Virtual Realia eGalleries | Arabic Language Reading Practice | Beginners’ Level
On October - 6 - 2008
Arabic Language Reading Practice | Beginners’ Level
This activity is designed to help you practice and improve your reading skills of the Arabic alphabet using real life items (i.e. realia) presented in digital visual format.
Most of the words shown on the pictures are non-Arabic. They are mostly foreign names of western companies in the Arab world (e.g. McDonald, Pizza Hut, etc…)
Type of pictures in the slideshow
- Western Companies’ Logos
- Packaging of food and drink
- Shop signs
- Road street and traffic signs
- Western names in Arabic
- T-Shirt Signs
Language e-tivity
- To improve your reading skills, try to read the Arabic script on each image without looking at the image title or the translation.
- Click on the (i) sign to read further details about each image
- Which foreign words, that are literally transcribed in Arabic script?
- Can you possibly translate into Arabic? (e.g. club, Café, etc…)
- Feel free to comment on the whole slideshow or on each image individually.
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
Feedback & Contribution
If you find this task useful, I would appreciate to hear your feedback and suggestions on how to improve this type of activities.
If you would like to recommend or add more images to the set, please feel free to get in touch.
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Hi Mourad,
A very interesting program to be sure, I have a couple of questions:
- on the slide showing “google” there is a triangle of dots (as in “sheen”) above the letter ‘g’, what is this supposed to denote?
- again, on a later slide showing road signs (to zagora, mhamid etc.) there is a similar triangle of dots above the letter ‘kef’, why is this?
I also have a few suggestions as to how this program could be extended:
-perhaps it could include photos of well-known arab products, more the purpose of brand recognition once we get to middle east, rather than as an aid to beginner’s reading.
-furtermore, maybe ths program could begin to include “text-message” arabic (i.e arabic using latin script) in some way - maybe there could be shots of people’s blogs/ pictures of mobile phone displays etc. etc.
As a more general comment, I was interested to note that the Israeli road signs transliterated the Hebrew names of towns into arabic, rather than using said towns’ original Palestinian names.
thanks
david
This realia slideshow provides a stimulating and refreshing environment for reading practice. I was able to figure out some of the signs and look forward to trying this again as I learn more letters of the alphabet. It is also really good to test reading in different fonts from the textbook. I’ll look out for more images when we study in the ME during 2009.
Kentucky chicken? What about the fried?
I was rather upset by the transliteration of pizza king into bizza king. What about malik al bizza or malik bizza.
It’s interesting how you see internet transliterated but often see ‘world wide web’ or ‘the net’ referred to as الشبكة العالمية - (ashhubka al3aalamiya)
shubka شبكة = net,
3aalamiy عالمي= worldwide
note: 3aalamiy عالمي is the adjective formed from the noun 3aalam عالم (world)
note: 3aalamiya عالمية is simply agreeing with the feminine shubka شبكة
Other than that this slideshow made me very hungry.
I thought these were fun and interesting. It was also somewhat of a surprise to see so many words transliterated directly from English, even when an Arabic translation would have been simple (what would be wrong with burgar malik?). Also the prevalence of actual English script along with the Arabic, as well as forcing Arabic words to recall the original logos (e.g.: Subway).
I also notice that, in addition to David’s mysterious triangle of dots, there’s also a set in fuutuukuu(p?)ii. Isn’t something similar to this used to construct a ‘p’ sound in Farsi? Is it doing so here? I am also confused! Otherwise, a useful tool for us beginners.
I think this program also highlights problems in reading handwriting, where everything can get very close together and stylised – the names for example were extremely confusing: so some more practice reading handwriting would be good!
Mourad, as requested, a few answers to the Flickr exercise (and some questions too!):
Pepsi – I assume maaks and diyat on the cans are transliterations? (for Max and Diet)
Tang orange drink – miiks – a transliteration for mix
Krispy Kreme – dunaats – I assume they sell donuts?!
KFC – Chicken Kentucky
Starbucks Kafee – Café.
Hotel Miramar – I assume fanihiq is hotel?
Mobile Phone – Bee Bee See (BBC!) Arabic
Parliament – Al Barlimaan
Twinings Tea – I can’t understand the bottom writing, after Shaay (Tea)
Lipton’s – Tea of the World
The names – I find incredibly confusing! The first, I think, may be Lolita (although the final letter looks as though it could be a stylised nun, ta, or tha) the second Kir…tine ? It is extremely difficult to tell without the vocalisations, and also the stylised design of both further complicate things.
T-Shirt: Barnard Ruth?
I am also looking for some Arabic-letter keys to stick to my keyboard (so I can type Arabic instead of bad transliterations!). Do you know anywhere in the UK where I could get them, the cheapest I can find are around £20!
David
Few comments about your questions.
“Pepsi – I assume maaks and diyat on the cans are transliterations? (for Max and Diet)” - That’s correct.
“Hotel Miramar – I assume fanihiq is hotel?” : The Arabic word for Hotel is Funduq : فندق
The names :
First image (Louis)
Second Image (Kristine)
Third Image (Bernard Ruth)
Arabic-letter Keyboard stickers : If you search for (Arabic Keyboard stickers) at Ebay.co.uk or .com, the cheapest you can get is for £2.8
Hope this clarifies everything
all the best,
Mourad
I enjoyed these pictures; however, because the brand names were so recognisable, I found it quite difficult to try to read the arabic without already knowing what it would say. Perhaps there could be a way in which the logos could be covered up and then revealed after. But a tasty exercise nonetheless!
This is great. The most useful thing I find with these is just seeing different forms of Arabic script as it appears on labels/signs. When I got to the Middle East after learning the alphabet I found I still couldn’t read any signs because they were so stylised! It is easy to get too used to textbook lettering.
One confusing thing is where words are extended, with long lines in the middle - when I first saw this I always read the straight line as “siin”, whereas they are just meant to make words look good.
Dear Alex,
Thanks for your feedback.
What you found confusing (extended words) is normal practice in advertising language. An extended letter/word is simply justified or aligned text to the right and left to fit within the line. I used to do it myself in High school!
Interesting stuff! I agree with a lot of the comments that have already been made. Why not translate the ‘king’ in Burger King rather than just writing the English word in Arabic? So the company can keep brand recognition intact, their name sounds the same no matter what language it is written or said in. Similarly, it is very easy to simply recognise the sign without reading the letters - the logos of these multi-national corporations are so widely known that the writing is almost obsolete.
Very useful, especially for reading unvowelled words/phrases. I particularly enjoyed seeing “Asterix” in arabic. Some of them without the western script on them were still indecipherable to me, which is a shame - these generally being the names say on t-shirts or signs…
Super resource. Really good for contextualizing the work, and reminding us that it’s all rooted in the real wold.