I am gearing up for my Arabic midterms next week. Last Wedenesday, we had our spoken 3mia (jordanian dialect of Arabic) midterm. My friend Ashley and I memorized a dialogue and performed it for our class. It was quite scandalous, you see we were on our way to a party and i wanted to dance with khalid but khalid had kissed maha yesterday and also hugged muna (haarrrrrraam!), so instead i danced with ahmed. I think we performed it well and with enthusiasm and completely memorized (my host brother made me memorize ashley's lines too) so I was happy with the results.
I still have my listening 3mia, and the written fousha (standard arabic) test to take next week. I am feeling pretty good about it, but we will see. The hamza charts and nunnition are killing me.
LAST NIGHT I HAD PIZZAAA!! it was so exciting. I went out to dinner with a guy (and my roomate and his roomate) I met randomly, Max, who is here this semester (obviously) and going to be in Korea next semester! strange... but we get a long great and just gives me another reason to look forward to korea. There is a pizza place in the building where the CIEE office is that smells amazing but for some reason i haven't gotten it yet...but last night i saw turkey pizza on the menu at a restaurant downtown and just had to have it. He also showed me this awesome fruit market that I didn't know existed so hopefully I will have some awesome figs and persimmons in the near future.
Also this week I went swimming in a pool! My friend Waleed is a physical education major at University of Jordan and so he has a hook up at Fitness First, a super nice gym in Amman, who got us into their pool for free (usually it costs 15 JD to get into JUST the gym, which is over 21 bucks). Waleed is on the national boxing team of Jordan so it was nice to finally be better at him than something physically. I mean swimming isn't all that popular in Jordan simply because there is nothing to swim in so I could swim laps around most everyone there. I taught Waleed, Waleed's swimming coach friend who got us in, and some random guy in the lane next to us a little synchronized swimming; it was pretty priceless. It was such an awesome afternoon.
Alright I have to get back to hitting the books. This friday I am off to Egypt and Tunisia so I have to make every minute count! And if anyone was worried about my American and the Arabs midterm, I talked to my professor who was not fussed in the slightest I wasn't going to be present on test day. I will just make it up whenever I have time. holllla!
Showing posts with label Arabic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arabic. Show all posts
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
School is in Session
I have finished my first week of school! It has been a hectic week of running around campus, trying to find the right room, good food, and learning Arabic. I have Arabic class everyday. Three times a week I have Fousha, which is modern standard Arabic, for three hours. Fousha is what the news is written in but no one actually speaks it. Two times a week I have Amia, the Jordanian dialect, for an hour and a half. However, since I am in beginner one, we have been doing Amia all week so we can communicate. Many students here who have studied Fousha for four semesters or more have the same vacant “I have no idea what you just said” look that I have when we talk to people because Fousha is apparently useless when it comes to conversation. I am learning a ton though and my family is beyond helpful.
Everyday at home we have Arabic hour and I have a quiz. It is so nice. I can already tell that I am learning a lot more, a lot faster than some of the people in my class. Maher, my host brother (but he is in his thirties, married, kids) threatens to kill me when I don’t study. Additionally, my Arabic teacher, Muna, threatens to eat any students who don’t do their homework. Two days ago though Muna said she would never eat me because I knew a lot of the vocabulary the class could not remember.
I am still learning the alphabet but it is really exciting. I leave class everyday feeling very accomplished because I am able to read that much more. However on our second day of class we had not learned enough letters to read the word “women.” My friend Ashley and I were looking for a bathroom around the university and could only find a women’s room that was completely blockaded on our floor. We went to the next floor and found some bathrooms missing the woman and man pictures. Since on the floor below the women’s room was on the right we assumed it would be on the right on this floor too (which I maintain is legitimate). While Ashley was in a stall (there were no urinals) a boy walked in and just stared at me for a second. He walked out, checked the sign, walked back in and started talking to me in Arabic. I gave him my vacant-i-have-no-idea-what-you-are-saying look but I guess I hadn’t perfected it by then and he just kept on talking. I started talking in English, he went out to check the sign again and then said “for men.” Luckily we had a sense of humor and could not stop laughing, even for the rest of the day. Needless to say, we immediately learned the word for woman and check twice every time I walk into a bathroom.
I am also taking a class titled America and the Arabs. My professor seems like a great guy with a sense of humor. We hopefully will be meeting many important people in the Jordanian government, such as the minister of foreign affairs, the ambassador to Israel, and also go on field trips, like to refugee camps. Additionally, I am supposedly going to be in an internship but it seems some of the paperwork is holding me back because someone from CIEE quit over the summer and lost resumes and what not. Hopefully CIEE can get its act together so I can work for some non-governmental organization as my fourth class.
It can be overwhelming being here but overall I am having such a great time. I am meeting some awesome people, both from the US and from Jordan. Sometimes my head hurts from Arabic overload/ having such a different life but I find that taking a nap is a wonderful remedy. Going to the gym is also a great way for me to just let my brain relax. It is a lot of work to learn Arabic but I can’t wait till I get to the point where I can forget how to make the vacant face.
Everyday at home we have Arabic hour and I have a quiz. It is so nice. I can already tell that I am learning a lot more, a lot faster than some of the people in my class. Maher, my host brother (but he is in his thirties, married, kids) threatens to kill me when I don’t study. Additionally, my Arabic teacher, Muna, threatens to eat any students who don’t do their homework. Two days ago though Muna said she would never eat me because I knew a lot of the vocabulary the class could not remember.
I am still learning the alphabet but it is really exciting. I leave class everyday feeling very accomplished because I am able to read that much more. However on our second day of class we had not learned enough letters to read the word “women.” My friend Ashley and I were looking for a bathroom around the university and could only find a women’s room that was completely blockaded on our floor. We went to the next floor and found some bathrooms missing the woman and man pictures. Since on the floor below the women’s room was on the right we assumed it would be on the right on this floor too (which I maintain is legitimate). While Ashley was in a stall (there were no urinals) a boy walked in and just stared at me for a second. He walked out, checked the sign, walked back in and started talking to me in Arabic. I gave him my vacant-i-have-no-idea-what-you-are-saying look but I guess I hadn’t perfected it by then and he just kept on talking. I started talking in English, he went out to check the sign again and then said “for men.” Luckily we had a sense of humor and could not stop laughing, even for the rest of the day. Needless to say, we immediately learned the word for woman and check twice every time I walk into a bathroom.
I am also taking a class titled America and the Arabs. My professor seems like a great guy with a sense of humor. We hopefully will be meeting many important people in the Jordanian government, such as the minister of foreign affairs, the ambassador to Israel, and also go on field trips, like to refugee camps. Additionally, I am supposedly going to be in an internship but it seems some of the paperwork is holding me back because someone from CIEE quit over the summer and lost resumes and what not. Hopefully CIEE can get its act together so I can work for some non-governmental organization as my fourth class.
It can be overwhelming being here but overall I am having such a great time. I am meeting some awesome people, both from the US and from Jordan. Sometimes my head hurts from Arabic overload/ having such a different life but I find that taking a nap is a wonderful remedy. Going to the gym is also a great way for me to just let my brain relax. It is a lot of work to learn Arabic but I can’t wait till I get to the point where I can forget how to make the vacant face.
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