ARABIC FOR NERDS 2 is a GRAMMAR COMPENDIUM. The book guides you through the jungle of case endings, playing with word order, understanding fine points of Classical and Modern Standard Arabic, and how to avoid common mistakes. Every Arabic sentence is vowelled (Tashkeel) and translated into English. It is specifically intended for advanced learners.
FILL THE GAPS. Arabic for Nerds 1 will push you from the intermediate to the advanced level. Gerald Drißner has been collecting interesting facts about Arabic grammar, vocabulary and expressions, hints and traps for almost ten years. Finally he has compiled them to a book: Arabic for Nerds. This book should fill a gap. There are plenty of books about Ar-abic for beginners, but it is difficult to find good material for intermediate students. This book is suitable for readers who have been studying Arabic for at least two years. Readers should have a sound knowledge of vocabulary (around 3000 words) and know about tenses, verb moods and plurals. If a student wants to reach an advanced level, it is not about learning vocabulary lists - it is about understanding the fascinating core of Arabic. Arabic for Nerds doesn't teach vocabulary, nor are there exercises. This book explains how Arabic works and gives readers hints in us-ing and understanding the language better. Since most of the Ar-abic words are given in translation, the reader should be able to read this book without a dictionary. This is what Arabic for Nerds is all about. It is specifically intended for intermediate learners.
Reading about Arabic grammar is usually as thrilling as reading telephone directories. The author uses a new approach: He compiled 270 interesting questions drawing from his years of studies in the Arab world to create a colourful journey into Arabic grammar.
500 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON THE WORLD'S MOST MISINTERPRETED RELIGION Fully revised first edition. Islamic history and anecdotes are part of everyday conversation in the Arab world. This book provides a fascinating journey into one of the biggest and probably most misinterpreted religions via anecdotes and facts about Islam and its history, the Qur'an, the prophet Muhammad and his traditions, the Dos and Don'ts for Muslims, and how Islam spread around the world, summarised in 500 questions and answers, which the author has derived from his own experiences. The author has lived in North Africa and the Middle East for ten years and immersed himself in Islamic culture and society. He gradually learned the things kids in the Arab world already know, but most people in other parts of the world never heard of, by talking to his neighbours, teachers, scholars and ordinary people in the street. This book explains Islam in its complexity. The author also addresses current topics: Islam in the West, women's issues and Jihad. It can be read without knowing Arabic. However, the author provides the fully vocalised Arabic source in addition to the English translation, which may be beneficial for Arabic speaking readers.
An American woman determined to learn the Arabic language travels to the Middle East to pursue her dream in this “witty memoir” (Us Weekly). The shadda is the key difference between a pigeon (hamam) and a bathroom (hammam). Be careful, our professor advised, that you don’t ask a waiter, ‘Excuse me, where is the pigeon?’—or, conversely, order a roasted toilet . . . If you’ve ever studied a foreign language, you know what happens when you first truly and clearly communicate with another person. As Zora O’Neill recalls, you feel like a magician. If that foreign language is Arabic, you just might feel like a wizard. They say that Arabic takes seven years to learn and a lifetime to master. O’Neill had put in her time. Steeped in grammar tomes and outdated textbooks, she faced an increasing certainty that she was not only failing to master Arabic, but also driving herself crazy. She took a decade-long hiatus, but couldn’t shake her fascination with the language or the cultures it had opened up to her. So she decided to jump back in—this time with a new approach. In this book, she takes us along on her grand tour through the Middle East, from Egypt to the United Arab Emirates to Lebanon and Morocco. She’s packed her dictionaries, her unsinkable sense of humor, and her talent for making fast friends of strangers. From quiet, bougainvillea-lined streets to the lively buzz of crowded medinas, from families’ homes to local hotspots, she brings a part of the world thousands of miles away right to your door—and reminds us that learning another tongue leaves you rich with so much more than words. “You will travel through countries and across centuries, meeting professors and poets, revolutionaries, nomads, and nerds . . . [A] warm and hilarious book.” —Annia Ciezadlo, author of Day of Honey “Her tale of her ‘Year of Speaking Arabic Badly’ is a genial and revealing pleasure.” —The Seattle Times
Seven students are about to have their lives changed by one amazing teacher in this school story sequel filled with unique characters every reader can relate to. It’s the start of a new year at Snow Hill School, and seven students find themselves thrown together in Mr. Terupt’s fifth grade class. There’s . . . Jessica, the new girl, smart and perceptive, who’s having a hard time fitting in; Alexia, a bully, your friend one second, your enemy the next; Peter, class prankster and troublemaker; Luke, the brain; Danielle, who never stands up for herself; shy Anna, whose home situation makes her an outcast; and Jeffrey, who hates school. They don’t have much in common, and they’ve never gotten along. Not until a certain new teacher arrives and helps them to find strength inside themselves—and in each other. But when Mr. Terupt suffers a terrible accident, will his students be able to remember the lessons he taught them? Or will their lives go back to the way they were before—before fifth grade and before Mr. Terupt? Find out what happens in sixth and seventh grades in Mr. Terupt Falls Again and Saving Mr. Terupt. And don't miss the conclusion to the series, Goodbye, Mr. Terupt, coming soon! "The characters are authentic and the short chapters are skillfully arranged to keep readers moving headlong toward the satisfying conclusion."--School Library Journal, Starred
A beloved folk singer presents an impassioned account of the fall and rise of the small American towns she cherishes. Dubbed by the New Yorker as "one of America's very best singer-songwriters," Dar Williams has made her career not in stadiums, but touring America's small towns. She has played their venues, composed in their coffee shops, and drunk in their bars. She has seen these communities struggle, but also seen them thrive in the face of postindustrial identity crises. Here, in an account that "reads as if Pete Seeger and Jane Jacobs teamed up" (New York Times), Williams muses on why some towns flourish while others fail, examining elements from the significance of history and nature to the uniting power of public spaces and food. Drawing on her own travels and the work of urban theorists, Williams offers real solutions to rebuild declining communities. What I Found in a Thousand Towns is more than a love letter to America's small towns, it's a deeply personal and hopeful message about the potential of America's lively and resilient communities.
This fascinating book is the first volume in a projected cultural history of the United States, from the earliest English settlements to our own time. It is a history of American folkways as they have changed through time, and it argues a thesis about the importance for the United States of having been British in its cultural origins. While most people in the United States today have no British ancestors, they have assimilated regional cultures which were created by British colonists, even while preserving ethnic identities at the same time. In this sense, nearly all Americans are "Albion's Seed," no matter what their ethnicity may be. The concluding section of this remarkable book explores the ways that regional cultures have continued to dominate national politics from 1789 to 1988, and still help to shape attitudes toward education, government, gender, and violence, on which differences between American regions are greater than between European nations.