Saturday, October 24, 2009
My Lady Syria
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Settlin' In...
The building is full of young, active Jordanians. I live with two guys, an American and a Brit, who are also studying the language. My daily trip to school is a little bit out of the way, but luckily cabs are cheap and soon I'll have the public bus system figured out, Insha'allah (hopefully/God willing).
I’ve become good friend with my neighbor Hakim who runs his own tour company, Tropical Desert Trips, that leads excursions throughout
Hakim’s apartment is a popular hangout spot, and I’ve made countless new friends just going over there to say hi. The best times are when his Jordanian friends are visiting and they speak exclusively in Arabic. I’m not yet at the point where I comfortable joining in to their conversation, but it’s exciting to discover how quickly my listening comprehension is improving.
The Arabic that I study in my classes is the formal Modern Standard Arabic, also called fus-ha (meaning 'eloquent'). This Arabic is used in the media, academia, and in business settings. It is understood across the region by Arabic speakers from different countries. On the street, however, the locals of each country speak their particular dialect, or ammiya (meaning 'public'). To make a crude linguistic comparison, ammiya is to fus-ha what Ebonics is to proper English. In order to really understand what is going on around me and communicate with facility, I need to know ammiya. The good news is that with a foundation is fus-ha, ammiya is relatively easy. The vocabulary is limited and the grammar is very straightforward. Towards this effort, I am taking a two hour ammiya conversation class one evening a week. Once I have learned the basic grammar structures and learn the ammiya equivalents of my fus-ha vocublary, I should be on my way.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Wadi Rum
This weekend I went to the world famous Wadi Rum in the south of Jordan. I visited this incredible valley (language note: wadi = valley) on a group trip last year, but I felt unsatisfied being shuffled from site to site with thirty other students. This time around I was invited by my neighbor Hakim to partake in an easy-going weekend of camping, rock climbing, and overall reverence for the beauty of the desert.