عرب وغرب: أين الاختلاف؟

Here is the second enrichment I did for my MESA 201 class last semester.

MESA 201–2nd Enrichment

I live in the FLSR, or Foreign Language Student Residence.  As a FLSR-ite, I live with five other roommates who all speak the target language when in the apartment.  The target language for our apartment is Arabic.  My roommate is a Catholic Palestinian from Jerusalem, and my other roommates are all enrolled in Arabic 201.  Having completed the study abroad experience, which includes all of the third year classes, I am the most advanced speaker in our house not counting the RF.  I am the most advanced LDS speaker in our house.

For church in the FLSR, all the apartments or language houses are all included in the same ward.  We have Sacrament Meeting, Priesthood, and Relief Society all in English, but for Sunday School we divide up by language.  As the most advanced LDS speaker in our house, my calling this year is Sunday School teacher for the Arabic Sunday School classes.

I decided, when I received this calling, to use the Gospel Principles manual instead of the Gospel Doctrine manual.  The Gospel Doctrine manuals have been translated into Arabic, but the language level of these classes is much more advanced than any of us in the class (including me).  Also, I feel that before we can learn and talk about the advanced gospel topics, we need to have a firm understanding of the basic gospel principles as described in the language and vocabulary of Arabic.  There are many gospel principles that do not translate readily from Arabic to English, due to the Muslim–Christian culture split.  Some of these concepts include “fall,” “atonement,” “savior,” “restoration,” “grace,” “inspiration,” “godhead,” etc.  All of these basic concepts are addressed in Gospel Principles before Gospel Doctrine, so I decided to focus on the Gospel Principles lessons first.  In turn, this has helped me to greatly expand my own Arabic church vocabulary.

Also, I decided to use church hymns as extensively in the class as I could.  I have a copy of the Amman Jordan branch hymnbook that my sister copied when she lived in Jordan in 2007.  I have made copies of various hymns and we sing one of these each period at the beginning of class.  Through song and music, we are also coming to appreciate Arabic and the Arabic translations of the hymns we know so well.

My role as Sunday School teacher is to teach the gospel, not teach the language.  However, I have on many occasions had to teach principles of Arabic in order for the class to understand what I’m talking about.  The times when this was most successful, and when the spirit was present in the classroom the strongest, was when I was able to express the same concept multiple times in different words and phrases.  The linguistic limitations of my students have forced me to think and rethink gospel principles, often on the spot, in order to express them more clearly in ways they can understand.  This has not only increased my appreciation of the gospel, it has helped me to deepen my language skills.

In short, teaching Arabic Sunday School has enriched my language learning experience through expanding my vocabulary, deepening my appreciation of Arabic song, and forcing me to learn how to express complex ideas in simpler, clearer words and phrases.

I know I haven’t been active on this blog very much recently, but I’d like to change that.  With that goal in mind, here is something Arabic language/culture related from the past semester.  The assignment was to participate in at least five extracurricular cultural activities and write a short report of each one.  This is the writeup for the first one.

MESA 201–1st Enrichment

For my first enrichment, I decided to learn how to prepare Hummous.  While studying in Jordan over the summer, I came to thoroughly enjoy the bean dish, both as a topping on a falafel / pita sandwich, or by itself, eaten with bread and pickles.  All of the hummous I’ve seen in stores in the US, however, is ridiculously expensive, so I decided that it would be much better to learn how to make it myself.

I used a variation of the recipe on Blackboard to make the hummous—I used less lemon juice, no garlic, and more olive oil.  I used some tahini from my Arab roommate and made it with my other roommate’s magic bullet.

I found that I didn’t care much for the tahini, and that if you use all the water from the cans, the hummous ends up being too watery.  However, the taste was fantastic—it took me right back to the Middle East and the study abroad this summer.  I was very surprised at how easy it was to make, and how cheap it was relative to buying it at the store.

The next time, I used less water, garlic, and some of the zatar that I brought home from Jordan.  I also used the Tahini, but about a tablespoon less.  The hummous ended up tasting even better than the last time.

The third time I made hummous was actually for the 64th ward dinner.  In the Foreign Language Student Residence, where I live, we all get together as a ward approximately once a month for a combined dinner.  Cooking duties are distributed to the various houses, with the ward dinner committee buying the food and preparing the recipes.  For this dinner, the Arabic house was given the responsibility of preparing the hummous, and since I had experience making it, I took charge.

We got for our five blenders together and made upwards of four or five gallons of the stuff.  It was a lot of fun!  We burned out just about every blender, and by the very end, the kitchen smelled like dying blender engines.  I’m still not sure if my roommate’s blender still works. =P

For this recipe, we used the bare minimum of ingredients: garbanzo beans, olive oil, garlic, and lemon juice.  We also completely drained the water from the cans.  Surprisingly, it ended up tasting very good.  Except for the chopped up bits of garbanzo that the blenders weren’t able to chop up well in the last round, the texture and consistency was remarkably similar to the authentic hummous from Jordan.

We had lots of leftovers, so I ate hummous for lunch for a week.  I found out that hummous goes bad rather quickly, so it’s best to prepare it in small amounts.  I also found that it goes very well with the fresh bread from Sugar & Spice in the cougareat.  It would go better with fresh pita bread, but since this isn’t readily available at BYU, the hot, fresh loaves are an acceptable substitute.

While I was over in Jordan this summer, I made some really amazing friendships. One of them was with a man named Lafi and his family (Lafi is on the left here with his brother Hamza). They were such amazing people–invited me over to their house many times, I got to meet their family, went to their cousin’s wedding, met their parents and brothers and sisters–it was really great.

The other day, I got a surprise email from him. Here is what it said:

مرحبا

 

كيفك يوسف ان شاء اللة بخير نحن سعداء جدا لمعرفتكم ونتمنى ان تكونوا بخير انت والعائلة الكريمة

 

كيف الصديقة جيني وكذلك الصديقة نيكي ونتمنى ان تكونوا قد امضيتم وقتاً سعيداً في الاردن

 

وسلام حار للجميع

This is what I wrote back in response:

مرحبا لافي! كيف حالك؟ كيف عائلتك ووالديك؟ كيف بنتك لينة وأبنك الصغير؟ إن شاء الله كلكم بخير والحياة في طبربور ممتازة في بيتكم الجميل

 

انا مبسوط كثير هنا في يوطا الحمد لله. أنا دائماً مشغول مع الدراسة والشغل ولكن ليس عندي أي مشكلة وأشاهد أخواتي عادةً وكلهن سعيدات في حياتهن ومع أزواجهن الحمد لله. أستمر دراسة اللغة العربية ولكن الدراسة ما زالت صعبة جدًا وليست فروص كبثيرة للممارسة مثل الأردن. من اللازم أن أرجع للشرق الأوسط مرة ثانية وإن شاء الله سوف أشاهدكم عندما أرجع هناك. أنا مشتاق إليكم أفكر فيكم جدًا هنا في يوطا والوقت الذي أمضيته معكم من أحلى ذكرياتي من الأردن وأشكركم لاستضافتكم الكريمة.

 

نيكي سعيدة كثيرة لأنها مخطوبة والزواج سيحصل بعد قليل أشهر قليلة. جيني سعدة أيضًا ونحن في نفص الحصة العربية وأشاهدها كل أسبوع. ستذهب لأوروبا في الشتاء ولكن لا أعرف خططها بالضبط. أما أنا فيمكنني سأذهب إلى اسكتلندا للشغل في الصيف أو الشرق الأوسط ولكن الزيارة الى الشرق الأوسط غالي ومن الممكن أنني أنتظر سنتين للرجاع ولكن ليس عند أي خطة بالضبط.

 

أنا أحبكم جدًا ومشتاق إليكم جدًا وإن شاء الله كلكم بخير وسوف أزوركم بعد قليل

 

مع السلامة!

Such awesome, amazing people. When I go back to Jordan again, I will definitely visit them and see how their family is doing.

Ok, so it’s October already, I’ve been back from the Jordan study abroad for nearly two months, and…I haven’t been updating this blog.  Yeah.

That’s going to change soon, inshallah.  Even though I’ve completed all the required classes for Arabic, I’m still studying and using the language.  I live in the Arabic house this year, at the Foreign Language Student Residence–basically, on-campus housing where all the apartments are devoted to living and speaking a foreign language.  My roommate is Basseem Hallec, he is awesome!  From Beit Henina, a really cool guy, we get along VERY well.  But I’ll write more about that in Arabic later

I’m also taking a 2 credit Arabic class, even though I technically don’t have to.  You know, keep up the language skills, don’t let the atrophy, etc.  There are only six or seven other people in the class, which is very different from 201 and 202, but it’s still fun.  If anything, we get more practice, which is nice.

So here’s what I want to do with this blog this year.  I’m going to alternate between English and Arabic, so that there’s something for everyone who comes to this site.  When I blog in English, I’ll write about my language learning experiences.  When I blog in Arabic, I’ll write about whatever strikes my fancy.  I can’t write as much in Arabic because I don’t own a computer with the Arabic keyboard installed anymore; I have to use the public computers up in the HLRC (and they’re all macs now!  Heresy!).  I’ll try, however, to alternate between English and Arabic, and to update this blog at least every week.

Inshallah.  We’ll see.

Hey!  Check out my new blog!

The Jordan 2008 study abroad has begun, and we’re in the middle of it!  I’ll still be writing to this blog (inshallah a lot more than I have been) but I’m definitely going to be writing in the other blog, daily if possible.

So, once again, check out my 2008 travel blog!

ناوسيقا فيلم قديم وقصة خيال العلمي من بلاد يابون حيث أصلت الموضوع “آنيماي.” منتج هذا الفيلم مييازاكي وهو منتج مشهور كثير طوال العالم في موضوع آنيماي بسبب أفلامه مثل “الأميرة مونونوكاي” و”حماسي بعيدًا.” أنا أحب كل أفلامه كثيرًا وفي رأي قصصه أعظم من كل قصص عصرية أخرة خيالاً وعطيفًا وشعورًا

تحادث قصة ناوسيقا في المستقبل البعيد, ألف عامًا بعد نهيار الحضارة الصناعية وأعظم حرب في كل تريخ العالم. تنمو غابة كثيرة في كل نحو الأرض وهذه الغابة خطيرة وسميمة كثيرًا, وفوق هذا كله فأن أي شخص ماشي فيها أو ساكن قريبها يموت بسورع بسبب السم. بقية البشر صغيرة كثير بسبب الغابة ولكن ما زال يعيش ناس عنيفون يحبون الحرب والشرير. الأميرة ناوسيقا لا تحب العنف وتريد أن تصنع السلام بين القطور وبين البشر والطبيعة. هل تستطيع أن تقاطع الكره وصنع الحب والسلام في العالم المكسور؟

Ok,  I haven’t written in this blog for a long time.  I haven’t even gotten together with my sister to change the header image on this blog–we had planned to put a picture from her trip to Jordan on the header.  Well, that’s going to change. Instead of trying to write long posts in Arabic (which usually take a long time), I’m going to write shorter posts, and write more of them.  I’m also going to write more in English, mostly about the study abroad trip, preparations for it, and experiences learning Arabic.

So, here are some new goals:

• Write a post in Arabic at least three times a week.
• Write in English at least once a week.

I can probably do the English a lot more often than I do the Arabic, but the purpose of this blog is really to help me practice my Arabic.  And I’ll talk with my sister about posting as well.

I thought I should follow up with the last post with a little bit in English, to clarify my thoughts…

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في هذا الصيف سأذهب إلى الأردن في برنامج زيارة خارجية للجامعة وكل أصدقائي في القسم العربي يذهبون معي!  إن شاء الله الصيف سيكون ممتاز جداً وسأتذكرها طول حياتي!  ومع ذلك فانا خائف قليلاً لأن ممكن سأتسلم صدمة كبيرة عندما أشاهد الفقور بين الثقافة الأمريكية والثقافة العربية!  انا وكل الطلاب يذهبون إلى الأردن في درس الثقافة العربية للاستداد لزيارتنا والمحاضرة اليوم خيفتني قليلاً لأن قال الأستاذ أن كلنا سنسيء معظم الناس في الأردن من قرب عشر مرات بسبب الاختلافات في عاداتنا وافكارنا ومعتقداتنا–وبالإضافة كلنا سنسيء الناس من غير تحققها!  وفوق هذا كله قال الأستاذ أن كل الشباب يقولون عن الجنس دائماً عندما ليست بنت قريبة منهم وسيقولون عن الجمس أكتر في حدرنا لأننا أمريكيون وسيظنون أن عندنا أكتر تجربات منهم!  طبعاً, انا أمريكي, ولكني مورموني أيضاً  وفي ديني هناك قوانين ومبادئ كثير بالنسبة العلاقات بين البنات والأولاد.  طبعاً–ممكن الحوارات عن هذا الموضع ستكون مضحك  ولكنني خائف قليلاً (لست كثيراً) بسبب الفروق الأخرى ومع كل ذلك انا متحمس كثير لزيارتنا

Wow! In less than two months, I’ll be going to Jordan to study abroad with the rest of the BYU Arabic program! Crazy! It’s exciting and a little bit scary. We’re all starting to get ready, and all of my classmates who are going are also getting very excited!

It’s been a while since I posted on this blog, but I thought I’d post this letter that I wrote for the study abroad program. Inshallah, we will be staying with Arab families instead of staying in a dorm or an apartment, and hopefully this will really help us to learn the language and the culture much better. My teacher asked me to write a letter to the family that will be putting me up, so here it is:

أھلاً وساھلاً! اسمي یوسف فاسیتشاك. أنا من ولایة ماساتشوساتس وأدرس في الجامعة بریجھام یونج منذ سنتین. أتخصص في العلوم السیاسیة ودراسات الشرق الأوسط. أدرس اللغة العربیة وأحب كثیراً الثقافة واللغة العربیة وعندي أصدقاء عرب من الأردن وفلسطین یدرسون في الجامعة معي ویعلموني كثیراً من العرادات والتقالید الموجودة في الشرق الأوسط. عندي ثلاث أخوات في عائلتي وأختي الأكبر زارت الأردن منذ سنة وسكنت في مدینة أربد. أھتم في الأدب والكتابة والخیال العلمي والتصویر ایضاً. أتمي أن أحصل على تجارب ثقافة كثیرة وأقابل كثیراً من أشخاص الجدد قي زیارتي إلى الأردن. أدرس العربیة لأني أعتقد أن العلاقات بین الغرب والعرب مھمة جداً والجھل في الدول الغربیة بشأن الشعب العربي مشكلة كبیرة. لا أفھم اللغة العربیة جیداً الأن ولكن أتمني أن أصبح أحسن خلال زیارتي. آنا سعید ومتحمس للذھاب إلى الأردن وأرید أن أشكركم بسبب اختیاركم لتستقبلوني في بیتكم. إن شاء الله الصیف سیكون ممتاز

یوسف فاسیتشاك