more the G sound.  You will get corrected too, but at least you are understood.  But it is all part of the experience.

http://egyptianarabiccourse.blogspot.com/2008/03/egyptian-arabic-alphabet.html

ا - alif, as in "Ah" آه which means "ow," like an expression of pain or frustration

ب - ba, as in "Bahebbak" بحبك which means "I love you"

ت - ta, as in "Tani" تاني which means "another" or "again"

ث - ta or sa, as in "Sawani" ثواني which means "seconds" from the same word as "tani." While this letter in Standard Arabic is a "tha," it has merged with the letters "ta" and "siin" now. For old and common words "ta" is more common, and from new, borrowed, or reborrowed wor.ds "sa" is more likely.

ج - giim, as in "Gameel" جميل which means "beautiful." In Egypt, it is usually pronounced as a "ga" as opposed to the Standard Arabic "ja."

ح - Ha (7a), as in "Habibi" حبيبي which means "my darling." This sound does not exist in English, but it is like a regular Ha in English only "harsher." A friend has described it to me as a "phone sex 'h'"

خ - xa (5a or kha), as in "Khudni" خدني which means "take me." This sound is like kinda the ch in Bach from german, the french 'r' in "quatre" or to an English speaker probably sounds like they are about to spit

د - daal, as in "Dunya" دنيا which can mean "the world," "the prevailing environment" or "everyone."

ذ - daal or zaal, as in "Dayeb" ذائب which means "melting" often in love. Like "tha," "dhaal" loses its standard Arabic pronunciation, becoming a "da" sound for old and common words and a "za" sound for newer, borrowed, or reborrowed words from Standard Arabic.

ر - ra, as in "Rooh" روح which means "soul." It is trilled like the Spanish r.

ز - zay, as in "Zaman" زمن which means "time" as in the 4th dimension

س - sin, as in "Sawa" سوا which means "together"

ش - shiin, as in "Shuf" شوف which means "see," "look," or "look at"

ص - Saad, as in "Sabr" صبر which means "patience." The Saad is like an English s but with more rounding of the lips to produce a deeper hiss.

ض - Daad, as in "Da3" ضاع which means "lost" or "wasted." Daad is like the English d in the same relationship as Saad is to s.

ط - Ta (6a), as in "Tayr" طير which means "bird." Ta is in the same relationship with the English T as Daad is with d

ظ - Da or Za, as in "Zalim" ظالم which means "unjust" or "oppressive." This sound is DHa in Standard Arabic, but either becomes a "Za" sound or a "Da" sound in Egyptian.

ع - Ayn (3ayn), as in "3ayni" عيني which means "my eye" (a very common term of endearment in Arabic). 3ayn has no equivalent in English and I don't know how to describe it. Just read and listen for it. For those who know linguistics, its the voiced version of ح

غ - ghayn, as in "Ghali" غالي which means "precious." It's like a ga sound only it's like you're gargling water.

ف - fa, as in "Farah" فرح which means "joy" or "happiness"

ق - qaff (9aff, 2aff), as in "Qalbi" قلبي which means "my heart." Originally this sound is like an English k only deeper in the throat, as if you were choking, but in Egypt it is usually pronounced as a glottal stop like the sound in between Uh and Oh in Uh-Oh. So "Qalbi" becomes "Albi."

ك - kaff (Chaff), as in "Keef" كيف which means "how" east of Egypt.

ل - laam, as in "Leel" ليل which means "night"

م - miim, as in "Majnun" مجنون which means "mad" or "crazy"

ن - nuun, as in "Nar" نار which means "fire"

ه - ha, as in "Hawa" هوى which is one of the many words for love "hawa"

و - waaw, as in "Waheshtini" وحشتيني which is how you tell a girl "I miss you"

ي - ya, as in "Ya habibi" يا حبيبي which means "oh my darling." To address someone like "oh" or "hey" in English, you say "ya" before the name or title you are calling them.


http://www.egyptiancastle.com/main/culture/language/alphabet.htm


Another source with a nice blackboard.  If you click on his blackboard you get the sounds of the letters, he uses real player, but it is cool.   Remember, start on the top right and move to the left (ie Alif is the line that looks like 1).  The board looks cheesy but is as useful as hell.  You have to go to his site, linked above to use the sounds.  I only copied the image so you could see it first.


I am going to make another post later today about the other thing I learned yesterday.  Until then, take it easy and PEACE.

What's Going On

Hmm, Let’s see... To get started, I should make note that we left Luxor, Egypt, as of the Spring, so we have been back stateside since late spring. Back in the ABQ - Albuquerque. We moved back for a number of reasons, at least temporarily. School (ie - College) for the oldest, who is about to take the SAT and ACT, only a little bit late in the year, a few minor health issues of my own, which I think I was way too paranoid about, and last and least in this case, a little, but still a little homesickness. Once we got back, I was able to pull out the wax, play a bit of music and hang out with the little homies below. They grabbed their Nubian kufis and showed me a few of the new dance steps the young folks are doing nowadays - pretty far out stuff.

The fellas listening to some tunes.

Anyway, I found a journal program for the old Macbook and plan on using it more regularly, working on the blog with it. Feel free to read along, although it will be more internal about personal observations and objectives for life. At least until I get back down the road and/or get out more. It is wintertime here in Albuquerque. It is nothing compared to Chicago or the Midwest, but we see the snow on the mountains from town, and we know. Plus it does get cold at night, all the more reason to grab a blanket and some good music, maybe a good bottle of wine, or whatever.

So we are sitting in our living room, a block from the nile when I ask the oldest, Corey, about her future.  She said she wanted to go to school at UNM, the University of New Mexico, and start as soon as possible. Now, back stateside, it seems that isn’t as much the case. She is exploring the options of attending school at the American University in Cairo and even our Western Governors University, so if either of those pan out, we may see Egypt again real soon, or at least later in the summer. Either which way I am planning on returning to Egypt sometime between June and August, maybe late May, if we are lucky, after the AP testing is done this year for her. She also applied or is planning to apply to UNM, Ann Arbor, Notre Dame, and Harvard. She is a year ahead grade wise, so we will see how the chips fall and if it doesn’t work out maybe she will get another chance next year.

It is my birthday today. Making 39 is another step towards 40, which isn’t a really big deal, but will surely be a time for reflection. I always loved making jokes about people’s age, but now inching up to 40 its kind of more serious a subject. Earlier, I was thinking about the things I have done and not done, things that I wanted to do with my life so far. More on that later. What I am going to do now though is get the clock rolling on my return trip to Egypt, assuming that the school situation works out that way. Of course if the oldest ends up on the East Coast, or at Notre Dame we will have to work something else out. Meanwhile I am going to plan for life split between Cairo, Luxor and Aswan, starting as close to Summer 2011 as possible.  Below is Leah's portrait of me, apparently, that was on a nice slender day, obviously trying to get on my good side - although I don't think my eyes are that big!

Leah's Portrait of Me

From Egypt and Back Again:

I need to start a budget and savings. Right now I have bills, bills, bills. However, I think I can manage to pay them down and budget for a trip for seven if I find good deals on tickets and save save save. I am going to estimate a cost of about $680 USD per person to get to Egypt and another $1400 to get to the East coast for all of us. So the price to get to Egypt will be about $6100. Not to mention rent, and transport in Egypt which I will budget at another $2600. So from now to June - August I will need to save about $8700 USD, if I am going to make this trip a reality for all. This time I plan on selling my car, which will be paid in full, so I wont have a car note or insurance, storing a bare minimum of household goods and staying abroad for 2-3 years. In addition, it would be nice to be able to spend a little time in Europe on the way there this time. I want to go to Southern Spain, look around, see some of the Moorish architecture and influence there, maybe check France out too. We will see.

Things I need to do between now and then:

• Study Arabic more, this time the script as well...
• Study ancient Egypt focusing on Dr. Ben, DeLubcz, Temple design and other esoteric sources
• Work on my eating habits, which have not been so good as of late. I plan on returning to a largely raw food, vegetarian based diet. I will keep the journal updated on this front as well.
• Saving for travel expenses.

In addition while I am in Albuquerque, I will be traveling in the area to significant sites and taking pictures and talking about the local area. While doing so I will also be talking about the travel plans and how they are coming more into focus.

Petroglyph in Albuqerque

When we were in Egypt before I learned a little Arabic, swaya. I knew how to ask for bare necessities, get around, bless Muhammed and his family, but I couldn’t get into conversations. That will take a few years in country, but at least working day by day I can get around a bit better and maybe even learn enough to go more into the country and off the beaten path. As I learn Egyptian Arabic I will share on the board, starting tomorrow.

Some Cool Things...

• Unlike the last time, I have a base to live in, Luxor, with friends - and my own flat.
• I know Cairo and the area I want to be my base there.
• We can arrange to travel with others this time, if any are interested, and there is enough time to save your money.
• I know the things I need to bring and what to leave behind this time.
• The city of Luxor should be completing their construction project real soon, which should make the temples much nicer and hopefully more accessible.
• I plan on spending some time on the Red Sea this time.

Well that about sums up this post. I will update my photos from Egypt, once I can find the remaining ones, and might even post a few more stories of the trip back. I actually got everything which I sent back home, nothing was missing, only a single piece was damaged. That made me very happy. So hats off to Abud, my man at the post office in Luxor. He should have finished his house right across the street, on the other side of Karnak Temple, by now, talk about a view. I have to catch up with him real soon. The next time, I am going to post about a local place called Tinkertown, it is one of my favorite places to hang out with the kids when in Albuquerque.

View of the Volcanoes

Me & Mom at the Petroglyphs

Mom & the fam at the Petroglyphs

Sham el Naseem

Last week we got an invite for dinner at a friend house.  Friends tend to be more functional here than stateside, but an invite is an invite and eventually you have to take the offer.  Besides, Abud has been really helpful and good to know.  He is an Egyptian friend with plenty of potential.  So I accepted, but I didn't realize that Monday was going to be a holiday, it was Sham el Naseem, which is kind of like Easter or a spring time celebration that dates way way back to like 5000 years ago.  So I didn't know any of this when I agreed to stop over my friend, Abud's house.  He lives in a flat in Luxor, but is working on finishing his flat in Karnak, so he invited me to come see his soon to be finished flat, which is right behind the temple of Karnak.  I live right in front of Karnak so I figured why not.

I forgot to mention to Abud that we are vegetarian, because I wasn't really coming over to eat, but more to see his place and spend a bit of time.  Abud met us in front of the post office and we made our way via service car to his house, his son named Islam accompanied us.  Islam wants to be a pilot someday, but his father has the more realistic plan of him being a tour bus driver.  As I thought it over I could understand both of their viewpoints, as I went on to explain my friend who is a pilot was a playboy, I realized too late I wasn't helping Islam's case.  Abud drove his motorcycle as we rode the service bus.  I spent .60 for eight people, happy the whole way.  As we passed Luxor temple, the complex was packed.  Abud had mentioned it was going to be even more crowded later.  I will have to see it some other time.

Anyway, since I forgot to tell him I was just coming to visit or that I don't eat meat, his wife was cooking when we came in.  I figured it best to just go ahead and be polite.  We meet his daughter, Zenieb and his younger son.  Zenieb is so intelligent and loves playing with Jacob, she is a few years older than him though.  CJ joins in playing too.  We talk and I can see that Abud is somewhat distracted.  We talk about America and about Egypt, about his job and soon the meal arrives.

We sat and the obligatory molokia plates came out along with a hearty soup and Egyptian flat bread.  We ate and were very happy.  Later a huge tray of rice and lamb came out.  We started to stare at each other.  It smelled delicious, but I remember the conversation I had with the horse the other day about eating animals.  But then I know what is going to happen if I send it back, I will get the evil evil eye.  So I tell the kids to dig in, this is the first lamb we have eaten in Egypt.  It smells wonderful and will probably be pretty tasty insofar as meat goes, I think, Corey looks and says, I don't eat hooven animals, Leah digs deep in and Asari looks confused.  I explain to Corey in a whisper, "if we don't finish this plate, she is going to be MAD."  I can see Abud's wife, Iman setting the large platter for their family near ours and looking out the corner of her eye.  I grab a piece of lamb and chew.

I don't like meat, I don't eat hooven animals either and I don't like rice, however I don't disrespect anyones house.  I especially don't encourage the wrath of Egyptian housewives either.  So I encourage the kids to eat eat eat, reminding Corey that she still loves fish and that if she doesn't dig in too, the next time she will see one will be when she is swimming in the ocean.  Meanwhile I look and see Iman staring over, very inquisitively out of the corner of her eye.  We are all eating, a second later, Abud asks, "more?"  We have half the tray left.  We decline.  A few minutes later Iman leaves into the kitchen.  We can see she is angering.  By the time she returns, the tray is nearly empty.  She relaxes, we are all happy.

I have been invited to dinner before and explained my eating to local friends and they don't understand.  Egyptians don't eat meat every day, but when you are invited you are expected to eat something, and in this case I think Abud added fuel to the fire by insinuating somehow that Iman should have known to make chicken  or fish, which just made matters worse.  However, since the tray was nearly empty, we got a smile and a reprieve, but I still feel bad, both for Iman and for the sheep, it was a no win situation, even if the food was delicious.  As we began eating, Abud brought out two huge Pepsi's and I could see CJ licking his lips.  I am like, none for the little two.  They look deeply disturbed, and I give them the look.  They shut up.

A second later, Leah spills her soda.  This allows me to excuse them from soda, but we have nothing else to drink.  As we finish dinner, I ask for tea.  Abud is disturbed.  He explains, apologizing, I didn't know you drank tea with your meal, normally, we drink tea after the meal.  I couldn't even begin to explain that tea and salad would have probably been enough, maybe with some beans or ful.  Anyway, we enjoyed the dinner and after we headed out for our trip to Karnak.

We catch a cab with Islam and Abud drives.  The cab driver is kind of Smokey Robinson, a real space cadet.  He turns up his music which is really nice, but a bit loud.  A woman is singing, in Arabic as the day starts to wane.  The music is nearly hypnotic, traditional, beautiful.  The driver reaches in his special hiding place for a special cigarette.  Islam explains to the driver that it isn't a good idea.  The driver explains why it is the best of things, of course all in Arabic.  Candice and I look at each other.  We reach Karnak and their is a hill leading up to the house.  The driver is driving an old Peugeot and it stutters as we all wonder if it can make it.  He makes a second attempt, still no go.  An old man is staring at us make the attempt.  He tries again, backing up, and makes it.  We start to think he is a pretty good driver.  As we prepare to congratulate him he bumps the tree in front of Abud's family house.  He knocks his grill plate off.  We all stifle our laughter.  He is at ease after a few minutes, confused, but at ease.

We meet Abud's family, he is still on the way.  We meet the head of the house, who we assume is his brother (he wasn't interested in making it clear himself), but could have been his father too, he said Abu, but that could mean head of household or father, we still aren't sure.  Later we meet his other brother, and his mother and sister.  They are all very nice, and we sit outside, then inside, and appreciate the day.  Later, when Abud arrives, he takes us to his unfinished flat, which has the best view of Karnak temple I have ever seen.  The sun sets behind the temple as I attempt some pictures on my iphone and promise to return with a proper camera some morning in the future.  What a way to bring in the spring... Egypt is very beautiful and its people while complex, complex, complex are just as beautiful but with an asterisk.

More Information on Sham El Nesseem:

Sham El Nesseem is an Ancient Egyptian celebration and it follows the Coptic Calendar (Which is in a way the extension of the Ancient Egyptian Calendar).

Sham El Neseem accordingly is not a fixed date on the Gregoian calendar (or solar calendar we use today), (Something like the differences between Hijri and Gregorian), It coincides with the first Monday after the Coptic Easter (For this year on 27/3/2008).

So for the year 2008 Sham El neseem will be on Monday 28th of April, as Kalooka said.

For a historical background about Sham El Neseem, read on:

Sham El Neseem could have been celebrated in Ancient Egypt as early as 4500 years ago. It was then related to agriculture and fertility religious rites. The name is derived from the Ancient Egyptian name for the harvest season "Shamo" meaning the "renewal of life", during which Egyptians presented offrands of salted fish, onions and lettuce to their deities. Colored Eggs, a symbol of rebirth, were also hung in temples.

Later on that festival was associated with Christianity and the Coptic faith and related to the Coptic Easter as explained above, the name was corrupted from "Shamo" to "Shom" (coptic) or "Shamm" (Arabic) which of course means smelling and "El neseem", meaning "breeze" was added at an even later date. So the full name became "Sham El Neseem" or "Smelling the Breeze"

Today the celebration of "Sham El Neseem" is a typical all Egyptians (Moslems and Copts) feast demonstrating our multiple cultural layers and the continued influences we have maintained over the years. It also demonstrates the religious tolerance which allowed religious symbols and occasions to move freely accross religious boundaries thus further enhancing the fabric of the Egyptian Society.

Sham El Neseem as celebrated today is a homage to spring, the season where life is renewed. Egyptians on that day go out on picnics where traditional foods inherited from the ancient ages are consumed (Feseekh which is a putrified salted fish, green onions, scallions, lettuce and luppini Beans (tirmis)).

Source:

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/shamelnaseen.htm

Additional note - our driver to the post office warned us we would probably be filled with salted fish, with a disturbed look on his face.  I like the salted fish good enough, and it is usually inexpensive, so for our hosts to serve lamb probably meant they were going out of their way for us even more and was not lost on me.