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Post by jp_fizzer on Sept 27, 2012 5:12:56 GMT
o, I am currently waiting for my visa and so anticipate I will be travelling to Dhahran shortly. In preparation I decided to take an Arabic course and was about to take a follow up one when I discovered there are many different versions and they vary quite a bit. It turns out that the course I took was "Eastern Arabic" and my choices here are either "Eastern" or "Egyptian", no "Gulf" Arabic courses. I was curious if anybody can tell me if the Arabic in Saudi Arabia is closer to Eastern or Egyptian? Here are a few words I know are different between the two, can anybody suggest which one (if any) would be used there? Please excuse the spelling, the course I took was purely conversational so I am just spelling it how I imagine it sounds. The Egyptian versions are from one of my co-workers who is from Egypt and is getting a kick out of some of my pronounciations. :-)
English - "Sir"
Eastern - "Ach"
Egyptian - "Ustaaz"
English - "Excuse me"
Eastern - "Afwen"
Egyptian - "La muaxza"
English - "Yes"
Eastern - "Na-am"
Egyptian - "Aywa"
I would love to learn to speak Arabic better before I arrive but if Gulf Arabic is quite a bit different than either Eastern or Egyptian perhaps I need to just wait until I get there?
thank you for your help,
-jeff
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Post by lopez2002 on Sept 27, 2012 8:25:05 GMT
You can ask for Standard Arabic classes.
Through the examples you mentioned, no need for the Egyptian arabic as it is has nothing to do with the standard language which is widely understood by all Arabic speakers (even in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, as well as GCC region). my advice is either the standard Arabic or eastern's one.
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Post by Hsara on Sept 27, 2012 19:51:23 GMT
I agree with lopez that you should go for the standard Arabic, having said that it is a fact that all Arab understand Egyptian arabic with no problems at all - thanks for the Egyptian Drama and Egyptian teachers who are teaching arabic in every corner of the Arab world.
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Post by jp_fizzer on Sept 28, 2012 3:11:50 GMT
Okay, thank you very much. I will check out "Modern Standard Arabic". Hopefully it is close to the Eastern Arabic I have already taken. :-)
Looking forward to finally getting over there after an 8 month process.
thanks,
-jeff
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Post by tarik on Sept 28, 2012 15:58:37 GMT
As per the examples you mentioned, eastern is very much applicable to Saudi Arabia.
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Post by malaika on Sept 30, 2012 16:47:44 GMT
Jeff---for the most part, everyone will be able to understand the arabic dialect you learn, but yes it is better to learn the standard arabic. After some time you will be able to detect the various dialect and accents to identify a region someone is in. In addition, in the work area at times is comforting (helps build rapport, etc.) to hear a familiar dialect....even if you know just one or two phrases. I congratulate you Jeff in using your 8 month process to learn Arabic, it is a big part of embracing the culture. It will be easy to learn there and also easy to stir away since everyone (90%) will be speaking English. I recommend you learn to read, write, and speak at the same time...it will be a lot easier for you. Do you want some recommendations of books and materials?
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Post by jp_fizzer on Oct 5, 2012 2:45:09 GMT
Thank you Malaika, some recommendations would be great. I figured just learning to speak would be a good start but I am sure you are right, reading and writing would be a good idea as well. I actually took out about a dozen books from the library and am just going through them trying to decide which would be best to purchase, but if you have some recommendations that would be greatly appreciated.
thanks,
-jeff
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Post by vpainter on Oct 8, 2012 16:23:11 GMT
It is best to learn Arabic alphabet and speaking and reading from that. Learning in transliterated English is handicapping in the long run if you plan to learn much of the language.
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