Teaching scams

I see lots is people who are offering to teach others for money. lots of people go for paid sessions rather than free because by nature we expect paid sessions will be more effective and professional.

As a native Arabic speaker I see lots of offerings to teach Arabic, but most of them are not even qualified, being a native speaker doesn't make you qualified to teach the language. A native speaker can help teaching the basics maybe intermediate level but for advance level you need an expert.

As an example, Arabic grammar is very advanced level even many native Arabic speakers don't know it well, when trying to explain them to non Arabic speakers you need to simplify this as much as possible so others can get your point, you must use the proper terminologies in order to explain such a thing and the most important thing you need is communication skills,

I saw some offerings where the tutor is not able to write a correct simple sentence in English! How is he/she supposed to help others? You don't have the knowledge and you shouldn't charge people for teaching them wrong.
In my opinion if i am a native english speaker and i am trying to learn arabic and the tutor cannot speak english fluent enough for me to understand what he is saying I won't trust him at all.

The bottom line is: charging people for teaching them is a big responsibility and before giving away our money we must make sure that the tutor is according to our expectations

Arabic is difficult!

Yesterday I was telling my relatives about the "blogging" thing and that I started posting few things about "Arabic Language" and we discussed the difficulty of Arabic, I already wrote a post about this a week ago or so, but there an update to share!

A shocking update actually, I discovered that there are Arabs who can't read Arabic! they can speak English fluently but not Arabic as they think this is the "modern" way of living and there is no use of Arabic.

let me be honest, in my daily life I use English for about 50%.
that is a lot for an Arabic native speaker, but I work in an IT field and in my country this is very normal; even if I chose to talk in Arabic no one will figure out what do I mean -from an IT perspective-.

Arabic is difficult but there are levels, you can choose to learn the basics only or you can choose to learn more and go into further details it is totally up to you.
I am not saying that all Arabs must be Arabic experts but what am saying is that we must know the basics. have you ever met a Japanese person who doesn't know Japanese!

The language represents the culture and who you are, I think nobody should pretend to be someone else.

If Arabs only knew how beautiful and rich their language is!

Solar and Lunar letters in Arabic !

When reading in Arabic, there is something called "Al Al-ta'reef" "ال التعريف" which is same as "the" and its attached to the beginning of any noun.

sometimes when attaching "Al" then reading the word you find it difficult to pronounce the "L" clearly and sometimes not, thus the letters are divided into two groups

A group where you can pronounce the "L" easily "lunar letters":

if you attached the "Al Al-ta'reef" to the word "moon" in Arabic you will find it very easy to pronounce the "L":

القمر => Al Qamar

A group where you can't "Solar letters":

attaching the "Al Al-ta'reef" to the word "sun" in Arabic

الشمس => Al Shams

you find it much more easier to pronounce it without the "L" like saying "A Shams"

Conclusion:

Lunar letters are:

أ، ب، ج، ح، خ، ع، غ، ف، ق، ك، م، هـ، و، ي

Solar letters:

ت، ث، د، ذ ،ر، ز، س، ش، ص، ض، ط، ظ، ل، ن

hope this helps a bit :)

poem 3

This is a part of a poem that was written by: Emro'a al-Qais

He is classified as a Jahili Poet (before-Islam), this poem is one of the greatest poems ever written.

أغَرّكِ مني أنّ حُبّكِ قاتِلي     وأنكِ مهما تأمري القلب يفعل 

how to read:
A gharraki minni anna hobbaki qatili      wa annaki mahma ta'moril qalb yaf3ali

Explanation:

are you arrogant because you knew that your love is killing me and my heart will do whatever you ask for.

poem 2

This poem was written by: Qais Bin Al-Mulooh (also named: Majnoon Laila which means "Crazy about Laila")

He loved his Cousin "Laila" and started writing poems about her, and because everyone knew about this love, Laila's father prevented this marriage (Arabs used to consider it as a shame if a love was spread out to the public and then the two couples got married) and forced his daughter to marry another man.

Because of that Qais felt very sad and started wandering everywhere writing poems about Laila until he died.

تعود مريضا أسقمته بهجرها                 ولو عادته عاد لا يعرف السقما

لقد أضرمت في القلب نارا من الجوى        فما تركت عظما ولا تركت لحما

how to read it

ta3oodu mareedhan asqamt'hu behajreha   wa lw 3adat'hu 3ada la ya3refu ssaqama

laqad adhramat fel qalbi naran menal jawa   fama tarakat 3a6'man wa la tarakat la7ma

Explanation

She visits a patient who is sick because of her neglect and abandonment, and whenever she visits him he regains his health back

and because he is missing her too much a fire was ignited in his heart and left no flesh neither bones.

It is very difficult to translate poems

Hi everyone,

I was planning to post another poem, but it is very difficult to translate!!

I know how to explain it, but to translate it .. !
I need a Shakespeare here to assist me, because in Arabic there are lots of words to express one thing, and each one adds a twist to the meaning



I had these two words that mean: you won't cry because of your pride
I was thinking and using dictionaries just to come up with two words that give the same meaning, but no luck.

however, I will do my best to keep posting poems .. wish me luck :)

Arabic poetry - poem 1

After writing the previous post, I was very excited so I decided to write another post :)

The title says "Poem", but it is actually a part of a poem only two phrases, I named it this way because it is much easier than writing "part of a poem - 1".

 -- The actual post starts here --

these are one of my favourites, I really can not tell why but I think because of the meaning

It is very famous and considered one of the greatest love-poems phrases that were written in history

The poet name is: Antara Bin Shaddad

He was born in the 6th century, his father was a pure Arabian man and his mother was a slave from what is called now ""Ethiopia". Because of that he looked like a slave not like an Arabian, his father didn't accept him as a son and instead he considered him as one of his slaves and was very cruel to him.

finally his father acknowledged him as his son when he wanted him to participate in war between their tribe and another tribe.

He loved his cousin "Abla", but again because he was black his uncle refused to accept him as a son-in-law, this part of the poem was written in the memory of his love "Abla"

ولقد ذكرتك والرماح نواهل مني     وبيض الهند تقطر من دمي

فوددت تقبيل السيوف لأنها            لمعت كبارق ثغرك المتبسم

Translation:

and I remembered you when the spears were drinking my blood and when the white Indians were dripping out my blood 

so I wished to kiss the swords because they shined like you when you are smiling

Explanation:

In the middle of a battle he was being attacked from different directions with spears and Indian swords* and his blood was everywhere but when the sun was hitting the swords they were shining, so he remembered the smile of the woman he loves and wished to kiss the swords instead of attacking back and defending himself.

*Indian swords were known to be white that is why he said "White Indians"