Amanda Bell

Hello! My name is Amanda Bell, and for my Senior Independent Project, I plan to complete an introductory study on the Arabic language. I will be learning Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) with an online tutor who currently resides in Egypt. Along with the online lessons I will complete 3-4 times a week, I will be looking at Arabic media (mostly from Egypt) including popular films, music, and documentaries to further develop my understanding of the language and culture. After learning the alphabet, I will move on to provisional conversation, spelling and grammar.

I hope to gain more insight into Arabic-speaking countries in order to better understand the world. Just as Spanish opens up possibilities in all of Central and Latin America, Arabic can open up a whole world of cultures in the Middle East and North Africa that I am eager to explore. I will be attending the Georgetown School of Foreign Service next year, and I hope to one day work in the Foreign Service.

Week 1

Many people have asked me why I chose to study Arabic for my project, as it does seem quite random. The truth is, I have always thought Arabic is an incredibly beautiful language that can be a doorway into so many new cultures. I am fascinated by how much history the language holds within its 2,500 years of existence. For example, did you know that Arabic reads right to left because the first written languages such as Egyptian, Babylonian cuneiform, and Hebrew all wrote that way? Because these languages were first chiseled into stone, right-handed scribes would often hold the stylus in the left hand and pound with the right hand, making it easier to start on the far left and chisel the words going towards themselves. The first language we know that wrote left to right was Ancient Greek in the 8th Century BCE. Because Greek scribes wrote in ink, which would smear for right-handed people if writing right to left, they switched the direction of writing.

Over the course of this project, I am taking Arabic lessons from a teacher named Mai Ehsan through an online language learning platform called Italki. After each lesson, I am given a homework assignment so I can practice the concepts we learned.

For my first week, I read a few articles about the Origins of the Arabic Alphabet, Dialects of Arabic, and Arabic Script and the Art of Calligraphy.

Then, I focused on an intro to the Arabic alphabet and important phrases for simple conversation. The Arabic alphabet has 28 letters, with 25 consonants and 3 long vowel sounds. Most of the time, consonants are written next to one another and the reader must infer the vowel sound that goes between them. For beginners, like myself, there are little marks that can go above and below the letters indicating the sound. The Qur’an is often written with these marks, as well. It’s been very fun to have a new alphabet opened up to me. To practice, I have tried to read Arabic wherever I see it, from store names to song titles.

The Arabic Alphabet

My name, Amanda Bell, written in Arabic

I also learned how to introduce myself, greet others, ask people for their names, and talk about where people are from. Because Arabic is divided by gender, each of these categories have different forms depending on if the person is a man or a woman. For example, in Modern Standard Arabic, when speaking to a woman, I would ask “Kayfa haaluki?” to ask how she’s doing. However, the masculine form would be “Kayfa haaluka?”, with an ‘a’ at the end instead of an ‘i’. The word for ‘you’ is also different: “anta” for men and “anti” for women. As a native English speaker, this divide can be tricky to wrap my head around, since English is not a gendered language.

I’ve had a lot of fun exploring this new language, and I’m very excited to keep learning more!

Week 2

To begin week two, I continued my study of the Arabic Alphabet. I had two more zoom lessons with my online tutor Mai, whom I found through an online language-learning platform called Italki. We went over the 6 ‘naughty letters’ in Arabic (أ ,و, د, ذ ,ر ,ز) which do not connect to subsequent letters (in other words, they break the continuous line of calligraphy). Most letters have three different forms of writing: initial, medial, and final, depending on their placement in the word. These ‘naughty letters’ only have two, since their medial and final forms are identical.

A screenshot from one of my Zoom lessons with Mai.

A youtube video I found helpful on pronunciation.

I studied a new vocabulary list of classroom and home items, such as the words for door, bed, desk, pen, etc. My personal favorite new word I learned is the word for pen, Qalam ( قلم), since it utilizes the letter Qaaf. The ‘Q’ sound in Arabic is what’s called a lingual-glottal sound, which happens way at the back of the throat. Arabic distinguishes between the velar ‘K’ with the letter kaaf ك (which sounds much like the ‘K’ we have in English) and the glottal Qaaf ق. For anyone interested in this pronunciation, here is a video explaining it. Arabic has quite a lot of sounds that are new to me as an English speaker, so it has been very fun using my voice in a new way.

To supplement my studying, I recently made a playlist of Arabic songs so I can familiarize myself with the sounds of the language. The artists are from a variety of countries, so their accents and slang are each a little different. Some even utilize a bit of French since countries like Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria were once colonized by the French and still use the language today. It's interesting how they can switch so quickly back and forth between languages, since many are completely bilingual. If anyone wants to check it out, here is a link. The title of the playlist is “Yalla Habibti” which literally translates to “let’s go, my dear/my love”. My personal favorites are "Dorak Gai (دورك جي)" and "Ymken Kher (يمكن خير)".

As a side note, I had the opportunity to use a little bit of Arabic in the real world this week! After tutoring with our students from Afghanistan for IACT on Saturday mornings, sometimes we stop by Baklava House on North Lamar for a treat. This week, after trying a free sample and purchasing a whole box of Baklava to bring home to my family, I thanked the man at the counter by saying “Shukran!”. He smiled and asked if I spoke Arabic, and I told him that I only know a few words. I waved goodbye by saying "Ma'as Salaama" and wished him a happy Eid with an “Eid Mubarak”. Although this was a very minimal interaction, it made me very happy to use my learning in real life!

To any juniors who are thinking about doing a Senior Independent Project next year, I would definitely recommend it! This is such a unique opportunity to deep dive into something you are passionate about with the support of the school. A bit of advice: Start thinking about what you would want to study early so that you can get your thoughts together when it comes time to write your proposal.

Baklava House on North Lamar.

Week 3

This week, I focused on learning as much vocabulary as I could. I started the week by learning the numbers 1-10. My personal favorite was the word for 8, thamania (ثمانية) because I love how the calligraphy looks when the word is written out. I also think it sounds like it could be the name of a small country. I have continued practicing the alphabet as in previous weeks, and I have noticed myself getting faster at sight-reading the Arabic letters, which is really exciting!

Then, I moved on to the words for familial relationships, like father (ab - أب) sister (ukht - أخت), and mother (um - أم). To make these words possessive, you add an ‘i’ at the end (making ‘ukht’ into ‘ukhti’ and ‘um’ into ‘ummi”, for example). I put this to use when calling my sister on the phone by saying “assalamu alaikum ukhti!”.

The Arabic numbers 1-10

A screenshot from my book showing the difference between hadha (masculine) and hadhihi (feminine).

In my lesson with my tutor Mai, we went over the difference between masculine and feminine nouns. Often, the feminine form of a word has something called a ‘taa marbootah’ which looks like this: ة. It’s name literally means a “tied up t” because the letter that makes a “t” sound looks like this: ت. If you were to take the two ends of the “t” symbol and tie them in a knot, the symbol would look like a taa marbootah. This symbol makes a sound like an ‘a’ at the end of the word, and it is a signal to use feminine grammar rules for the rest of the sentence. For example, the way to say “This is…” for a masculine noun is hadha (هَذَا), while the feminine form is hadhihi (هَذِهِ).

I finished the week by learning some simple adjectives to describe things, such as heavy (thaqil - ثَقيل), light (khafif - خَفيف), new (jadid - جَديد), and old (qadim - قَديم). This has really opened up my ability to start forming full sentences.

On a separate note, my birthday was this week, so I also learned how to say Happy Birthday! “Sana Helwa Ya Gameel” (سنة حلوة يا جميل), which literally translates to ‘have a great year, beautiful’, which I think is very sweet.

I also got started on my final product for this Independent Project, which I am very excited to share with everyone! Thank you to everyone who has been reading these posts, and if you would ever like to talk with me about Arabic, please come chat! I’ve been having so much fun with this beautiful language.

Happy birthday in Arabic

Week 4

I started this week with a lesson with Mai on common jobs, such as teacher (mudarris - مُدَرِّس), carpenter (najaar - نَجّار), and engineer (mohandis - مُهَنِس). We then went over the plural forms of masculine and feminine nouns. The masculine ending, un ( ون-), and the feminine ending, at (ات-), are placed at the end of a word to signify plurality. For example, the word for male photographer, musawir (مُسَوِّر) becomes musawirun (مُسَوِّرون) and the word for female teacher, mudarrisa ( مُدَرِّسة) becomes mudarrisat (مُدَرِّسةت) when plural.

There are also different words for 3rd person plural, with the masculine form hum (هم) and feminine hunna (هنُ) to mean ‘them’. This is similar to Spanish, differentiating between ‘ellos’ and ‘ellas’, but interestingly, Arabic only has one word for 1st person singular, or ‘we’: nahnu (نحن).

The illustrations in my book showing the jobs. Because Arabic writes right to left, all of the exercises move that way (see that picture 1 is actually on the right).

I also learned how to talk about where you work or study. I learned that the word for office, maktab (مكتب) is also the word used for desk, which got me wondering, which word came first? In looking, I found that the term comes from the Arabic word kataba meaning write, and follows a word pattern called the Mafعal pattern for time and place, where the letters f, ع, and l are replaced with the root letters for that particular word. This is true for words like bakery - makhbaz (مَخبَز), workshop - mashghal (مَشغَل), and of course, office - maktab (مكتب). This pattern signifies “place of…”, so the term maktab literally means “place of writing”, which can refer to both an office or a desk.

My Arabic notebook

Here is a picture of my Arabic notebook from my lesson on locations. At the bottom, I wrote a full paragraph combining all the lessons I've learned so far to talk about myself. Since I had to talk about jobs, I gave myself and my family members jobs that aren't true just for the sake of practice. The paragraph reads, "Hello, my name is Amanda and I am from America. I am a teacher and I study at St. Stephen's. My dad is an accountant and my mom is a photographer. My sister, Devon, is a nurse."

Then, because I think listening is a very important part of learning a new language, I watched an Arabic film this week! It is called Blessed Benefit (إنشالله إستفدت - which literally translates to, ‘I hope to God that you will benefit’), and it is is from Jordan.

The main plot centers around a construction worker who is sentenced to three months in prison for small-time fraud and finds that life within prison is actually more enjoyable than the outside world. The movie is goofy and sweet, and I would definitely recommend it! As I was watching, I listened for any words that I could recognize. Although these words are all very simple, I was surprised by how much I could recognize.

Words I recognized:

na’am (yes)
Dajaja (chicken)
Marhaban (hi)
Ya Habibi (hey dude)
Shukran (thanks)
Wallahi (I swear to god)
Salamu alaikum (hello)
Dagiga (sheep)
Counting to 4 w/ fingers
Seta-ah (six)
Yallah (lets go)

I also paused and tried to read the Arabic writing anytime it was clear in the frame, like in the pictures below:

The Protagonist, Ahmed, holds up a sign for a mugshot that says his name and his crime (fraud).

The sign above the stairs reads "Court of Mjor Felonies"

This project is almost done, and I've had an amazing time getting to deep dive into something I am so passionate about! I'd like to thank Mrs. Todd for being a great advisor throughout this whole process and encouraging me. I'd also like to thank Dr. Blount for keeping us all on track and running this program.

Conclusion

I am finishing this Senior Independent Project feeling grateful. I am grateful for Dr. Blount and the school for allowing such a great program to thrive, and I am grateful for Mrs. Todd for being such a great advisor throughout this process. I am also grateful for Mr. Mohlmann and Mrs. Sethi for allowing me to finish two classes early so I could really dive deep into this topic. I have learned so much over these past few weeks, and my passion for Arabic has only grown stronger. The alphabet and the sounds of this language are truly so beautiful, and if anything, I wish I had started sooner. This language has been around for thousands of years and is spoken today by over 270 million people around the world. I think that a new language offers not only new words but a new perspective to view the world, and I have definitely gained that through this experience. The opportunity to learn Arabic from a native speaker who currently resides in Egypt was so special, and I am grateful for the patience, support, and guidance that Mai gave me along the way. To anyone thinking about doing a project like this their senior year, I would definitely recommend it!

I am sad this project is over, but I hope to continue my studies of Arabic in the future.

Thank you to everyone who helped me with this project!

- Amanda Bell

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