language learning

More Arabic logos

August 19, 2009

Time for another Arabic logo contest. Can you tell what these brand names are based on the Arabic script? One of my favorite things about Arabic script is how you can adapt it to so many fonts, making brand names fairly recognizable. It’s a fun way for us to practice reading Arabic.

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Camel souq

May 25, 2009

In the midst of packing and cleaning I took a trip to the camel souq (market) with the girls and a friend of mine. We were looking for camel gear and perhaps some up close encounters with camels– we weren’t disappointed!These guys promised that they gave me a good deal, which I would agree with. [...]

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The American Accent

May 19, 2009

I’ve been told by other Americans that I don’t have an accent that identifies me as being from a specific region in our big country. This makes some sense because I was born in New England, lived in Southern California and Northern Virginia during my childhood, and spent time in North Texas. Sure enough, out [...]

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How to Miscommunicate in Your Own Language

May 18, 2009

Background: I scratched the plastic above my rear tire trying to exit an abnormally tiny driveway resembling a Hobbit’s hole in an underground parking garage. In order to have said scratch painted over at a mechanic’s I need a police report. Here is a chronology of what I did to try and file said report: [...]

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Simpson’s in Arabia

April 20, 2009

Freej (means neighborhood) is a cartoon made here in Dubai. The show was created by an Emirati who went to college in Boston, funny enough. Freej is this country’s first animated series. We like to call it “the Arabic Simpson’s.” When we were in language school someone mentioned to us that it would be a [...]

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I drink Bebzi & my baby wears Bamberz

April 18, 2009

I’m fascinated with the way they sound out brand names using Arabic phonetics. Arabic has no ‘p’ so they use ‘b’ instead; sometimes they’ll make the ‘s’ sound voiced, giving you a ‘z.’ The classic examples I like to talk about are Pepsi and Pampers. It’s also fun to see familiar brands written in Arabic [...]

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"Nourah Kleer Foormahn?"

February 17, 2009

- the typist trying to pronounce Norah’s name based on Arabic phonetics and doing a pretty good job at it We spent the day in the car running around town and managing the bureaucracy of getting a birth certificate for Norah. We had to go to four different offices to get this fancy piece of [...]

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