Arabic in bite-sized parts (now with doses of JP & RU)

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Zireael
Orange Belt
Posts: 158
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:29 pm
Languages: Native: Polish
C2: English
B2: Spanish
Somewhere I don't know: German
Beginner: Arabic, Polish Sign Language
Wanderlusting: Japanese, Russian
Language Log: viewtopic.php?t=815
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Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts

Postby Zireael » Wed Dec 16, 2015 9:43 am

Shukran ya haziz!

I've seen "Zaytoun" yesterday evening on TV. I was quite miffed that the protagonist (an Israeli pilot) is not only white but also BLONDE!
The movie had CC, which is a rarity on Polish TV, and only after turning it on was I able to follow the plot. Seems that the Arabic characters spoke Arabic and the dub for them was too silent - the dub for the Israeli/UN characters (speaking English) was fine.
I *think* I heard "Marhaban" and "Abu, ana huna" and "Huwa shahid(un)", though.
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Zireael
Orange Belt
Posts: 158
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:29 pm
Languages: Native: Polish
C2: English
B2: Spanish
Somewhere I don't know: German
Beginner: Arabic, Polish Sign Language
Wanderlusting: Japanese, Russian
Language Log: viewtopic.php?t=815
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Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts

Postby Zireael » Fri Dec 25, 2015 10:45 am

Yesterday, on Christmas Eve, I received a pleasant surprise. Anis, my Tunisian friend, who posts on FB pretty rarely, posted Christmas wishes in Arabic. Looks like he has more Christian friends than just little old me.

The words listed before the actual wishes were hashtags.

New words (and a phrase!)
talish تعايش‬ coexistence
mawlid مولد‬ birthday
ta'amal تأمل‬ you hope
dua دعاء‬ prayer
shawq شوق‬ wish

مولد نبوي مبارك و ميلاد مجيد لكل الأصدقاء Blessed and merry Christmas to all the friends!

nabawi نبوي of the prophet
madʒid مجيد glorious
al-asdika'a الأصدقاء the friends
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Zireael
Orange Belt
Posts: 158
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:29 pm
Languages: Native: Polish
C2: English
B2: Spanish
Somewhere I don't know: German
Beginner: Arabic, Polish Sign Language
Wanderlusting: Japanese, Russian
Language Log: viewtopic.php?t=815
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Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts

Postby Zireael » Fri Jan 15, 2016 3:04 pm

On the Arabic front, not much. Job, AH and coding take up all my time.

New word
Muluk الملوك kings (pl.)

In other news, I've started wanderlusting after Japanese :) I can already recognize two kanji on sight, they are ichi 一 one and no の 'of'
Mostly because I'm constantly looking up Japanese names and their meanings on http://rut.org/cgi-bin/j-e/jis/FG=r/dict?sDict=on (yes, I know the interface sucks, but it's a really powerful dictionary)
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Zireael
Orange Belt
Posts: 158
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:29 pm
Languages: Native: Polish
C2: English
B2: Spanish
Somewhere I don't know: German
Beginner: Arabic, Polish Sign Language
Wanderlusting: Japanese, Russian
Language Log: viewtopic.php?t=815
x 77

Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts

Postby Zireael » Mon Jan 18, 2016 11:38 am

Turns out I can recognize some more kanji due to playing a mahjong videogame as a kid (was one of the few things that ran on my shitty DOS computer, the other two being Prince of Persia and Summer Challenge). They are 'fire' and 'two', 'three'. I bet if I saw 'five' or 'seven' or 'autumn', they'd tickle my memory too.

In other news, my mum keeps hinting I should learn the basics of Russian.

I was thinking of using Busuu (I'm not that much into flashcards and while I attempted a Memrise-like earlier, it didn't stick). However I'm scared of the fact it takes mailing support to switch languages, should I want to learn Japanese basics instead lol. Anyone knows how long it takes for them to do it or whether there is a limit to switching languages?
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Monox D. I-Fly
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Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts

Postby Monox D. I-Fly » Sun Jan 31, 2016 5:03 pm

Zireael wrote:On the Arabic front, not much. Job, AH and coding take up all my time.

New word
Muluk الملوك kings (pl.)

In other news, I've started wanderlusting after Japanese :) I can already recognize two kanji on sight, they are ichi 一 one and no の 'of'
Mostly because I'm constantly looking up Japanese names and their meanings on http://rut.org/cgi-bin/j-e/jis/FG=r/dict?sDict=on (yes, I know the interface sucks, but it's a really powerful dictionary)


You also learn Arabic and Japanese? Cool 8-) . Try my flashcards which consist of 16 most basic Kanji and their Arabic translation here: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1434&p=23542#p23542
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Zireael
Orange Belt
Posts: 158
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:29 pm
Languages: Native: Polish
C2: English
B2: Spanish
Somewhere I don't know: German
Beginner: Arabic, Polish Sign Language
Wanderlusting: Japanese, Russian
Language Log: viewtopic.php?t=815
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Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts

Postby Zireael » Fri Feb 26, 2016 9:23 am

Thanks Monox!

Net problems mean I haven't been on in ages. It's gotten even more patchy than usual.

Yesterday evening I chatted with Sarah (my original Arabic tutor) on FB for the first time in months. She's in Kenya now and missing her home :( Our FB conversations are the best, half in Arabic (as long as I can follow via Aratools), then in English, then back to Arabic lol.

New words
layla saida ليلة سعيدة good night
atamna dalika أتمنی ذلك I wish that
tosbihin ala khair 'azizati تصبحين علی خير عزيزتي you're perhaps getting better my dear
tosbihin تصبحين you became
'azizati عزيزتي my dear
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Monox D. I-Fly
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Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts

Postby Monox D. I-Fly » Thu Mar 17, 2016 5:39 pm

Zireael wrote:In other news, I've started wanderlusting after Japanese :) I can already recognize two kanji on sight, they are ichi 一 one and no の 'of'


The latter one isn't a Kanji, though. It's a Hiragana.
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Read 5,000 pages of Arabic books: 5 / 5000
Watch 9,000 minutes of Arabic videos: 19 / 9000

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Watch 9,000 minutes of Japanese videos: 297 / 9000

Zireael
Orange Belt
Posts: 158
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:29 pm
Languages: Native: Polish
C2: English
B2: Spanish
Somewhere I don't know: German
Beginner: Arabic, Polish Sign Language
Wanderlusting: Japanese, Russian
Language Log: viewtopic.php?t=815
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Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts

Postby Zireael » Wed Mar 23, 2016 5:42 pm

Yeah, I'm slowly learning :) So far I know there's two kinds of kana, hiragana and katakana, and I can recognize one more kana, り ri. I've bookmarked a wikipedia comparison of the two, though.

And I can recognize 人 on sight, and quick googling tells me it's read 'jin' and means person (yeah, that's the second kanji in gaijin, 'foreigner', as in a famous book by Clavell :P) And I know the kanji for sun and moon because the sun kanji is in 日本 Nihon (Japan) and the moon just sorta happened :P

I've recently started reading Noriaki Kasai's blog (http://ameblo.jp/nori66nori/) via Google Translate. The site is Japanese-only so I had to use some educated guesses at first.

So I know the kanji for (EDIT: shortened) days of the week now: 日 月 火 水 木 金 土. The order is Sunday-Saturday, and I guess it means sense that the kanji for sun ('nichi') also is used for sunday (geddit?). The second is moon 'tsuki', I guess the associations of days with heavenly bodies are fairly universal. The moon is also used for the month (makes sense since the month was originally the unit of time between two full moons). Tuesday has the fire kanji, I don't know the next one at all (Wednesday), Friday looks sorta like a temple? and Saturday looks sorta familiar but I don't have a frigging idea why.

Year is 年 and day (in general) uses the kanji for sun again.

An UniLang user says
日 - sun
月 - moon
火 - fire
水 - water
木 - wood
金 - metal (also: gold)
土 - earth

And I surprised a friend who learned Japanese in university by copy-pasting Japanese happy birthday - 誕生日おめでとう
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Zireael
Orange Belt
Posts: 158
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:29 pm
Languages: Native: Polish
C2: English
B2: Spanish
Somewhere I don't know: German
Beginner: Arabic, Polish Sign Language
Wanderlusting: Japanese, Russian
Language Log: viewtopic.php?t=815
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Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts (now with doses of JP & RU)

Postby Zireael » Thu Mar 24, 2016 7:53 am

All the Japanese I learned without even going to lol :lol: :lol: :lol:

The Wikipedia articles on Japanese places/people give the original Japanese characters even in Polish or English sections. Also I read a lot of novels/stories/Alternate History set in Japan, so they are sprinkled with Japanese words in romaji.

Note: On'yomi first, kun'yomi second.

日本 Nihon にほん Japan
日本語 Nihongo にほんご Japanese

日 nichi にち hi sun, day
月 tsuki gatsu がつ tsuki つき  moon, month
(These come from Wikipedia, and there was a sword in a BG2 mod called Tsuki no Ken, 'Moonblade'.)

一 ichi いち hito-tsu ひとつ one
二 ni  futa-tsu ふたつ two
三 san さん mitsu みんつ three
四 shi  yon よんつ four
五 go  itsutsu いつつ five
六 roku ろく mut-tsu むつ six
七 shichi しち nana-tsu ななつ seven
八 hachi はち yat-tsu やつ eight
九 ku  kokono-tsu ここのつ nine
(These come from the mahjong game I played as a kid, readings from Wikipedia)

外人 gaijin がいじん foreigner
人 jin じん hiro ひろ person
(The book by Clavell, also an ubiquitous word in every novel set in Japan :lol:)

日 sun
月 moon
火 ka  hi  fire
水 sui すい mizu みず water
木 moku もく/boku ぼく ki  wood
金 kin きん kane かね metal, gold
土 to  tsuchi つち earth

生日 jobi じょび day
年 nen ねん toshi とし year
(From browsing Nori's blog and seeing the calendar, and from UniLang feedback)

可愛 kawaii かわい cute
(From Nori's blog)

誕生日おめでとう tanjobi omedeto happy birthday
誕生日 tanjobi たんじょび birthday
おめでとう omedeto congratulations
(Copy-paste for a friend)

***
And now the romaji words I know:
From historical novels:
bushido, kendo, katana, shogun, kabuto, geisha, domo arigato (thank you very much)
From modern novels:
tatami, manshon (apartment), apato (flat), purezento, tadaima (I'm home), arigato gozaimatsu (thank you very much), konnichiwa (welcome)
From AH projects set in Japan:
gensui (admiral), zaibatsu (company), tenno (emperor), tennoheika banzai (battle cry, Emperor's something-something, often shortened to banzai), kamikaze (divine wind, aka. suicide pilots)
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Zireael
Orange Belt
Posts: 158
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:29 pm
Languages: Native: Polish
C2: English
B2: Spanish
Somewhere I don't know: German
Beginner: Arabic, Polish Sign Language
Wanderlusting: Japanese, Russian
Language Log: viewtopic.php?t=815
x 77

Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts (now with doses of JP & RU)

Postby Zireael » Fri Mar 25, 2016 7:12 pm

More Arabic incoming but I have to process it first! (Haha, I got a note in Arabic with JP tips in response to a Reddit post asking for beginner JP content admitting Anki isn't for me since I used it with Arabic)
***

Random associations with the kanji I know (see above post):
一 Ichiro, Jiro (supremely common Japanese male names)
三 Mitsubishi
六 Yamamoto Isoroku
八 Hachiko (the brave dog who waited for its owner day after day)
日 Nihon :lol: :lol: :lol:
月 Tsuki no Ken

水 Shimizu Reruhi / mizuage (from the geisha novels lol)
木 needs no associations, it looks like a TREE!

And now, new kanji with associations:
上 jo じょう ue うえ top
Inoue (a common Japanese name)
下 ka /ge  shita した shimo しも moto もと bottom
Shimomura (my friend's surname) - I guess it's written 下村 (village down [river])

中 chu ちゅう naka なか middle
田 den でん ta/da  rice field
村 son そん mura むら village

田中村 Tanakamura aka. go crazy and make common Japanese surnames :D Also Nakamura Ken (I've forgotten which novel he was in, though)

子 shi  ko  child
Basically every feminine Japanese name - Reiko, Naoko, Hanako...
女 jo じょ onna おな woman
Used to mean "lady" long ago...
犬 ken けん inu いぬ dog 
Akita Inu, a friend of mine used to have such a dog (秋田犬)
明 mei めい aki あき bright
Noriaki (if you're gonna ask why, go back to where I started Japanese updates lol)
大 dai だい large
Daiki
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