homework and gossip

Lately, I've noticed myself understanding more and more of the Arabic spoken around me. This is particularly gratifying because when I first got here, that was not the case at all. True, I studied Arabic at Northwestern for a number of years, but the Arabic spoken in the classroom (fus'ha, or classical Arabic) is the language of the Quran and literature like 1,001 Nights, not the street Arabic I hear on a daily basis.

It was somewhat frustrating for me to find out that a lot of what I knew was completely impractical -- people would understand what I was saying but then reply in Ameyya (the Egyptian dialect), or ask me to repeat myself, or just turn to a friend and say "She doesn't speak Arabic." It turns out that what I learned was a really good background (it has helped an incredible amount with my studying), I just needed to build on that with some of the more useful stuff. And besides, it's from those classes that I know how to read and write in Arabic. (And I have to say that while my handwriting in English tends towards messy, my penmanship in Arabic is really nice. I have super-awesome handwriting.)

Recently, though, I just feel a lot better about my communication skills and my ability to express myself. Last week our TV was broken, and I was able to successfully talk to my landlord about the repairs. When two Egyptian friends were talking about plans for that evening, I realized that I no longer needed them to translate their conversation for me. I chatted with the eldery woman who lives next door while we were waiting for the elevator. I very rarely use the Spanish words for things I have forgotten (this used to happen all the time).

I think a lot of this is due to my tutor, E. Our lessons are pretty informal -- he teaches one-on-one out of his Zamalek apartment, where we have tea while we chat and review my homework. At first I was annoyed to have homework again (seriously -- did I not just graduate?), but I find that I am pretty motivated to do the work since I really do want to improve. One of the reasons I wanted to come live in Egypt for the year was to become fluent (or at least more proficient than I am now), so I am glad that I am on track to accomplish this goal.

The other great part is that through word of mouth, E is the default tutor for my extended group of friends. That's how I found out about him in the first place -- when I said I wanted to learn Arabic, three different friends gave me his number. Still, it's kind of funny because he always knows everyone's business and is a bit of a gossip, with the result that he sometimes knows things about me before I have told him myself. A1 told him about our new apartment during her lesson, so that when I showed up the next day, the first thing he asked was how the move went. I can think of several classes at NU that would have been a lot better if they'd included some gossip with all that homework.