Does anyone here speak Arabic or is actively trying to learn to speak Arabic? My husband teaches me words here and there...and recently taught me the alphabet/numbers... but I want to have a conversation with his family when we return to Morocco. And DEFINITELY by the time we have a wedding someday. Knowing words but not how to form them into a sentence really is frustrating! What are you using to learn/used to learn, If anything? Or did you have your husband teach you?

I know lots of dirty words and slang I also know a few basic conversational phrases that mostly get used on my MIL, but other than that I know enough to rant or know when hubby is fussy.

I tried learning the alphabet on my own, but I got soooo bogged down. I found I do much better just by listening to the hubster talk and occasionally picking up a repeated word. When Im feeling extra-smart I ask him for new words one at a time. It usually takes a few days of repeated use to get new words to sink in, so its slow going. Maybe Ill have more time and drive to pursue it now that Im on maternity leave.

I have learned quite a bit actually and noticed that one of the fastest ways was to listen carefully to his phone conversations. I'd pick up on certain words he said all the time and then ask him what they meant. I'm now on my way to learning "pharmacy Arabic" so I can help the arabian customers that come into my pharmacy. I can have a short conversation with hubsters family so that makes me happy. I still have a lot to learn though...

I know very little. All the lovey dovey talk of course hee hee
I am trying to learn some basic phrases before I go to Jordan and meet the family next month
I learn mostly from him. I have found a few sites that have some very basic arabic sentences, and words. I have heard wonderful things about the Rosetta Stone programs.
I am hoping once he gets here, I will learn quickly ha ha

Rosetta Stone is great!!!!! Plus, listening to him helps like the others had said. I know all the bad words and a few lovey words, hellos and goodbye but I have learned that when I listen to his phone conversations without even thinking about I get the jist of the conversation. So my advoce listen to every word. My SO freaks out when I know what he is sayin. Its so funny to hear him talking about our me when is mad in arabic, and I just turn around repeat it back to him and we laugh it off. Its a great "get back on his good side" technique

i also do the same with my husband. especially while in morocco i could listen and hear words that are repeated often and figure out what they meant. i've got a decent vocabulary going but putting sentences together is the part i need help with. maybe i'll check out the rosetta stone and have my husband give me lessons. the only problem is i assume the rosetta stone is classical arabic and not darija. hmmmmmmmmmmmm!

its the basic arabic that all arabs should know. My SO is Tunisian and he says there are so many dialects, assume you know that but they all can speak the basic and understand.

i mainly want to speak darija because thats what my husbands family speak. i want to be able to talk to them more than anything!!! although knowing classical would be cool for travel purposes...

I can read it slowly and my accent is awful but I understand quite a bit and can usually get my point across when I try to talk , but its all such a broken mess

That would be nice to speak theirt dialect, well listen to every word honey and make him help you!! My SO does not have the skills to teach me. He can get all inpatient about it. So he buys me books and its a good laugh. If your SO is patient then make him teach you a bit half to one hour a day and in 3 months you should be able to form sentences. Good luck with the fam.

My story is really funny with darja.. I have spoken darja for about 3 years and been around Algerians and Algeria for almost 7 years. But I married a wahrani and he speaks an entirely different dialect than Algiers. If I speak several words in Algerois to a moroccan, they will not understand it, but they usually understand Wahranis. I cannot understand very many words in Orani because I was never exposed to them before last year

The reason is the ethnic backgrounds of the areas. Algiers was a turkish city so you hear words ending with ik ak and ek

wash bik
wash rak

oran is

ghraya sahbi
kiraki raya?

Moroccans completley understand wahranis but if someone from Algiers wants NOT to be understood, they can launch into Algerois really heavy and no one gets it. Whats funny is that I DO NOT understand arabic but I understand ALGERIAN ARABIC so if Algerians start talking and I am around arabs, the only one that understands is me( this comes from being over there in Algeria and France not from a book.

ORANI DIALECT



ALGIERS DIALECT

cI5O_nBb-RU

ALGIERS DIALECT

No no no, this is completely incorrect. The -ik, -ak and -ek suffixes (meaning "you" in the objective position), and bik and fik and rak -- these are all standard Arabic.

The -ak and -ek (or -ik) suffixes that you see in Turkish mean something completely different -- they denote the infinitive form of a verb.

Interesting......

I stand corrected.. I was told that the turkish occupation is why the arabic uses this ending and Oran doesnt... I stand corrected


What did you think of ton ton and bakhta WOM?

The only "ton ton" I know is Haitian French creole for "uncle." Not sure about "bakhta".... hmmm sounds like it could be Hindu.... but I have a hunch that what you're talking about may be something related to North African music ?

are you fluent in Arabic, WOM?

No, I don't speak Arabic. But I do know numbers and money! And I could probably get to my in-law's apartment in a taxi from the airport now. But that's about it.

Not quite yet but I'm workin on it ! I can handle basic conversation -- get directions, negotiate for taxis or hotels, bargain over purchases, of course exchange pleasantries, etc. But I am far from being ready to discuss nuclear physics...

I started learning by ear and with transliterated words using the Roman alphabet. I didn't really start learning to read and write Arabic letters until about 2 years ago. I have used some language tapes which were very useful, but most of what I know -- I picked it up just by listening and by asking manyyyyy questions.

Language is so fascinating to me.... I've always been interested in it.

me too. but i've never attemped a language other than a romance language. (well i did take one semester of mandarin! hehe) i'm fascinated and sooo excited at the thought of being able to hold a conversation. i also want us to teach our children together someday. i ask my husband lots of questions and now he's beginning to write things down for me to speed things up. usually i ask a question but i have to hear it repeated a few times before i remember it. i want to study them on cards and maybe i can sink things in at a faster rate. i definitely should pick up some tapes also! do you recommend anything in particular?

Can you discuss nuclear physics in English?

HAHAHAHA!!!

Of course. Can't you ?

Well, um, yeah, of course. I just didn't think that *you* could.

Dayum seems we're both a lot smarter than we look

I PM'd you regarding gamma decay and fission. No need to make everyone else feel inferior...

Anyway,

My Arabic is between very poor and non-existent. I'm embarrassed actually. Something on my to-do list. I'm the kind of person who has to study it, I won't pick it up just by listening.

Keep trying -- you'll get the hang of it

That's the thing, I can't really "keep trying", since I haven't been trying in the first place. We're planning a big trip back to Morocco in about a year, so I better get my a$$ in gear, since my French just doesn't cut it either.

Where did Wahrania go ???? She left me hangin here

I will not rest until I learn what is this bakhta and ton ton....

Me too! I really want to speak to my husbands family and start planning our Moroccan wedding next time we go. So I have about a year to pick up on Darija...quick!!!!

I don't know anything about Darija, but it seems there are not language tapes/CDs available for this dialect. But I see a lot of websites that say they can help you learn. Anyone ever try them ?

no, but i will do a search and try it!

there are some, not many. You can start here: www.press.georgetown.edu and there is also a yahoo group called Learning Moroccan Arabic (I think) that focuses on this dialect. You can also download the Peace Corps manual for learning Moroccan Arabic.

I can speak a bit, understand a bit, but I am now learning to read/write Arabic online at a Jordanian University. It's mostly focused on reading Qu'ran. I'm getting a lot out of it. I can almost read at 1st or 2nd grade level now - really slowly & deciphering letters/sounding it out. But the cool thing is now I'm starting to think of words I already know and trying to spell them out. It's a good challenge.

My husband, his family, and all of his friends speak french, except for his younger brother (21) who is too cool, but understands it. I am fluent in french so I haven't had a real incentive to learn arabic I do know the alphabet and how to count and quite a few phrases ("I'm in the metro" or "I'm tired"), answers to questions, and what to say aroudn ramadan. When we talk to each other we use a mess of english, french, algerian, and norwegian ( my mom's side of the family is from norway ) so it's pretty hard to follow our conversations....

One word of advice

Never try to speaking Arabic while eating. I made that mistake and I choked. It was funny once everything settled down and I was ok, but I vowed to never try to speak it while were eating.

in the meantime, here's a taun-taun.

I didn't see anyone post Cathy's wonderful group yet....

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/learn-moroccan-arabic/

You can download (for free!) the Peace Corps manual, which is very good. Your partner can help you with pronunciation, or if s/he's not up for it, Cathy's husband has recorded some of the exercises. She's even come up with her own lessons!

Another *great* (and cheap) resource is the lonely planet Moroccan Arabic phrasebook. It is surprisingly complete and has a lot of grammar packed in, so you can really pick it up if you like learning languages by grammar.

Edited: Oops it was already posted up there. So I second the nomination.

I'm not a big fan of the Harrell textbook; I have it and really can't get anywhere with it, it's not conversationally focused enough for me.

Hmmm, no, not really at all. I can understand a lot of what is going on around me when I hear my husband speak, and I can tell different dialects apart, and I can tell what is a word (word ending) in spoken language... but I can't form a sentence very well (things like "Ana katkoot asfar sagheer," is about it.). I can read the letters but that doesn't help when i don't know the meaning Sometimes when Ammar gets upset, or just wakes up, talks on the phone or just forgets, he speaks in Arabic and I can usually get what he's saying. When he rants I can rant back in English But that's more or less because it doesn't take a massive mental capacity to figure out what is wrong and what he's probably talking about. I just know it surprises him a lot Now he's all thinking I have some clue about Arabic. Helps, too, that he says things and I'm asking him "blah blah blah shoo" as in (what are you saying to me) and most of the time I magically guess the correct thing to say that makes sense. I'm tricksy like that.

I am learning the most important things. Such as I miss the stomach of cows. Also I can beg my MIL for money. I found I am their evening entertainment as I repeat what I am told to say.

LMFAO I had similar experience in learning French. My first complete phrase (of dubious usefulness) was "The fish eats the bus". Im sure Ill find an appropriate use for it at some point. Other than making my husband and his family laugh so hard they pee themselves.

I know, sometimes I felt like a trained puppy... Everyone found my attempts to speak amusing.

I have tried, but the fact is that I am not good at learning new languages. My husband and I plan to move back to Morocco after a few years, and I was concerned that I won't be able to do anything. He assures me that we will hire someone to take care of my every needs. I don't think he understands, I want to do it MYSELF! lol

Ooooooooo I always wanted one of those !!!!!




Yes they will laugh and then they will say "so sweet from you"......

Have you tried french? It's a lot easier.

I've never been to Morocco -- do most people there speak French ? Or is Arabic or Darija the common denominator ? Or is there even a common denominator (see I know nothing....)

Depends on where you are. For the most part I was able to get by with some butchered French on my visits , but darija is the more widely used manner of communication. Some of the poorer areas have a smaller population of French-speaking persons, but I stayed mostly in the large city. And then some folks speak several languages. Half of my in-laws speak English, French, and Darija.

MIL speaks only arabic I have taken years of Spanish and I still can't carry on a ligible coversation. Give me a spreadsheet any day, but a new language? Oh well...I guess when we move there I will be forced to do it...lol

Even if you can't speak with your in-laws, you'll be able to get in Morocco (getting places, buying things, talking to many of the people there, etc) if you learn French. The only negative is what happened with me; I could get by in French, so I had less necessity to learn Arabic. Sometimes you just have to force it.

PM me if you want to know more, I have lots of resources on learning languages!

Sharon

I remember one of you girls were part of the peace corp...... I was thinking of buying the peace corp version to learning the tunisian arabic, my So thinks learning standard is enough, but I think he just wants to keep my learning process limited so I won't know what he is talking about when we are around his tunsian friends, that sneaky man grrr, hee hee

I'm receiving rosetta stone for x-mas from him. So maybe my theory might be wrong but I'm still sticking with it.

yeah that was liz...where's she been lately anyway?!?!

Try this, Jen. A friend who recently moved to Casa says it's been useful to her.

Almost forgot. It comes with a phrase book, so don't buy two.

Another source: http://friendsofmorocco.org/learnarabic.htm

I speak Egyptian pretty fluently...but my parents are Egyptian...so..I don't count..

but anyway, here's this website...from wiki...this link is for modern standard arabic..but there are links for egyptian and jordanian and lebanese arabic... http://wikitravel.org/en/Arabic

also...if you know the arabic alphabet, here's the common transliteration that Arabs use on the internet and stuff...

alif--aa
baa--b
taa--t
thaa--th [or s for Egyptians]
jeem--j [or g for Egyptians]
Haa--7
khaa--kh or 7' or 5
daal--d
dhaal--dh [or z for Egyptians]
raa--r
zaa--z
seen--s
sheen--sh
Sud--s
Dud--d
Taa--6 or t
Dhaa--dh
ain--3
ghain--gh or 3'
faa--f
qaaf--q or 9
kaaf--k
meem--m
noon--n
haa--h
waw--w
yaa--y

as for the vowels....

fat-7a--a
kasra--i or e
damma--o or u
shadda--double consonant
hamza--2


...so, if you want to say I love you to your husband...it would be ba7ibak....to your wife...it would be ba7ibik...

in arabic, ba7ibak would be بَحِبَك

and ba7ibik would be بَحِبِك

anyway...so that's my little arabic lesson..haha...

hope it was useful..

all the best guys!!