All Strangers Are Kin

Posted on 13 July 2017 by Zora O'Neill

The shadda is the key difference between a pigeon hamam and a bathroom hammam Be careful, our professor advised, in the first moment of outright humor in class, 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Arabic takes seven years to learn and a lifetime to master O Neill had put in her time Steeped in grammar tomes and outdated textbooks, she faced an increasing certainty that she was not only failing to master Arabic, but also driving herself crazy She took a decade long hiatus, but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 Join O Neill for a grand tour through the Middle East You will laugh with her in Egypt, delight in the stories she passes on from the United Arab Emirates, and find yourself transformed by her experiences in 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 that is thousands of miles away right to your door A natural storyteller with an eye for the deeply absurd and the deeply human, O Neill explores the indelible links between culture and communication A powerful testament to the dynamism of language, All Strangers Are Kin reminds us that learning another tongue leaves you rich with so much than words. Read All Strangers Are Kin – kino-fada.fr What happens when a middle aged woman from the US decides to try and master her limited Arabic by travelling around the Middle East to different countries, learning some of the ins and outs of each version of the language A bit of chaos, a bit of confusion, and an interesting history lesson thrown in In short, you have All Strangers Are Kin.This book was a bit of a toss up for me in regards to the actual reading The parts where the author emphasized so much of the language were slow and con What happens when a middle aged woman from the US decides to try and master her limited Arabic by travelling around the Middle East to different countries, learning some of the ins and outs of each version of the language A bit of chaos, a bit of confusion, and an interesting history lesson thrown in In short, you have All Strangers Are Kin.This book was a bit of a toss up for me in regards to the actual reading The parts where the author emphasized so much of the language were slow and confusing not a surprise, really, since the language is one of thecomplicated ones However, the parts w...A travel memoir set in four areas of the Arabic World Egypt, the Gulf, Lebanon, and Morocco All Strangers are Kin explores the complexities of the Arabic language and the challenges of learning it, from Standard Arabic to the spoken Arabic of the street As someone who has traveled to all the places mentioned and has studied Arabic for years, I found the book to be a terrific read for anyone with an interest in travel, linguistics, the Arabic language, and the vast variations within the Arabic A travel memoir set in four areas of the Arabic World Egypt, the Gulf, Lebanon, and Morocco All Strangers are Kin explores the complexities of the Arabic language and the challenges of learning it, from Standard Arabic to the spoken Arabic of the street As s...It is true that the only way to become fluent in a foreign language is to spend time amongst native speakers in their own land and that to truly understand and appreciate the people and culture of another country you need to be able to speak their language In this book, the author seeks to expand her Arabic studies through sojourns in Egypt, Lebanon, the Arabian Peninsula and Morocco and in the process also finds insight into the places she visits through the differences in way the language has It is true that the only way to become fluent in a foreign language is to spend time amongst native speakers in their own land and that to truly understand and appreciate the people and culture of another country...I have been wanting to read this book for a whille For one, i love Travel Memoirs and two, i have an interest in the Arabic language This covers Zora O Neill s travels to Egypt, United Arabic Emirates, Lebanon and Morocco.Zora starts in Egypt, where the dialect is very different from words that are used in other Arabic dialects Next she travels to the United Arabic Emirates, where they are very wealthy and like to make it known Maids attend to the homes and there is an awful lot of the sex t I have been wanting to read this boo...I thoroughly enjoyed reading this tour through Arabic dialects from Egypt to the Arabian Peninsula to Lebanon and finally ending in Morocco The author had undertaken a trip to these parts to learn colloquial Arabic, the languages spoken on the streets rather than the formal Arabic, Fusha For me it was listening to a story told about places I know of, some I d been to and now miss, and some I knew less of and had never been to but have had some little connections, stories inside my mind So it I thoroughly enjoyed reading this tour through Arabic dialects from Egypt to the Arabian Peninsula to Lebanon and finally ending in Morocco The author had undertaken a trip to these parts to learn colloquial Arabi...I expected Zora s grand tour through the Middle East would, for the most part, sweep the reader up with cultural experiences peppered with the odd reference to language and vocabulary But what a delight that the converse was true Zora does recount her experiences but her real skill lies in her ability to delve surprisingly deep into the nuances of the language Her frustration between the classical and popular languages had me equally disheartened until she abruptly turned the whole matter o I expected Zora s grand tour through the Middle Eas...The short I loved this book The long I can t believe how much I related to the author We both started studying Arabic in US universities around the same time very early 90s , rejected academic study of the language for 3ameyya colloquial, and we share a strong love for Cairo, warts and all There were several times I felt like I was reading stories I could have written or reading about folks I could have met She has had some great experiences and I liked her writing style very much I high The ...Loved this book O Neill expressed the same frustrations and challenges that I have gone through trying to learn Arabic, and yet interwoven are the warm people she dares herself to meet, as she travels alone throughout the Middle East Very brave, and very insightfulA freelance travel writer, Zora O Neill spent a year traveling in Arabic speaking countries immersing herself in the language she loves, hoping to become fluent She was surprised to find no single, official version of the spoken language exists each country has its own dialects I find this premise ridiculous I enjoyed the first third of this book, enjoyed the auth...The book got a bit lighter when the author gets to the Morocco chapter ,but until then I kept reading and thinking for what reader did she write this book It was not intend for the linguist , did it For the American public showing her ways of thinking and the differences in the places she has been to during 2012 I am glad all her travels ended well and safe.As the Middle East politics is a constant changing and some of the things she could do then would be quite daring and dangerous now The book got a bit lighter when the author gets to the Morocco chapter ,but until then I kept reading and thinking for what re...

English
13 July 2017

Zora O'Neill