The missing "P" in Arabic

Jad (جاد) our fantastic driver in Amman, Jordan is extremely endearing.

Just about every time I get in the car he asks me “Ms. Maria will you be going to BOLO today?” His English is impeccable and I know he means POLO but it’s not his fault. There is no “P” sound in Arabic and therefore all “P”s get turned into the nearest sound of “B”.

Just imagine in the states how it must have been for a native Arabic speaker to see “PUSH” on all the doors, for they read it as “BUSH”. They must have thought we Americans were really patriotic J

Cheesy jokes aside, in practice though even if “Pakistan” is spelled “Bakistan” in Arabic, the speaker will pronounce it as “Pakistan” given that the sound/word in this case is widely recognized.

JAM English Flashcards: Fruit and Vegetables available online at jam.shop now!

Amman, Jordan - The Arabic Teacher

I just arrived in Amman, Jordan and I thought I would polish up my Arabic with some one to one tutoring. I asked the concierge of my hotel for a recommendation. At first he said he didn’t know of anyone but mentioned there were some nearby schools. Then like an after thought he smiled and said “Ah yes, I have a friend who teaches English and Arabic”. He arranged the whole thing and by the evening I had an Arabic teacher waiting for me in the lobby.

Mr. Asim was most peculiar . . .

He spoke very slowly and loudly in an extremely animated manner raising his eyebrows and moving his hands around. He said to me as he pulled on his ears “A good student must listen” ….“A good student must be a good imitator”. Then he stuck out his tongue and said “A good student must pronounce like I do”

Wow what a piece of work this guy! I couldn’t stop giggling, but he just carried on. Out of the blue he said “ I bet I’m the oldest teacher you’ve ever had” to which I replied politely “oh no…” but he insisted and said “I’m 67 years old!” to which I replied “Oh, well you look great!” and then he said the unexpected “Oh its because I like my wife” “if you decide to take lessons with me I will give you advice about how to be a good wife, all in Arabic off course!”

Well he was funny and seemed harmless enough so I decided I would give him the chance. So I asked him how much he charged for the lessons. He replied, “ oh, I don’t like this question! You can pay me as much as you can!!” We talked some more and then he randomly said in Arabic “I love milk”, I repeated “I love milk” and he repeated, “I love milk” and then asked me “do you know what I mean?” I just had a blank look because honestly I had no idea where he was going with this. He finally blurted out “I love milk, every time we meet for the lesson, please bring me a glass of milk”

JAM English Flashcards: Fruit and Vegetables available online at jam.shop now!

Kenya - Mombasa & Swahili

Mombasa is Kenya’s vibrant coastal city on the Indian Ocean. Home to the Swahili tribe in Kenya, one can visually see the influences left behind by more than twelve centuries of contact with Arab traders;  the mosques, the calling sound to player and the parade of Kaftans and Hijabs.

Swahili comes from the plural sawāḥil (سواحل) of the Arabic word sāḥil (ساحل), meaning "boundary" or "coast".  Swahili is a language adapted from Bantu and enriched with vocabulary from the Arabic (35%), Portuguese and Hindi Languages.  Swahili is the national language of both Kenya and Tanzania and is also spoken widely across other Eastern and Central African countries. From the Comoros islands, Zanzibar, Burundi, Rwanda, northern Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, and southern coastal Somalia.

The Swahili tribe are coastal people with very rich historical and cultural heritage.  Some of the earliest inhabitants of the East African coast were their ancestors, Cushitic herdsmen. The Cushitic people were joined by Bantu speaking tribes.  Other groups later migrated to this coastline, including Arab, Hindi, Portuguese, and Indonesian traders. They, too, intermarried with the indigenous people, giving rise to a new culture, people and language.

The Arabic culture though has had the greatest influence in shaping Swahili traditions. One major legacy of the Arab culture is the prevalence of the Islamic religion among the Swahili people. Swahili children, for example, must attend Madrassa - religious classes in which they study the Koran and learn the Arabic language -from an early age.

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JAM English Flashcards: Fruit & Vegetables

jam CREATION

Congratulations to Jaime (the 'J' in jam) for delivering a jam baby girl today!!  In the spirit of 'creation' this is how jam was created....

Jaime and I met February 2009 in London, UK while obtaining our Cambridge University Certificate in English Teaching to Adults (CELTA).  We shared  a passion for learning new languages.  Jaime was en-route to Brazil to teach English and was learning Portuguese while I had plans to continue to study Arabic in Yemen and teach English as  a means to integrate and give back to the community.  During the course we recognized the lack of  'quality' and 'relevant' teaching tools and resources available to teachers and students.  We realized we truly enjoyed creating our own stuff not just for teaching purposes but for our own learning enjoyment...thus jam was born :)

jam (n) /dʒæm/: quality authentic learning tools that complement the learning process for both children and adults who are learning a foreign language.

JAM Language Ltd. English Flash Cards :  Fruit & Vegetables  available at Amazon!