Tuesday, January 05, 2010

WAYK Arabic 1 - What's That?

I've been learning to play Where are your Keys since the first video appeared 4 months ago.

I spent the end of December visiting family, including my Arabic grandmother. She always wanted me to learn Arabic, and was disappointed that I hadn't done so. Now, at age 35, I was finally ready.

To use this video (and those that will follow), you'll first need to learn Where are your Keys. Do that at http://www.whereareyourkeys.org. Practice until you can are fluent in What's That? before you try to learn from my video. Also, my videos don't show full games, but instead the snippets necessary to get you started playing the game. You'll have to make the leap yourself.




I spent about a week learning the basic words and practicing with those that could help me. Arabic is a complex language, and I needed to figure out what parts to use with WAYK. Their impulse, of course, was to teach me the name of every object we came in contact with, and I had to resist that gently.

My elders were born in Jerusalem, and came to the United States in the 1970s to escape the violence. Their dialect is geographical; Arabs from other places speak differently. They were very poor, so they probably spoke differently than other classes. They are Christian, and that may affect their dialect as well.

My goal here isn't to be able to speak with Arabs I might meet; it's to get closer to my family. So, it was important to learn the exactly dialect of my grandmother. If you want to learn Arabic for a different purpose, you will need to find a different "Fluent Fool" to help you out.

2 comments:

Willem said...

I can't believe I missed this! You've made a beautiful "what is that?" video, Jay. Thanks so much for playing with us!

Sandy said...

I'm sorry we didn't get another chance to do this together. I've been thinking about it since.

I think we rushed my introduction to it because I am unfamiliar with the signs. Next time we'll have to start a little slower but I'm game.

Also Tata is on Internet!

 
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