Long Vowels Are Not Optional!!!

One of our more colorful professors here at Yarmouk often states, with half-sarcasm and half-frustration: "Long vowels are not optional!"  He does this because many times, when we read aloud, we make the mistake of not holding our long vowels (aa, uu, ee) long enough.  Arabic has three long vowels (ا = aa, و = uu, and ي = ee), and three short vowels, which can sometimes be paired together with the long vowels to make other sounds (like oww, or ayy).  Two of the long vowels (uu and ee) also double as consonants, depending on the surrounding letters.  To add to the fun, the short vowels are not actually letters.  Rather, they are special marks that are placed above and below the letters of a word (بَ = ba, بِ = bi, بُ = bu; ب is just the letter "b").  Now, to make it really interesting, most of the texts that are written do not contain the markings for short vowels, so you just need to know how to pronounce the word from the context of the other words.

This is hard.

So, it's no wonder that when we read aloud, we often stumble over our vowels, making our short a's long and vice versa.  The problem is that sometimes the difference between two words can be as little as a short "a" or a long "aa."  On Tuesday, I learned this lesson the hard way.

Our program director sent us several e-mails over the last few weeks listing the names of Jordanian students that wanted to form a sort of language partnership with us American students.  The idea is that we would get together a few times a week for about and hour, and talk.  While the Jordanian students helped us with our Arabic, we would help them with their English, so everybody wins.

I perused this list a few times, looking through the names to find a student to partner with.  I was being a bit cautious because I learned that one of my fellow male students here accidently set up a meeting with a girl, which was a bit awkward, I'm told.  After a couple looks, I found the name Anwar.  Anwar is a safe bet, I told myself.  After all, Anwar Sadat was a male.  With this irrefutable logic, I e-mailed Anwar to set up time that we could meet.  Anwar replied and we decided to meet Tuesday morning at the Language Center.

Turns out, Anwar is definitely a girl.  Crap!  Anwar Sadat was a man! How could this happen?!

I met with Anwar and one of her friends for about a half an hour, all the while wondering in my head if this was culturally inappropriate, and feeling a bit awkward.  After we said goodbye, I went to my program director to tell him of my dilemma.  Contrary to my concerns, he assured me that as long as it was fine with her (which it was), then it wasn't a problem.  Well, that made me feel a bit better.  At least I wasn't being culturally insensitive.  After some internal debate, I decided to try and find a different language partner because I think it will be easier to befriend a male Jordanian.  I also think conversation will be a bit easier without the awkward gender dynamic.

But, that decision still did not solve my initial mistake: how could Anwar Sadat be a male name, but Anwar be a female?  I asked one of my other professors, "Is Anwar a male or a female name?"  "It's a male name," he replied.  Huh....I was completely baffled, but at least I felt a little bit better because my Jordanian professor also thought that Anwar was a male name.  Well, at least I felt better until he said, "Yes, Anwar ( اَنوَر) is a male name, but Anwaar (اَنوار) is a girl's name."

Wow, I feel like an idiot!  That little long vowel made all the difference, and at that moment, I heard my professor's voice screaming in my head: "LONG VOWELS ARE NOT OPTIONAL!!!!!"

كنيسة‎ (kaneesa) = Church

Tonight I went with a group of 8 students and 1 professor to a Maronite Catholic Church in Irbid.  The service started at 6:30 and went about an hour and a half (it was longer than usual, I'm told).  Naturally, everything was in Arabic, so it was quite difficult to follow, but by the end I managed to follow along with the songs in the hymnal at least.  As a matter of fact, I recognized the tunes of two of the songs, even though the words were different.  One of them was definitely "Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God" and I can't recall the title of the other.

Going to a church service that was in Arabic brought me back to my experiences of attending mass with my host-parents in Honduras.  There too, the services were in a language that was not my native tongue.  I struggled in both places to understand the words being said and mimic the actions of the regular members.  It was difficult to actually worship when so much time was spent trying to translate what was going on and not look foolish.  That's why when I at least heard a couple familiar tunes I was relieved to be able to let my guard down a bit and worship.  By the end of the service I was singing along even though I didn't understand the words I was reading.  I guess the beauty of it is that God knew what I was singing even if I didn't.

Now, I don't want to sound like some cliche-ridden daily devotional, but I think that there is definitely something humbling and edifying about worshipping God in a foreign language halfway around the world.  It shows that God can be accessed in any language imaginable, at any time, and at any place.  It also shows that there are communities of believers all over the world that share the same faith.  At home, it's sometimes easy to get hung up on the church in America, or even just in New Jersey.  It's humbling, then, to realize that the original Christian communities of the Bible were composed of Middle Easterners.  In short, they've been doing this thing called Christianity as long as it's been around!  I'm sure we could learn a lot from them if we became less preoccupied with sticking to our own traditions.

And maybe, just maybe, the Christians aren't the only Middle Easterners that we could learn from...

A Whirlwind Tour of Ancient Ruins

On Friday, my whole program went on a whirlwind tour of Umm Qais, Ajloun Castle, and Jerash.  These three sites have so much history packed into them that I was constantly in awe of the sites I saw.  First up, Umm Qais.

Though it was settled before the Romans arrived, Umm Qais became a city of real significance under the Romans.  It's Roman name was Gadara, and it was one of the cities in the Decapolis, a network of semi-autonomous cities in Greater Syria that were important to commerce in the empire.  It declined under the Islamic Empires, but remained inhabited through the time of the Ottomans.  Now, it's still surrounded by a small urban center.

This was a crazy beetle!  It's wings look like a butterfly's, but I can't say it's as pretty.

Unfortunately it was a hazy morning, but if you look hard, you can see the tip of the Sea of Galilee.   Remember that Bible story about Jesus driving demons into a herd of pigs and sending them over a cliff into Lake Tiberius??  Yeah, that was right about, there!  It's pretty crazy to think that Jesus probably walked around this town.  I wish I could have had more time to sit and dwell on the magnitude of that fact.

These mountains are part of the region called the Golan Heights, which is internationally recognized to be a part of the Syrian state.  However, Israel has illegally occupied this militarily strategic high ground since 1967, resulting in a perpetual declaration of war between the two countries.  Although the UN has condemned this occupation, Israel doesn't seem to care.

Ajloun Castle.  This castle was built by a general, and relative of the famous Saladin - the Kurdish Muslim General that kicked some serious Crusader butt during the second Crusade.  Ajloun was one of a network of castles built my the the Muslim armies of the Middle East during the Crusades.  They were meant to defend their lands from the Crusaders who built their own parallel network of castles (hopefully I'll visit some in a few weeks!).

Beam me up, Scotty!

Ajloun Castle commands a tremendous view of the surrounding countryside.

On to Jerash, some of the best-preserved Roman ruins in Jordan.  Although people had settled Jerash since the neolithic era, like Umm Qais, it only really became important under the Roman occupation.  Also like Umm Qais, Jerash was a part of the Roman Decapolis, but was quite a bit larger, being home to 15,000-20,000 inhabitants!  The sprawling ruins of Jerash were a real pleasure to take in.  The sheer size of the buildings is stunning.  How did those Romans build such huge structures?  It's mind boggling!  This particular picture is, I think, of one of the central points of Jerash.

The Nymphaeum (I think)

The Southern Amphitheater.

A view from atop the Temple of Zeus.

The Hippodrome.  This is where they used to have chariot races.  This arena used to seat up to 15,000 people!

If you thought that Emperor Hadrian only built a wall up in Britain, you thought wrong!  This is Hadrian's arch, the southern gate of the city that was built in 129 AD in order to commemorate his visit.

The End.

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to my beautiful wife, Jenna!  I love you so much!

The President's Party

Every year the president of Yarmouk University throws a party for the foreign students that are visiting to study Arabic.  Usually this party is at the end of the program, but since the current president is retiring on July 1, he decided to throw the party early.  So, on Tuesday night we were treated to a delicious feast, live music, and some dancing from Yarmouk's dancing club.  Here are some pictures to give you all an idea of what it looked like.  Sorry that they aren't that great of photos...

My table

A terrible picture of the dancers and musicians.  I have a good video of this, but unfortunately the file is way to big to upload with the internet connection that I have.  I guess you'll have to wait until I come back!

At the end of the dance routine, some students and faculty joined in the dance.

Unfortunately, this week was not all partying.  Today we had a mind-numbing 4 tests (reading, speaking, listening, and grammar).  The tests were challenging, but I feel confident that I did pretty well.  It's partly a blessing that NYU is not accepting transfer credits for these courses because then I don't have to get stressed out.  I can just do my best and not worry about the grades.

After a day of tests, some of my fellow classmates and I, along with a few Jordanian students decided to blow off some steam by playing some كرة القدم, or soccer (literally: ball of the foot).  It's always good to play soccer, but playing at 3:00 in the afternoon on black top in the summer sun was definitely exhausting!

Tomorrow our group will visit Jerash, Umm Qais, and Ajloun, which are some historic sites near to Irbid.  I'm looking forward to seeing some cool ruins and having a day without school work.  Hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures of these places in the next couple of days.

"In Irbid, you must learn 2 languages."

One of the most poignant statements I've heard since arriving in Irbid was said by my professor in our class on the local dialect: "In Irbid, you must learn 2 languages."  My professor was referring to the fact that in most classes, we only study الفصحى (al-fusha), which is modern standard Arabic.  This is the version of Arabic that you hear on the news, read in books and the newspaper, and use in academic or professional settings.  The problem is that nobody you meet on the street (or at least, very few people) actually speak this version of the language.  Instead, they speak in dialect العامية (al-'amiya).  The local dialects vary in the way they pronounce certain letters, and many times the dialect word for something is completely different than the word in modern standard Arabic.  This can be very frustrating because after studying Arabic in school for years, you still might not be able to order your dinner or ask how much something costs!

The Capital

Yesterday a group of us visited the capital city of Jordan, Amman.  We walked around the city during the day, went out at night, stayed in a cheap hostel, and came back to Irbid this morning.  It was a fun trip.  We got to see a lot of cool sights and get to know each other a little better outside of the context of the classroom.  Here are just a few of the many pictures I took yesterday and today.

We start our tour of Amman with the Citadel - the center of Amman, sitting atop a mountain, surrounded by walls.  This was the home of many peoples, going all the way back to the neolithic period! (For those of you who don't speak history, that's a really really long time ago!)  The stones in the front of the picture have the 3 main names this location had throughout history: Rabbath-Ammon was the home of the Ammonites during the Iron Age, Philadelphia was the city's Nabatean, Roman, and Byzantine name, and Amman became the city's title with the establishment of the Umayyad Caliphate (one of the many Islamic Empires in the Middle East and North Africa) in 661 AD.  It's amazing how one site has so much history!

The remains of the Temple of Hercules (161-166 AD)

Hey, look!  It's Hercules!

Friday is the "Sunday" of Muslims.  We were up in the Citadel at midday on Friday, and right before this picture, the call to prayer began echoing around the whole city with the start of the service.  It was particularly striking because the Citadel is surrounded by a circle of 7 mountains, so the call was coming out of minarets all around us.

This is the formal entrance to the Umayyad Palace that was built around 730 AD

This is all that remains of the Umayyad mosque that was built at the highest point of the city, just next to the Palace. 

Hanging out in the Throne Room of the palace.

From the Museum - the oldest statue of a human that has ever been found anywhere.

Pottery bombs?????  Ancient grenades??

Here are some close-ups of the Roman amphitheater seen in the last picture.

King Hussein Mosque.  The area around it is a big marketplace that is really interesting to walk through. 

King Abdullah Mosque.  This is a huge mosque that fits between 3000-7000 worshippers on Fridays!

The inside of King Abdullah Mosque.

The courtyard.  I love those columns!

Some flowers from the Mosque's garden.

An Eastern Orthodox church, seen from the outer courtyard of King Abdullah Mosque.