The Cairo Gyro

A patient student will realize that Arabic is an ancient language, and does not always have to make sense in their native English. One has to think like an Arab in order to fully grasp the beauty and eloquence of the language. There have been a few test questions I’ve gotten wrong simply because I answered it the way an American would look at the question and not from an Arab perspective. Instead of letting my frustration get the best of me, I told myself I have to have patience and think like an Arab if I want to understand their language and culture. Below are a few helpful tips for dealing with the downs…

Patience with Vocabulary

One single Arabic word can encompass great meaning. Get used to writing the definitions for your vocabulary in Arabic and wean yourself off of relying on English equivalents.

Fi3l-Friendly: Learn and memorize Sarf tricks to help you with verb conjugation. It makes life so much easier.

Ism Orientation: It definitely takes a lot of patience and interest in order to retain Arabic vocab. It’s best whenever learning a new word to find out its forms in singular, plural, feminine, masculine, as well as its synonyms and opposite. When you learn a new ism in its singular form it’s best to use Sarf tricks to help you figure out its plural on your own.

Don’t hate the Harf: You may find yourself feeling frustrated at times when you cannot find an English equivalent for a fi3l-harf combination and can’t make sense of it. To put it simply, Arabic is an age-old language, (much much older than English) so give it the respect it deserves. Whenever you learn a new verb make a point to memorize the harf(s) that go along with them and understand that using the wrong harf can instantly change the meaning (ex. Raghba fi vs. Raghba 3an) !

Patience with handwriting

Learning how to write clearly and quickly from right to left takes lots of effort. Mechanical pencils with really good erasers will become your best friends. Once you master the letters and how to write them properly in their beginning/middle/end forms, get used to the following shortcuts:

- Draw a short horizontal line instead of two dots for the Ya or Ta.

- Use an upside down ‘V’ instead of three dots for the Sheen or Tha

- Curve the end of the Noon into its empty center instead of drawing a dot above it

- Curve the end of the Kaf into the empty center instead of drawing a hamza in the middle. [In it's end form]

- Draw the Ta Marboota at the end of the word as a slanted line (a tail), no dots required

Patience with Teachers

Know that you are privileged to have an Arabic language specialist sitting in front of you ready to weed our all your mistakes. I’ve found that when speaking to friends in fus-ha they don’t often correct my mistakes and as long as they understand the intended meaning of my speech they carry on the conversation as if I’ve said everything correctly. My Arabic teachers at school are much stricter alhamdulilah and if your teacher is not being strict with you in that sense then I suggest you bring that to her attention. My teachers listen to every sound and test my every word. Or if there’s a better way of getting my point across they’ll correct my sentence and give me better wording to use. Have patience and hang onto your train of thought because they may often stop you mid sentence to correct you, don’t take it personally.

Patience with Your Peers

Keep in mind that you may take longer than your friends to achieve the same results. You may require more study time than your roommates…handwriting may take a lot more effort for you while you see your classmates already finished writing the lesson from the board. Have patience with yourself and know that everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. Sammer and I, for example, are a complementary pair of classmates because the areas she’s stronger in I’m struggling in and the areas I’ve grasped faster may take more effort on her part. Since we were in level one we’ve always managed to score between .5 and 2.5 points difference between eachother and it always alternates, either she’ll score higher than me by a couple points or vice versa. Competition is healthy but only when your intentions are sincere and you allow it to motivate you to do your best. Don’t let it get you down.

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This balcony is so different than the one that came with out first Cairo apartment ten months ago. This one sits close to the street two floors above the ground and has a big fancy railing offering privacy. It has painted roman pillars and terra cotta walls with white tile flooring. Very grandeur compared to the balcony on the eighth floor of our first building. The first balcony, and the last. Between them were three others, each offering very different views, each carrying different memories.

The first: Eighth floor overlooking Asim Abdul Hamid Street, Nasr City

By far, the best. At times all seven or six of us were out there at once. Since it was summer we’d sit there at night where the breeze was cooler than being inside. It was also a good WiFi spot. Qur’an was recited. Deep conversations were held on that balcony. Advice was given. Tea was sipped. Binoculars were put to use. Stories were told. Jokes were made. I remember one night in particular I believe it was in the first week of Ramadan, Sammer and I sat out there with flash cards testing each other on our Arabic vocab. We wanted to begin practicing our Arabic before our Fajr Center classes were scheduled to begin. We mastered all of those words that night together. We would stay up out there until the old man with the drum would walk down our street calling out to the sleeping buildings waking them up for tahajjud and suhoor. “O Servants of Allah!” There was a creepy lookout post on top of the building across from ours and it strangely resembled the one at Gitmo. We found that disturbing and would use the binoculars to look at it to see if anyone was looking back at us.

The second: Sixth floor overlooking Medan al-Arab, Maadi

We lived a few floors above Fajr Center’s Maadi branch. I’d get up in the morning and peep out the balcony past the big tree to see if my teacher had walked into the building yet. It was next to the train tracks so I’d see the train come and go. The masjid in the distance would attract a large crowd every jumu’ah. I tried to sit out there and listen to the khutbah when I could, although it was usually too faint to understand. I missed my family the most from this balcony and would distract my thoughts with my MP3 player while staring at the billboard for Close-Up toothpaste. I only remember one night I had company on this balcony, and that was only briefly. Such a contrast compared to the previous one.

The third: First floor overlooking Medan al-Arab, Maadi

The worst. This time we were facing the back of the building. Our view was hardly picturesque. It was the crazy, noisy, always busy intersection known as Medan al-Arab. The phantom ice-cream truck noises we heard turned out to be the signal sounds on motorcycles. Many a zuffa (wedding procession) we heard from there. Beeeeep Beeeeep BeepBeepBeep! The dogs and cats were always fighting and the cars always had somewhere to go. This balcony was enclosed so it offered nothing nice and the only thing that sat out there was my wet clothing.

The fourth: Sixth floor overlooking Masjid Bilal, Nasr City

Beautiful view of the minaret, the masjid, and the garden. The Somali restaurant on the ground floor could usually be heard. The best athan I’ve heard in Cairo is the one from Masjid Bilal, it came through clearly and loudly. I could sit and listen to the Jumu’ah Khutbahs without having to strain my ear one bit and I was able to record Shaykh Rida many times from that balcony. On Eid morning I saw the crowds coming towards the Masjid and video recorded it. Later that day I sat out there and watched cars drive through huge puddles of blood left over from the sacrifices. It was winter when we lived there though and usually too cold to sit out.

The fifth: Second floor overlooking Mohsin Rushdie Street, Nasr City

This is present tense but will soon be past because this is going to be the last balcony I will call my own in Cairo. It accumulates more dust than people and I’ve only seen one wedding from up here. I like seeing the moon reflect off the shiny white tile floor at night and right now the sun is rising on the building tops. When the Bawaab’s children come to visit they peer through the railing and wave hi to their parents from above. This is the only balcony I’ve had in Cairo without any chairs. Perhaps that’s why as beautiful as it is, it remains unwelcoming.

One of my original roommates, one who I enjoyed many nights with on balcony number one, will be returning on Saturday insha’Allah. I will have to make this one feel more homely in time for her arrival in hopes of rekindling those balcony memories from last summer. After all, I’ll be leaving soon and returning to flat Florida, where there are no balconies among other beloved things Cairo has to offer.

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At Fajr time this morning someone was honking their car horn on our street to wake people up. For once, Cairo traffic noise can be associated with peace and goodness.

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Markaz Salam is a one month old Arabic Learning Center right across the street from King Fahad High School (very close to Masjid Bilal). I had heard very good things about this center and decided to take my cousin there to check it out. It was founded by Ustath Mahmoud Ziyadah, the founder of this website: http://welovearabic.com/

We received a warm welcome and I was very impressed from the moment I stepped in. The center itself is very nice and the curriculum seems excellent. All the books used were written by the founder himself. It seems like he took the best from Kitab al-Asaasi, Al-Arabiyyah Bayna Yadayk, and the Medinah Uni Arabic books combined, masha’Allah.

They put high priority to giving the student a custom class designed specifically to their needs…something I find lacking in most of the centers here even in those that offer private classes. After visiting other centers, my cousin decided to register for Salam Center on the spot! At the moment they are just starting off so they only have a small staff but I’m sure it will continue to grow insha’Allah. Private classes are 20 LE an hour. Classrooms have AC :)

The Akhir Kalam is that it looks like my cousin will start off with Salam Center and see how it goes, and then she may consider still taking one of the Summer Intensive programs with Fajr Center.

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First we visited Nile Center. Cute modest little building, we saw the women’s campus only. Took while to arrive there after a series of confusing directions. They are unable to offer private classes for the summer due to a shortage of teachers.

Right around the corner from it is Sibwayh. Very friendly, they came and met us at Masjid Musa bin Nusayr and escorted us to the center. Friendly people and very helpful. Right away they started offering to find other female students that come from our area so we could walk to school in groups. I found this to be unique about the center, and very admirable (that they offered that right away without us requesting it) They offer a number of private Islamic Studies classes too for advanced Arabic students although I know very little about the qualifications of the teachers for those subjects. I should have asked more.

I took my cousin to check out those two centers for classes, but at the end of the day she’s leaning towards joining Markaz Fajr.

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I found the following verses of Arabic poetry an important reminder to myself. The following is the translation, unfortunately I don’t have the original Arabic to post yet.

Who goes after honor, he sacrifices his rights;
Proportionate to the work invested, reward will come.
Accomplish something, and then sleep peacefully;
If you search for a pearl, dive deeply.
Honor and praise are in work and will,
strength and firmness in sacrificing nights.
Who thinks that praise will come without effort,
he lives his life in vain.
I’ve turned my nights into lively days,
in order to realize my dream.
Help me my Lord, accept my prayer,
to accomplish the highest goal through obtaining knowledge.

Taken from Al-Zarnuji: Guide to a Student on the Path of Acquiring Knowledge

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I am in level 11 now at Markaz Fajr. Retaining vocabulary from previous levels is a little overwhelming at times. Speaking in Arabic and using the words you’ve learned is key. I love index cards but I just can’t see myself making a thousand + index cards worth of words I’ve learned. Plus, I like reusable things.

I am pleased to announce a solution I’ve found! I’m very excited to try the following awesome idea I found on Lifehack.org: How to make dry-erase index cards!

Make sure you scroll to the bottom of that post and read the specific part I’m referring to. =D

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Well, kind of.

I purchased a large transparent poster-sticker from a stationary store near our house (end of Makram Ubaid) on the right. For 4.50 LE! After sticking it on my bedroom wall, I now use regular dry-erase markers to write on it. I highly recommend this because it has helped me tremendously while studying and it’s fun to use.

Note: If you can’t find the jumbo transparent sticker that I have, then there’s another option: plastic wrap taped to the wall. After all, “this is Africa.” Be creative. I let so much time go on.. just missing my white-board… it took my creativity 9 months to kick in so don’t let the same happen to you! I’ve been told you can use your fridge door as a white-board too. Before you do make sure you test it out on a small area first because believe me, you don’t want to feel the wrath of an Egyptian Landlord!

You can also use white-board markers on mirrors, windows, and filing cabinets, I’m thinking I can use the top of my Macbook too! On Lifehack.org there’s a list of 10+ Things to Do with Dry-Erase Markers

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Abdullah b. Zayd Al-Numayri reports that Al-Hasan Al-Basra said:

They (the heretics) were destroyed by their inability in Arabic (al-’ujmah).

Al-Bukhari, Al-Tarikh al-Kabir Vol.5 p99.

And Imam ash-Shafi’i said:

People didn’t become ignorant and didn’t differ amongst themselves except because they left Arabic and leaned towards the language of Aristotle.
Quoted by Al-Suyuti in Sawn Al-Mantiq p15.

He said on p22:
I have found Salaf before Al- Shafi’i indicate what he did:
That the cause of heresy (al-ibtida’) is ignorance of Arabic language.

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We are in level 10 now. More Sarf less Nahu and Balagha. Longer more difficult exams…

In this post I mentioned wanting to see a Fennec Fox and I did happen to see one in the desert : )

I’ve been to an Egyptian wedding!

I’m studying Calligraphy at Diwan Center

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