The Arabic We Speak

Cultural Concepts | Lesson 1: ListeningWe are pleased to share the first listening lesson from Cultural Concepts, a thematic module of twenty lessons exploring kindness, generosity, and friendship through everyday Levantine Arabic.Each lesson approaches these connected themes from a different perspective, allowing learners to build their knowledge, recognise the nuances of spoken Arabic, and deepen their understanding as the course unfolds.We are making this first lesson freely available and hope it gives you a sense of the thought and care behind our teaching. If you find value in our work, we invite you to join us on Substack, where we hope to build a community of learners whose interest and support will allow us to continue developing these materials.For us, teaching has always been a labour of love, and we look forward to sharing more of it with you.Dalal and AmaniThe Arabic We Speakhttps://thearabicwespeak.substack.com/?utm_campaign=pub&utm_medium=web

In this sustainable-tourism-themed lesson series you find visual and structural support for Levantine Arabic at an advanced level. We are very much into alternative tourism in Jordan because it is widely available and we love to support our local economy. Over the next ten lessons we are going to tell you about our country's natural beauty and the places we like to visit. Don't forget the worksheet: https://bit.ly/The-Arabic-We-Speak-Advanced-SustainableTourism-Lesson08 This lesson series is for advanced level learners and focuses on listening comprehension and vocabulary development. In this lesson series you find ten recorded texts that are visually and structurally supported to help you engage with tourism-related subtopics. Before you listen, read the introduction and engage with the images to activate schemata around the subtopics. This way you prepare yourself for targeted listening. The English texts are not literal translations, but there to help you with cultural and conceptual understanding of the original Arabic texts. At this level, you would want to try to avoid them as much as possible and only fall back on them if absolutely necessary; this way you immerse yourself with spoken Levantine Arabic and push your second language acquisition into a higher gear. Kindly note that all the learning materials are free and available for you to download and copy for educational use only. You may not redistribute, sell or place these materials on any other web site without written permission. Thank you for listening. Background music: Hüzzam Kanun Taksim by Ehl-i Keyif

In this sustainable-tourism-themed lesson series you find visual and structural support for Levantine Arabic at an advanced level. We are very much into alternative tourism in Jordan because it is widely available and we love to support our local economy. Over the next ten lessons we are going to tell you about our country's natural beauty and the places we like to visit. Don't forget the worksheet: https://bit.ly/The-Arabic-We-Speak-Advanced-SustainableTourism-Lesson07 This lesson series is for advanced level learners and focuses on listening comprehension and vocabulary development. In this lesson series you find ten recorded texts that are visually and structurally supported to help you engage with tourism-related subtopics. Before you listen, read the introduction and engage with the images to activate schemata around the subtopics. This way you prepare yourself for targeted listening. The English texts are not literal translations, but there to help you with cultural and conceptual understanding of the original Arabic texts. At this level, you would want to try to avoid them as much as possible and only fall back on them if absolutely necessary; this way you immerse yourself with spoken Levantine Arabic and push your second language acquisition into a higher gear. Kindly note that all the learning materials are free and available for you to download and copy for educational use only. You may not redistribute, sell or place these materials on any other web site without written permission. Thank you so much for listening. Salaam, Dalal & Amani Background music: Hüzzam Kanun Taksim by Ehl-i Keyif

In this sustainable-tourism-themed lesson series you find visual and structural support for Levantine Arabic at an advanced level. We are very much into alternative tourism in Jordan because it is widely available and we love to support our local economy. Over the next ten lessons we are going to tell you about our country's natural beauty and the places we like to visit. Don't forget the worksheet: https://bit.ly/The-Arabic-We-Speak-Advanced-SustainableTourism-Lesson06 This lesson series is for advanced level learners and focuses on listening comprehension and vocabulary development. In this lesson series you find ten recorded texts that are visually and structurally supported to help you engage with tourism-related subtopics. Before you listen, read the introduction and engage with the images to activate schemata around the subtopics. This way you prepare yourself for targeted listening. The English texts are not literal translations, but there to help you with cultural and conceptual understanding of the original Arabic texts. At this level, you would want to try to avoid them as much as possible and only fall back on them if absolutely necessary; this way you immerse yourself with spoken Levantine Arabic and push your second language acquisition into a higher gear. Kindly note that all the learning materials are free and available for you to download and copy for educational use only. You may not redistribute, sell or place these materials on any other web site without written permission. Thank you so much for listening. Salaam, Dalal & Amani Background music: Hüzzam Kanun Taksim by Ehl-i Keyif

In this sustainable-tourism-themed lesson series you find visual and structural support for Levantine Arabic at an advanced level. We are very much into alternative tourism in Jordan because it is widely available and we love to support our local economy. Over the next ten lessons we are going to tell you about our country's natural beauty and the places we like to visit. Don't forget the worksheet: https://bit.ly/The-Arabic-We-Speak-Advanced-SustainableTourism-Lesson05 This lesson series is for advanced level learners and focuses on listening comprehension and vocabulary development. In this lesson series you find ten recorded texts that are visually and structurally supported to help you engage with tourism-related subtopics. Before you listen, read the introduction and engage with the images to activate schemata around the subtopics. This way you prepare yourself for targeted listening. The English texts are not literal translations, but there to help you with cultural and conceptual understanding of the original Arabic texts. At this level, you would want to try to avoid them as much as possible and only fall back on them if absolutely necessary; this way you immerse yourself with spoken Levantine Arabic and push your second language acquisition into a higher gear. Kindly note that all the learning materials are free and available for you to download and copy for educational use only. You may not redistribute, sell or place these materials on any other web site without written permission. Thank you so much for listening. Salaam, Dalal & Amani Background music: Hüzzam Kanun Taksim by Ehl-i Keyif

In this sustainable-tourism-themed lesson series you find visual and structural support for Levantine Arabic at an advanced level. We are very much into alternative tourism in Jordan because it is widely available and we love to support our local economy. Over the next ten lessons we are going to tell you about our country's natural beauty and the places we like to visit. Don't forget the worksheet: https://bit.ly/The-Arabic-We-Speak-Advanced-SustainableTourism-Lesson4 This lesson series is for advanced level learners and focuses on listening comprehension and vocabulary development. In this lesson series you find ten recorded texts that are visually and structurally supported to help you engage with tourism-related subtopics. Before you listen, read the introduction and engage with the images to activate schemata around the subtopics. This way you prepare yourself for targeted listening. The English texts are not literal translations, but there to help you with cultural and conceptual understanding of the original Arabic texts. At this level, you would want to try to avoid them as much as possible and only fall back on them if absolutely necessary; this way you immerse yourself with spoken Levantine Arabic and push your second language acquisition into a higher gear. Kindly note that all the learning materials are free and available for you to download and copy for educational use only. You may not redistribute, sell or place these materials on any other web site without written permission. Thank you so much for listening. Salaam, Dalal & Amani Background music: Hüzzam Kanun Taksim by Ehl-i Keyif

You may meet many different kinds of figures of speech in Arabic. We usually think of a figure of speech as being a comparison between two things which are not usually connected with each other, so that the characteristics of the one are carried over to the other. In Levantine Arabic, for example, people tend to compare a handsome man or a beautiful woman to the moon, so that the ethereal qualities of the moon (soft radiance, dreamy mood) are carried over to the person. Everyday Arabic is full of these kinds of figures of speech. When students listen to pop songs in Arabic, browse websites in Arabic or watch movies in Arabic they frequently meet language rich in its use of figures of speech. Yet figures of speech are often rather neglected in the classroom. For this reason, we have decided to delve into the world of Arabic figures of speech we hear and use in order to share them with you. Fixed linguistic expressions vary widely cross-culturally but many conceptual phrases appear to be potentially universal or near-universal. Figures of speech are grounded in human experience and exploring them allows us to explore that space. We encourage you to listen, pause the audio when you have heard the phrases to jot down your own interpretations and then continue listening to our explanation and given contexts in which figures of speech phrases are applicable.  The pausing bit is very important for retention. Now, if you were our students we would not bother you with meta-(teaching)-words like retention. We would pause the audio and make you write stuff down. But here it is, the boring but very important science behind teaching practice! Pause and think: this is for retention.  The learning aims for this series are to develop learners’ awareness of figurative language, to give practice of recognising and analysing figurative language and to develop learners’ confidence in using figurative language. Here is the worksheet: https://bit.ly/The-Arabic-We-Speak-FiguresOfSpeech-Compliments-Lesson5 Kindly note that all the learning materials are free and available for you to download and copy for educational use only. You may not redistribute, sell or place these materials on any other web site without written permission. Thank you so much for listening. Salaam, Dalal & Amani Background music: Hüzzam Kanun Taksim by Ehl-i Keyif

You may meet many different kinds of figures of speech in Arabic. We usually think of a figure of speech as being a comparison between two things which are not usually connected with each other, so that the characteristics of the one are carried over to the other. In Levantine Arabic, for example, people tend to compare a handsome man or a beautiful woman to the moon, so that the ethereal qualities of the moon (soft radiance, dreamy mood) are carried over to the person. Everyday Arabic is full of these kinds of figures of speech. When students listen to pop songs in Arabic, browse websites in Arabic or watch movies in Arabic they frequently meet language rich in its use of figures of speech. Yet figures of speech are often rather neglected in the classroom. For this reason, we have decided to delve into the world of Arabic figures of speech we hear and use in order to share them with you. Fixed linguistic expressions vary widely cross-culturally but many conceptual phrases appear to be potentially universal or near-universal. Figures of speech are grounded in human experience and exploring them allows us to explore that space. We encourage you to listen, pause the audio when you have heard the phrases to jot down your own interpretations and then continue listening to our explanation and given contexts in which figures of speech phrases are applicable.  The pausing bit is very important for retention. Now, if you were our students we would not bother you with meta-(teaching)-words like retention. We would pause the audio and make you write stuff down. But here it is, the boring but very important science behind teaching practice! Pause and think: this is for retention.  The learning aims for this series are to develop learners’ awareness of figurative language, to give practice of recognising and analysing figurative language and to develop learners’ confidence in using figurative language. Here is the worksheet: https://bit.ly/The-Arabic-We-Speak-FiguresOfSpeech-Compliments-Lesson04 Kindly note that all the learning materials are free and available for you to download and copy for educational use only. You may not redistribute, sell or place these materials on any other web site without written permission. Thank you so much for listening. Salaam, Dalal & Amani Background music: Hüzzam Kanun Taksim by Ehl-i Keyif

In this sustainable-tourism-themed lesson series you find visual and structural support for Levantine Arabic at an advanced level. We are very much into alternative tourism in Jordan because it is widely available and we love to support our local economy. Over the next ten lessons we are going to tell you about our country's natural beauty and the places we like to visit. Don't forget the worksheet: https://bit.ly/The-Arabic-We-Speak-Advanced-SustainableTourism-Lesson03 This lesson series is for advanced level learners and focuses on listening comprehension and vocabulary development. In this lesson series you find ten recorded texts that are visually and structurally supported to help you engage with tourism-related subtopics. Before you listen, read the introduction and engage with the images to activate schemata around the subtopics. This way you prepare yourself for targeted listening. The English texts are not literal translations, but there to help you with cultural and conceptual understanding of the original Arabic texts. At this level, you would want to try to avoid them as much as possible and only fall back on them if absolutely necessary; this way you immerse yourself with spoken Levantine Arabic and push your second language acquisition into a higher gear. Kindly note that all the learning materials are free and available for you to download and copy for educational use only. You may not redistribute, sell or place these materials on any other web site without written permission. Thank you so much for listening. Salaam, Dalal & Amani Background music: Hüzzam Kanun Taksim by Ehl-i Keyif

You may meet many different kinds of figures of speech in Arabic. We usually think of a figure of speech as being a comparison between two things which are not usually connected with each other, so that the characteristics of the one are carried over to the other. In Levantine Arabic, for example, people tend to compare a handsome man or a beautiful woman to the moon, so that the ethereal qualities of the moon (soft radiance, dreamy mood) are carried over to the person. Everyday Arabic is full of these kinds of figures of speech. When students listen to pop songs in Arabic, browse websites in Arabic or watch movies in Arabic they frequently meet language rich in its use of figures of speech. Yet figures of speech are often rather neglected in the classroom. For this reason, we have decided to delve into the world of Arabic figures of speech we hear and use in order to share them with you. Fixed linguistic expressions vary widely cross-culturally but many conceptual phrases appear to be potentially universal or near-universal. Figures of speech are grounded in human experience and exploring them allows us to explore that space. We encourage you to listen, pause the audio when you have heard the phrases to jot down your own interpretations and then continue listening to our explanation and given contexts in which figures of speech phrases are applicable.  The pausing bit is very important for retention. Now, if you were our students we would not bother you with meta-(teaching)-words like retention. We would pause the audio and make you write stuff down. But here it is, the boring but very important science behind teaching practice! Pause and think: this is for retention.  The learning aims for this series are to develop learners’ awareness of figurative language, to give practice of recognising and analysing figurative language and to develop learners’ confidence in using figurative language.   Here is the worksheet: https://bit.ly/The-Arabic-We-Speak-FiguresOfSpeech-Compliments-Lesson03 Kindly note that all the learning materials are free and available for you to download and copy for educational use only. You may not redistribute, sell or place these materials on any other web site without written permission. Thank you so much for listening. Salaam, Dalal & Amani Background music: Hüzzam Kanun Taksim by Ehl-i Keyif