Learn about plural nouns and the role of women in Arabic speaking countries
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natasha: Hello. It’s me Natasha. |
| Judith: Absolute Beginner Season 1 Lesson 18; “Seeing An Egyptian Demonstration.” |
| Natasha: Hello, and welcome to ArabicPod101.com where we study modern Arabic in a fun and educational format. |
| Judith: So brush up on the Arabic that you started learning long ago and start learning it today. |
| Natasha: Thanks for being here with us for this lesson. Natasha, what are we looking at in this lesson? |
| Judith: In this lesson, you will learn how to describe what you see. |
| Natasha: This conversation takes place on a street in Cairo. The conversation is between Julia and Majah. |
| Judith: They are speaking informal, modern, standard, Arabic. Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUES |
| Natasha: :ما هذا؟ |
| Natasha: تظاهرة. انظري يوجد بعض المعلمين والطلاب والموظفين والرجال والنساء |
| Natasha: :العديد من الناس |
| Natasha: ويوجد العديد من المراسلين الصحفيين! هذا الصحفي يتكلم إلى الطالبات |
| Natasha: أريد أن أخذ صورة |
| Natasha: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Natasha: :ما هذا؟ |
| Natasha: تظاهرة. انظري يوجد بعض المعلمين والطلاب والموظفين والرجال والنساء |
| Natasha: :العديد من الناس |
| Natasha: ويوجد العديد من المراسلين الصحفيين! هذا الصحفي يتكلم إلى الطالبات |
| Natasha: أريد أن أخذ صورة |
| Natasha: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Natasha: :ما هذا؟ |
| Natasha: What is this? |
| Natasha: تظاهرة. انظري يوجد بعض المعلمين والطلاب والموظفين والرجال والنساء |
| Natasha: A demonstration. Look, there are teachers, students, employees, men and women. |
| Natasha: :العديد من الناس |
| Natasha: So many people. |
| Natasha: ويوجد العديد من المراسلين الصحفيين! هذا الصحفي يتكلم إلى الطالبات |
| Natasha: And there are a lot of reporters. This reporter is talking to the Natasha students. |
| Natasha: أريد أن أخذ صورة |
| Natasha: I want to take a picture. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: Okay. Maybe we should talk a bit about the status of women. |
| Natasha: Status of our women varies from country to country. As you may see, women played a prominent role in the public demonstration in North Africa. There, they have an active role in public role. Roles are still not as equal as in the West. For example, a woman is still expected to run the household even if she has a full time job. |
| Judith: But progress is being made and in general, is supported by the state and society. |
| Natasha: There are of course, countries where this is not the case. Saudi Arabia is an extreme example. There, women are not even allowed to go out without a male escort or allowed to drive. |
| Judith: However, this is very much the exception rather than the rule. It is always worth comparing the situation of women, not just to the West but also China, Sub-Saharan Africa and non-Arab Muslim countries. |
| Natasha: When judged on a global scale, women’s right in most Arab nations are just about average. Although there are still room for improvement. |
| Judith: It is becoming increasingly noticeable that more and more Muslim scholars are focusing on the Quran’s message of equality between the sexes rather than the male dominated tribal traditions. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Judith: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall see is. |
| Natasha: مظَاهرَة |
| Judith: Demonstration |
| Natasha: مظَاهرَة |
| Judith: Next. |
| Natasha: نظر |
| Judith: To look. |
| Natasha: نظر |
| Judith: Next. |
| Natasha: يوجد |
| Judith: There are. |
| Natasha: يوجد |
| Judith: Next. |
| Natasha: موظف |
| Judith: Employee. |
| Natasha: موظف |
| Judith: Next. |
| Natasha: رجل |
| Judith: Man |
| Natasha: رجل |
| Judith: Next. |
| Natasha: نساء |
| Judith: Women. |
| Natasha: نساء |
| Judith: Next. |
| Natasha: الكثير |
| Judith: Many. |
| Natasha: الكثير |
| Judith: Next. |
| Natasha: ناس |
| Judith: People. |
| Natasha: ناس |
| Judith: Next. |
| Natasha: مراسل صحفي |
| Judith: Reporter. |
| Natasha: مراسل صحفي |
| Judith: Next. |
| Natasha: طالبة |
| Judith: female student. |
| Natasha: طالبة |
| Judith: Next. |
| Natasha: أخذ |
| Judith: To take. |
| Natasha: أخذ |
| Judith: Next. |
| Natasha: صورة |
| Judith: Picture, image or design. |
| Natasha: صورة |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Judith: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and uses for this lesson. |
| Natasha: The first word we’ll look at is "'unDHury". |
| Judith: It’s the command that is the imperative form of the verb "naDHara". So it means “look” rather than to look. |
| Natasha: "al´adiidu mina annaas" is a phrase meaning, “so many people.” |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Judith: The focus of this lesson is the plural of nouns. If you remember, Arabic nouns can be masculine or feminine. Almost all feminine nouns end in -a, so that is not a problem. Based on the gender of a word, its plural will look different. |
| Natasha: Regular masculine nouns get the ending -iin for plural. In this lesson, we have seen the word teacher mu´allim, which becomes teachers, mu´allimiin. Also employee muwaDHDHaf, employees, muwaDHDHafiin. Reporter, maraasil SaHfii, reporters muraasiliin SaHfiyiin. |
| Judith: Regular feminine nouns get the ending -aat for plural. |
| Natasha: For example, the word for a Natasha student is "Taliba" and female students are "Talibaat". Unfortunately, a lot of Arabic nouns have irregular plural forms where the vowels change and sometimes, the letters are even rearranged. Feminine nouns tend to be more regular than masculine ones. So when you see a noun than ends in Taa Marbuta, the "a" sound then you can assume that the plural will replace that with -aat. |
| Judith: One notable exception is the word women which is "imaraa'" and the plural is "nisaa'", completely different. |
| Natasha: We encountered two irregular masculine plurals in this lesson. |
| Judith: Student Taalib, and students Tulaab. Man rajul and men, rijaal. That just about does it for today. |
Outro |
|---|
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| Judith: Download the lessons or listen or watch online. |
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| Natasha: Instantly access them all right now at ArabicPod101.com. |
| Judith:Okay, see you next time! |
Comments
HideHow do you feel with the arab women rights?
Hi Abiha,
As a Palestinian-Egyptian, I agree that many stereotypes about Egyptian and Palestinian women being "oppressed" and "helpless" are completely false. Learning Arabic and visiting these countries definitely help free one's mind of a lot of these stereotypes.
Nora
Team ArabicPod101.com
Well, as a Pakistani, I would say that Pakistan is much like the Middle East due to the religion we have in common, Islam. Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) told us about the equality. If you look at an Arab country like UAE, you see women actively participating in the progress of the country. I don't think that the Arab women are suppressed, as most westerners do. There's nothing wrong with a woman performing the duty of running the threshold and shouldn't be called oppressed as I've seen MANY women being happy with this duty, but if she opts to work outside, nothing's wrong with it too.
Hi Daniel,
Thank you! Fixed.
Nora
Team ArabicPod101.com
I think that the title should read "... the role of women in Arabic-speaking countries" instead of "... the role of women-speaking countries."
Hi Joulan,
True! Took them so long, but they're finally there!
Nora
Team ArabicPod101.com
Well Saudi has let women drive.. Alhamdulillah!!
Hi Grant,
Could you tell us more about how growing up in the 1950’s in a western society was like :D?
Nora
Team ArabicPod101.com
It is certainly noticeable when you move to the Middle East that arab women rights are different from current western society. There is not equality but I must say that the respect shown to women in the arab world reminds me of what it was like growing up in the 1950's in western society.
Here's another good tool to learn Arabic. I'll leave the link below!
http://tinyurl.com/6p2nas8