Learn Arabic

Egypt - Learn Arabic - Speaking

Learning Arabic can take time

February 7, 2015 by
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Learning Arabic at the Cairo Airport

Learning Arabic at 2:00 am

It’s 2:00 am and I am checking in at Cairo Airport Terminal 1.  Heading out of country for a short trip to the US and Canada.  Gearing myself up for some COLD weather in Canada!

Airports have a lot of verbal interaction, as you deal with porters, check in agents, drivers, security people, and other passengers.  Arabic definitely comes in handy.

Some people learning Arabic that I have come across here in Egypt seem to feel that the usefulness of Arabic is that it saves you from having to give tips, or lets you pay local prices.  Personally I don’t care as much about this one, although it is in fact helpful for living on a budget.  One trip’s worth of tips in a place like the airport can blow your whole monthly budget. But what I appreciate the most is the fun and sometimes humorous interactions it brings.  For me, humor is good.  And Egyptians love to joke and laugh.

Arabic conversation 1 – Porter

A porter lifts my carry-on bag onto the security belt.  I don’t actually need his help, and I don’t want to tip him because I’ve given out lots of tips already.  So instead I joke with him, and get him smiling.

Porter:  إنت بتكلم عربي كوايس.  بقالك كم سنة فى مصر؟

(You speak Arabic well.  How many years have you been in Egypt?”) Continue reading “Learning Arabic can take time”

Egypt - Learn Arabic - Learning process - Technology

Learn Arabic – then and now

January 31, 2015 by
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Learn Arabic like this

Wanting to learn Arabic, way back in the 80s and 90s

Learning Arabic is something I get a lot of questions about.  I started to learn Arabic in 1989.  That was when I took my first course in Modern Standard Arabic.  I have spent many years since then studying, learning, and using the language.  I have helped people who want to learn Arabic by creating and publishing Arabic language learning apps.

Learning Arabic in Toronto (where I grew up) back then was not very easy.  But it wasn’t really until I arrived in Cairo, Egypt, that I began to really move forward in being able to function in the language.  I had come to Egypt with one purpose – to learn Arabic.  It was August 27, 1991, and I was a brand new arrival in Cairo, on a year abroad at the American University in Cairo during my third year of a degree at the University of Toronto.

Why did I choose Arabic?  And why Egypt?  I chose Arabic because I was in a linguistics undergraduate program at the University of Toronto, and wanted to study a language other than the usual French, Spanish, and German that my fellow students were studying at the time.  I chose Egypt because it was the only place I knew of that would allow me to transfer credits back to my university in Canada.  Amazing how seemingly small decisions can change the rest of your life.  I’ve been here ever since.

Things that have changed in learning Arabic since 1991

Many things have changed since I arrived in Cairo that day almost 25 years ago.  Here’s some of the big ones: Continue reading “Learn Arabic – then and now”