v-Arabic : Virtual Arabic
v-tivity : virtual activity
Realia: Real life authentic items
Virtual Realia
Digitized objects and items from the target culture which are brought into the classroom as examples or aids and used to stimulate spoken or written language production.
Language Realia
Realia is a term used in education to refer to certain real-life objects. In education, realia are objects from real life used in classroom instruction.
In education, realia include objects used by educators to help students to understand better other cultures and real life situations. A teacher of a foreign language often employs realia to strengthen students' associations between words for everyday objects and the objects themselves.
In foreign language instruction, the term realia has a broader meaning, which includes photos of objects from a country where the target language is spoken.
Wikipedia
A is for Allah is the name of a Muslim-themed double album for children byYusuf Islam (formerly known as Cat Stevens) released on July 11, 2000 through Resurgence UK Records.The musician used the song as a vehicle to teach his daughter, Hasanah, the 28-letter Arabic alphabet. This kind of Islamic music is also known as nasheed.The album had been in the works since 1994, although the title track dates back to 1980, when it was written after the birth of his first child. (Wikiped
This is a new book on the US war in Iraq published in 2006, which was translated into Arabic.
The editrorial review states:
” The graphic photographs of U.S. military personnel grinning over abused Arab and Muslim prisoners shocked the world community. That the US was systematically torturing inmates at prisons run by its military and civilian leaders divided the nation and brought deep shame to many. When Steven H. Miles, an expert in medical ethics and an advocate for human rights, learned of the neglect, mistreatment, and torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo Bay, and elsewhere, one of his first thoughts was: “Where were the prison doctors while the abuses were taking place?”
In Oath Betrayed, Miles explains the answer to this question. Not only were doctors, nurses, and medics silent while prisoners were abused; physicians and psychologists provided information that helped determine how much and what kind of mistreatment could be delivered to detainees during interrogation. Additionally, these harsh examinations were monitored by health professionals operating under the purview of the U.S. military.
For those of you who prefer to learn Arabic (MSA) through music and song lyrics, here is a classical song by Fairuz along with with English and Arabic lyrics
Fairuz (فيروز, ) is a distinguished Lebanese singer and legend.
Born Nouhad Haddad (نهاد حداد) in ‘Jabal al Arz’ (’Cedar Mountain’), Lebanon, on 21 November 1935, Fairuz is known as:
BBC Arabic (Learning English) has a dedicated bilingual radio programme aimed at teaching English to native Arab speakers.
As an Arabic learner yourself, you may benefit hugely from listening to this interactive programme where the host (an Arabic speaker) interviews a guest (an English speaker) in English about a particular news item. The interview is then interpreted in Arabic immediately by the host.
Read the following article before listening to the podcast:
Today Kaz and Louay talk about controlling your anger.
A new study says that controlling your anger helps the body repair itself. It speeds up the healing process.
100 participants were given blisters on their arms and asked to fill in a questionnaire on how well they controlled their temper. Then scientists studied the speed of recovery.
BBC Arabic (Learning English) has a dedicated bilingual radio programme aimed at teaching English to native Arab speakers.
As an Arabic learner yourself, you may benefit hugely from listening to this interactive programme where the host (an Arabic speaker) interviews a guest (an English speaker) in English about a particular news item. The interview is then interpreted in Arabic immediately by the host.
Read the following article before listening to the podcast:
رواتب ربات البيوت - BBC Arabic - Learning English
Today Louay and Cath talk about housewives. According to a new survey in the UK, housewives would be paid more than the average worker, if they received the going rate for their household chores.
The average annual salary in the UK is £23,700.
An average mum apparently works for nearly nine hours a day, every day, which would mean that housewives could earn almost £30,000 a year.
4,000 housewives were involved in the survey and most of them agreed that successfully running the family home was a full-time job.
The way they worked this out was by comparing the various chores with actual jobs. So for child care they would look at what a nanny would earn; cleaning and tidying would be compared to what a cleaner would get. Other jobs in the calculation included being an accountant and a taxi driver.
Do you think housewives should be paid?
هل تعتقد انه يجب دفع رواتب لربات البيوت مقابل مجهوداتهم لقضاء في الاعمال المنزلية؟
To gain some understanding of this news read the following article:
The Calgary Sun newspaper in Alberta, Canada, chose Monday to publish no bad news and made the story of a found dog its front page banner piece.
The tabloid said it was filling the paper with “good news” on a gamble “the news gods would cooperate with us and not deal us any world catastrophes or local tragedies that would elbow for space on Page 1.”
The following is a selection of caricature that address the topic of the Economic situation of the Arab World. It’s a good revision for your Economic vocabulary.
These caricatures are either insulting or complimentary, can serve a political purpose or be drawn solely for entertainment.
What message is being communicated with these caricatures?
Discuss and share your thoughts for every caricature in the comments section
Annahar (جريدة النهار), a leading Arabic-language daily newspaper from Lebanon, offers its readers a free virtual daily newspaper that you can read online using flash technology.So far, I found this the most authentic and life-like Arabic realia available online for Arabic learners and teachers as well as for native Arabs worldwide.This virtual tool will not only help you improve and perfect your reading skills, it will also keep you abreast of the latest current affairs in the Arab world in particular and international affairs in general.The newspaper content provides fresh and up-to-the-minute news and information for its readers.
Faris is happy participating in housework, until peers in the neighborhood tell him this is women’s work. They also laugh at him because he plays with his female cousins. Faris decides to refuse to continue to work in the house and tries to order his mother to prepare his food, but he later notices that his father participates in housework. Finally, Faris realizes that he must do what he thinks is right and ignores his friends comments as he prepares a birthday cake at the end of the story.
فارس يشارك بسعادة في الأعمال المنزلية حتى يخبره أقرانه في الحي أن هذا من أعمال النساء. و يسخرون منه لأنه يلعب مع بنات أعمامه. يقرر فارس رفض الاستمرار في العمل في المنزل و يحاول أن يأمر والدته بتحضير طعامه و لكنه يلاحظ بعد مدة أن والده يشارك في أعمال المنزل. و في النهاية يدرك فارس أنه يجب أن يفعل ما يعتقد انه الصواب و يتجاهل تعليقات أصدقائه بينما هو يحضر كعكة عيد ميلاد في نهاية القصة.
Publication Date 2002
Languages Arabic, English العربية, الانجليزية
Contributor
The Tamer Institute for Community Education, Ramallah - Palestine
قد يكون أول شىء يخطر على بالك وانت تسمع جملة “الاستثمار الأمريكى” هو ساندوتش الهامبرجر الذى تقدمه سلسلة محلات ماكدونلدز الأمريكية، او البيتزا التي تقدمها بيتزا هت، او الدجاج من KFC او كنتاكى… وغيرها من شركات المطاعم العملاقة.
وكثيرون لا يتذكرون ان أهم الاستثمارات هي ايضا فى مجال الأسلحة والنفط…والاستثمارات هي في الاتجاه المعاكس ايضا. عربية باتجاه اميركا.
فقد زار وفد من المستثمرين المصريين بورصة نيويورك الاسبوع الماضي فى أول دعوة توجهها البورصة لبنوك استثمار من منطقة الشرق الأوسط.
تمخض عن هذه الزيارة افتتاح أول مكتب تمثيل لبنك استثمار من منطقة الشرق الأوسط فى السوق الأمريكية.
اذا قد تكون المسألة اكثر تعقيدا من الهامبرجر والبيتزا.
ولكن هذا هو بالتحديد ما يراه المواطن العادي في بلده اينما كان.
هذا هو الاستثمار المرئي. فهل يمانع؟
Key Vocabulary
استثمار / استثمارات : investment
خطر على باله : something came to his mind, occured to him
سلسة : chain
محل / محلات : shop
عملاق : gigantic , mega-
مجال / مجالات : filed, area
أسلحة / سلاح : weapon
بورصة / بورصات : Stock exchange
تمخض / يتمخض : to bring fourth, to bring about
مواطن : citizen
بالتحديد : exactly, precisely
مانع / يمانع : to object
Activity:
Listen to the podcast - only the first half.
Read the transcript of the introduction (above)
Answer the following questions:
What is the main gist of the news podcast?
According to the podcast, what is the first thing (s) that comes to your mind when you hear about “American Investments” in the Arab World?
What are the other main American investments in the Arab world?
What does the public think about American investments in Egypt? (the interviews are in colloquial Egyptian).
Name at least one opinion for and against.
What does the broadcaster mean by ( هذا هو الاستثمار المرئي) ?
According to the podcast and interviews, are there any alternatives to Pizza Hut and other fast-food pro
How do the Arabs feel about these alternatives?
Find out more
BBC Xtra is the flagship daily 2 hour live magazine programme on BBC Arabic, driving social and human interest issues onto the main news agenda of the Arabic Service. In a fast, energetic and relaxed style, BBC Xtra tackles difficult and controversial social affairs, as well as arts, literature and sports. BBC Xtra has a strong interactive element, where listeners contribute with their viewpoints on all topics by phone, SMS and e-mails.
The Arabic Program at Brigham Young University is developing various internet based learning resources to supplement Arabic Language Learning.
In conjunction with Prof. Muhammad Eissa and the NMERLC, BYU is developing an Egyptian Spoken Arabic program to expose students to real spoken Arabic situations through internet video.
The segments, filmed in Alexandria, expose students to progressively more complicated social situations.
This short video clip presents different types of greetings in colloquial Egyptian Arabic.
Unfortunately, the list of subjects that have been studied by the diploma holder is very small to read. I will copy them (with the translation) into this post in the near future.
“This is a two-part video and one part audio series about the trip we took this spring to Morocco
Parts 1 & 2 will be a video documentation of our journey, and part 3 will be an audio podcast of Steph and I discussing what we learned about Morocco.
Please be aware that when we created this video, it was merely for personal purposes. We hadn’t quite thought of the idea to create Human Being Curious at the time we went to Morocco, so keep in mind that this video is not what you should ideally expect to see from us when we travel somewhere “
The following is a collection from Rosenblumcoins.com.
Since 1971 Rosenblumcoins has specialized in all aspects of Israel, Palestine and Jewish numismatic material and ancient, medieval and modern coins, paper money, tokens and medals of the world.
1936. LOTTERY TICKET. Issued by the Muslim Community.
Decorated title in Arabic around all four sides, nice vignette of sphinx at center.
In Arabic & French. Sold for $50
LOTTERY TICKET. 1936. Issued by the Chaldeene Catholique du Caire Society.
Depicts a Nile scene, boats and Fortuna at left.
In Arabic, French & Greek! sold for $50
CHRISTIAN ARABIC IMITATIVE Half Dirham. 1251 AD. AR Half Dirham (1.46).Around a cross, the legend (in Arabic), “The Father and the Son”/”And the Holy Spirit”.
Can you recognise ( الاب والابن و الروح القدس ) in the coin?
Sold for $450
Currency Note - 1 Pound. 1950. Saad signature.
Farouk portrait at right. Arabic serial numbers only. sold for $40+
Eid mubarak ( عيد مبارك) is a traditional Muslim greeting reserved for use on the festivals of Eid ul-Adha and Eid ul-Fitr.
The phrase translates into English as “blessed festival“, and can be paraphrased as “may you enjoy a blessed festival”.
Muslims wish each other Eid Mubarak after performing the Eid prayer.
This celebration continues till the end of the day. It is notable that saying these exact words is a cultural tradition influenced by deep roots of religion in it; however, it is not part of any religious obligations.
Eid refers to the occasion itself, and Mubarak is roughly ‘may it become good for you’, but the phrase is used in the same context that “Merry Christmas” would be.
Throughout the Muslim world there are numerous other ways of greeting for Eid ul-Adha and Eid ul-Fitr.
Eid al-Adha (Arabic: عيد الأضحى ‘Īd ul-’Aḍḥā) is a religious festival celebrated by Muslims and Druze worldwide as a commemoration of Ibrahim’s (Abraham’s) willingness to sacrifice his son, as commanded by Allah. (Muslim tradition names Ishmael as the son who was to be sacrificed, whereas the Judeo-Christian tradition names Isaac.)
It is one of two Eid festivals celebrated by Muslims, whose basis comes from the Quran.[1] (Muslims in Iran celebrate a third, non-denominational Eid.)
Like Eid el-Fitr, Eid ul-Adha begins with a shortprayer followed by a sermon (khuṭba).
Eid ul-Fitr ( عيد الفطر ), often abbreviated to Eid, is a Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. Eid is an Arabic word meaning “festivity”, while Fiṭr means “to break the fast” (and can also mean “nature”, from the word “fitrah”) and so symbolizes the breaking of the fasting period.
Eid ul-Fitr starts the day after Ramadan ends, and is verified by the sighting of the new moon. Muslims give money to the poor and wear their best clothes.
Eid ul-Fitr lasts three days and is called “The Lesser Eid” ( العيد الصغير al-‘īdu ṣ-ṣaghīr) compared with the Eid ul-Adha that lasts four days and is called “The Greater Eid” ( العيد الكبير al-‘īdu l-kabīr).
A is for Allah is the name of a Muslim-themed double album for children by Yusuf Islam (formerly known as Cat Stevens) released on July 11, 2000 through Resurgence UK Records.The musician used the song as a vehicle to teach his daughter, Hasanah, the 28-letter Arabic alphabet. This kind of Islamic music is also known as nasheed.The album had been in the works since 1994, although the title track dates back to 1980, when it was written after the birth of his first child. (Wikiped
Eid mubarak ( عيد مبارك) is a traditional Muslim greeting reserved for use on the festivals of Eid ul-Adha and Eid ul-Fitr.
Eid ul-Fitr ( عيد الفطر ), often abbreviated to Eid, is a Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. Eid is an Arabic word meaning “festivity”, while Fiṭr means “to break the fast” (and can also mean “nature”, from the word “fitrah”) and so symbolizes the breaking of the fasting period.
