This is how - هيك

This song is in Levantine dialect, so if you've been learning standard Arabic only, here are a few differences to be aware of:
* هيك= هكذا = thus, in this way, this is the way that ...
* In the present tense, verbs have a 'b-' at the start
* ق isn't pronounced
* بكرة=  غدا = tomorrow



How do you say...?
* the birds fly
* the kids clap their hands
* early tomorrow morning
* we'll pick flowers and jasmine

My sheep - يا غنماتي

This song is good practice of the imperative (giving commands). All the imperative verbs end in وا (pronounced 'oo') to show they're plural, because she's talking to lots of sheep. Match up the English and Arabic:
 
answer                               غنّوا
walk                                   ردّوا                                  
sing                                    امشوا                                       

NB. انتوا= the colloquial form of انتم = you (plural).

There are 5 phrases in this song. Which order do they come in?

* follow me (walk behind me)
* answer me
* what shall I feed you?
* you're my life
* sing along with me

I am the Wind أنا الهواء

This song is in Levantine dialect:

الهواء = الريح
ق is not pronounced
شو = ما
ها = هذه
مرحى = bravo! hurrah!
شو هالفرحة = what joy!
كبوت pl كبابيت: one of those words to be careful of, as it means different things in each dialect. Generally, it means 'hood', so it can be an item of clothing with a hood, or even a hat, but it's also a 'hood' of a car (US English; UK English 'bonnet') and even a condom (Saudi dialect). In this song, it refers to a dress.

Podcasts for beginners'

Ah, the internet is a wonderful thing when it comes to learning languages, especially the world of podcasts. Here are a couple of recommended podcasts for beginners:

Arabic Pod

available free on Itunes, or from their website

Lovingly created podcasts aimed at teaching colloquial Arabic through very short, amusing dialogues. The author makes podcasts for every level and they're clearly labelled, so you can progress easily from the beginners' ones through to the higher levels.

It's made by a UK-based Levantine Arab, with a sense of humour and quirky choice of topics. He is also very good at explaining the differences between Levantine dialect and standard (written) Arabic. He has a different guest each week, which means you get to hear lots of different voices. The website offers PDF transcripts and exercises for every lesson, though you have to log in to see them. This man is a legend.

Arabic Pod 101

Available free on Itunes or from the website. Over 800 lessons for 3 different levels: beginner, intermediate and advanced.

Another brilliant podcast with lessons at various levels. Access to transcripts and additional material to support the audio lessons is available through the website at a subscription fee (different packages vary from $4 to $26 a month). The website also offers a daily Arabic word of the day email.

Lessons are offered for 4 levels: absolute beginner (no previous knowledge of Arabic), beginner, intermediate (lessons coming soon) and advanced. You can also browse the selections by context: student, business, work, travel, living in an Arabic country or family. There are also video lessons available, with good quality pictures, subtitles and nice soothing background music!

You only need to give an email address to login for a 7 day trial, during which you can download 10 pdf files of notes to accompany the audio. I only looked at the advanced level lessons (13 audio blogs on cultural, history and geography topics), but was very impressed by the detail in the notes: the full transcript in Arabic, English, vowelled Arabic, a detailed vocabulary list and sample sentences using the vocabulary. If the beginners' lessons are as good then this is a fabulous resource!

Matabb - Palestinian Ramadan TV Series

مَطَبّ is a speedbump.

And it's also the name of the first ever Palestinian produced TV series, which was aired in Ramadan 2008. The month of fasting is an annual event for TV in the Muslim world - lots of series are created especially and aired every night.

You can watch all 10 episodes, with English subtitles, on the Goethe Institut website.

You might want to learn a few Palestinian phrases first ...