Egypt protests: interview with protest initiator Wael Ghonim

This post has been included on my new blog: http://welovearabic.wordpress.com
Google executive Wael Ghonim was the creator of the Facebook group which originally sparked the anti-government protests in Egypt. He was arrested and spent 12 days in custody. This is his first interview after his release on 7 February 2011. The video, in which Ghonim speaks in Egyptian colloquial, has English subtitles and was posted on the website Alive in Egypt, a volunteer-run project aiming to translate videos of events in Egypt and make them available to the international audience.

Video Subtitles courtesy Alive in Egypt

Source: Alive in Egypt

Poetry of the revolution

The protests in Egypt have been alive with poetic chants, often using rhyming couplets, Egyptian slang and clever puns. Here are translations of some of the commonly chanted slogans and an analysis of some of the poetry of the revolution.

This video (located on Vimeo) of protests in Tahrir Square was posted on Facebook:

Untitled from Marwa on Vimeo.

Revolution in Tunisia, Jan 2011

Key words
استقلال - independence
باسل - brave, courageous
تضامن - solidarity

ثورة - revolution
الشعوب - the people
غطرسة - arrogance, insolence
القمع - repression, oppression
لا يحررنا إلا أنفسن - no-one can free us but ourselves


Song lyrics (Tunisian dialect)

Source: الساطور Libyan blog

رئيس البلاد
هاني اليوم نحكي معاك باسمي وباسم الشعب
الكل اللي عايش في العذاب
2011 مازال تم شكون يموت بالجوع،
حابب يخدم باش يعيش لكن صوتوا موش مسموع
اهبط للشارع وشوف العباد ولات وحوش
شوف الحاكم بالمطراك تاك تاك ما يهموش
مادام ما ثمة حد باش يقوله كلمة لا
حتى القانون اللي في الدستور نفخه واشرب ماءه
كل نهار نسمع قضية ركبوهاله بالسيف
بورتان الحاكم يعرف اللي هو عبد نظيف
زعمة ترضاها لبنتك، عارف كلامي يبكي العين
عارف ما دامك بو ( أب) ما ترضاش الشر لصغارك
هذا ميساج عبارة واحد من صغارك يحكي معاك
رانا عايشين كالكلاب
نص الشعب عايشين الذل وذاقوا من كأس العذاب
رئيس البلاد ، شعبك مات وبرشة عباد من الزبلة كلات
هاك تشوف آش قاعد صاير في البلاد
مآسي باردو والناس ما لقاتش وين تبات
هاني نحكي باسم الشعب
اللي انظلموا واللي نداسو بالصباط
رئيس البلاد، قتلي احكي من غير خوف
هاني حكيت ونعرف اللي نهايتي مش تكون الكفوف
لكن نشوف برشة ظلم وهذاك علاش اخترتك
بورتان وصاوني برشة عباد
الي نهايتي تكون الاعدام
لكن
الى متى التونسي عايش في الأوهام
وين حرية التعبير
رايت منها كان الكلام
اسمها تونس الخضراء
رئيس البلاد….

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.

Matchmaking Baghdad's widows

See here for a 3 minute video on the Guardian website about an Iraqi woman working as a matchmaker, attempting to convince the widows of the Iraqi capital that their religion and society does not forbid them to re-marry.

Source: www.guardian.co.uk, 22 Sep 2009

Cautious welcome for Iraq power-sharing deal

See here for a short clip of Iraqis giving their reaction to news that a deal between political leaders has been reached, 12 November 2010 (www.guardian.co.uk)

With English subtitles

Jehan al-Sadat interview - Al-Jazeera

This long and detailed interview with Jehan al-Sadat, the widow of former Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat, is available as a video on the Al-Jazeera website or as an audio only podcast from Itunes.

The Al-Jazeera series is called Shahid 3ala al-3asr (شاهد على العصر) and the website offers the full transcripts of the interview and the introductory prologue in the first episode. Wonderful! The interviewer speaks clear fusha, and while she responds in Egyptian dialect, it is clear and not too fast, so if you have an idea of Egyptian pronunciation, it should be possible to follow for learners of Arabic who are more familiar with Modern Standard than with Egyptian.

Campaign to save Arabic in Lebanon

So many people use French and English in Lebanon that many young people struggle with standard classical Arabic. فعل أمر is a campaign to bring standard Arabic back into the mainstream and make it cool to young people

http://feilamer.org/ar/

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10316914

 

Cultural expressions

Here's some useful guides to cultural expressions and idioms in Arabic

* http://www.transparent.com/arabic/cultural-expressions/

* Podcast on varabic.wordpress.com

What do you say when you sneeze? What do you say when you are invited to someone’s house?

In this podcast, you will learn some of those important Arabic expressions that are used culturally which will definitely impress your Arab friends and might save you from embarrassing situations.

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!

Iraqipedia

Here's a fantastic resource for anyone interested in learning Iraqi dialect or about the culture: WikiRaqi

Includes categories such as
* Jokes
* Expressions and sayings
* Food & Recipes
* Insults
* Personalities
* Places

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 ...