As I was finishing my Masters at U of T this Spring, and preparing to move to Cairo, I declared 2009-2010 as my "working holiday," meaning that I would work and get paid, but relax a bit more, do some traveling, read for fun and rest. I loved my studies at U of T, but it was tiring.
Of course I'm completely incompetent at saying no, and at knowing my limits, so I am now signed up for 2 nights of Arabic lessons a week. (On top of my other work and committee involvement).
Some of you know that I bought a self-teaching program before I left. I'm the worst self-teacher I know. (The ironies of this are great, I understand, since I am a TEACHER). But, I learn better when I have accountability and when someone is explaining stuff to me.
Arabic is no longer an interest, it is a necessity. Consider the following situation:
Electricity man arrives at the door to collect for October. He collected last month for August and September, and I paid him. Tonight he said in very broken English "you pay 3 months." I say the one Arabic word I know off by heart "La'a" [NO]. He pulls out electricity bills from June and July, and insists that I pay them. We're both pantomiming a ton at this point. Waving your hands and shaking your head is universal. I say "I no live here June July. I no pay." (Honestly, people understand pidgeon versions of their foreign language better, it's been proven.) The landlord was eventually called, and he eventually agreed to pay for June and July. I'm embarrassed to admit that we probably quibbled over about $10, but it was the principle of the matter!
Anyways, I wish I could have been a better guest to his country by at least greeting him and knowing my numbers in Arabic. Hopefully 4 hrs a week of small group tutoring will help some.
Someone suggested I post a question here, to get you to respond. So here it is:
If you were learning Arabic as a foreign language, what would your first priority be? What words and phrases would you want to learn???
Yallabina! Let's go!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
It has come down to this...
This morning walking to church I enjoyed a refreshing breeze and a long sleeved shirt after a heat wave moved through Cairo at the beginning of the week. We're enjoying seasonal norms of 25 C, as opposed to 40 C last Saturday and Sunday. Sometimes it hit me, as it did this morning, "I live in Egypt." That's a loaded statement now.
Courtney and I had some friends over for dinner the other night, and this was the result of full stomachs and the company of good friends.
In case you can't read the title, it is the "School Closure Potluck Pool." Rumours and speculation are so strong in Egypt about once again closing the International schools that we have started a pool for the date and the method by which we will find out. We have a break at the end of November, and the idea is that we'll be closed after that, until after Christmas. C'mon November 22!
Last weekend our Church hosted a Dinner Charity Auction for 450 people. It was amazing the amount of people who bought tickets and came to support various Egyptian Charities. The Church itself only has about 100 people, so I'm not sure where everyone came from. The evening was complete with a cash bar and black jack tables. I love being Anglican!
We had a table of "young adults" (starting to take issue with that phrase - as one person at the table put it "I'm not all that young any more, and I'm not sure I'm an adult"...). We talked a lot about why people come to Egypt and what we were all doing there. There seems to be three main reasons. 1) specifically for interest in their job. 2) Interest in the Middle East and Egypt.
3) Interest in living somewhere other than your own country.
I had to admit that I was in the third category. I was put to shame by some of the others, who have studied Arabic and Middle Eastern studies in University, and who really want to be specifically in Egypt. Don't get me wrong, I love it here, and it's a fascinating place. It's just that before January 28, 2009, I had not really thought much about Egypt as a living, current place. It was just boring history to me.
Now that I'm here, my interests still lie more in the way people live currently than they did in history. I wonder much more often about the people around me - how they live now, and how they interact with one another. It also frustrates me that I have few opportunities to interact with Egyptians, and many language and cultural barriers prevent this from happening. I will have to keep looking for ways to make that happen that are appropriate and safe.
I try to get out on Saturdays to explore somewhere new; last weekend I was in Old Cairo, tomorrow I hope to join some people from work on a tour of Zamalek, a small island region in Cairo with lots of little shops and galleries. The above picture is the inside of the first Mosque built in Cairo; it was built large enough to hold the Muslim army (3500 men) for prayer.
Courtney and I had some friends over for dinner the other night, and this was the result of full stomachs and the company of good friends.
In case you can't read the title, it is the "School Closure Potluck Pool." Rumours and speculation are so strong in Egypt about once again closing the International schools that we have started a pool for the date and the method by which we will find out. We have a break at the end of November, and the idea is that we'll be closed after that, until after Christmas. C'mon November 22!
Last weekend our Church hosted a Dinner Charity Auction for 450 people. It was amazing the amount of people who bought tickets and came to support various Egyptian Charities. The Church itself only has about 100 people, so I'm not sure where everyone came from. The evening was complete with a cash bar and black jack tables. I love being Anglican!
We had a table of "young adults" (starting to take issue with that phrase - as one person at the table put it "I'm not all that young any more, and I'm not sure I'm an adult"...). We talked a lot about why people come to Egypt and what we were all doing there. There seems to be three main reasons. 1) specifically for interest in their job. 2) Interest in the Middle East and Egypt.
3) Interest in living somewhere other than your own country.
I had to admit that I was in the third category. I was put to shame by some of the others, who have studied Arabic and Middle Eastern studies in University, and who really want to be specifically in Egypt. Don't get me wrong, I love it here, and it's a fascinating place. It's just that before January 28, 2009, I had not really thought much about Egypt as a living, current place. It was just boring history to me.
Now that I'm here, my interests still lie more in the way people live currently than they did in history. I wonder much more often about the people around me - how they live now, and how they interact with one another. It also frustrates me that I have few opportunities to interact with Egyptians, and many language and cultural barriers prevent this from happening. I will have to keep looking for ways to make that happen that are appropriate and safe.
I try to get out on Saturdays to explore somewhere new; last weekend I was in Old Cairo, tomorrow I hope to join some people from work on a tour of Zamalek, a small island region in Cairo with lots of little shops and galleries. The above picture is the inside of the first Mosque built in Cairo; it was built large enough to hold the Muslim army (3500 men) for prayer.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Routine, glorious routine
[it says at the top of this blog: "pictures, lots of pictures." when/if I get the internet to cooperate for more than a few minutes at a time I will keep my promise. No one loves pictures more than I do, I promise.]
We finally had a week of school here in Cairo, and it felt so good to be back in the classroom, doing something that fortunately I still enjoy, even after 3 months off!
Routine feels good, and I am at the mercy of a strict teacher bus schedule. No more rolling out of bed 10 minutes before work and sprinting to beat Mr. Buwalda to the front doors of Durham. Bus leaves at 7am, and returns around 5pm. It makes for a longer day, but so far I've managed to leave my work at school. Most days after school there is time to play ball hockey or ultimate with other teachers or run or swim before heading home. I'm enjoying this kind of schedule a lot.
I am now teaching middle school, all of my work until this point in my career has been in high school. It's been a steep learning curve, to say the least. Some of the finer points of management seem silly to me, like the detailed, step-by-step directions I need to give more often; but I'm also loving that I can get away with being so much more juvenile. We spent 10 minutes on Friday guessing how many fingers I was holding up, after learning 0-10. They never got sick of it!
The students are mostly Arabic, but they speak English quite well. I am supposed to enforce a “no Arabic rule” in my classroom, and after 2 years of language and identity discussions at university of Toronto I am having some ideological issues with this rule. When I realized, however, that the students were talking about me and each other behind my back, I became a big fan of the no Arabic rule.
Here are some of the finer conversations of the week.
[after at least 15 students ask if they can write with blue/black pen]. “Raise your hand if you think Mlle Marcus cares whether you write in blue or black ink.”
Student: “Mees, you can call me Aziz, it's easier to say that Abdel.”
Mees: “Is that your name?”
Student: “No, but it's easier to say.”
[you should know, Aziz is my favourite now... there's something in his little eyes...]
Student: Mees, I need to change classes, I'm the only girl.
Mees: Don't be silly, you're not changing classes. Besides, I'm a girl too.
Student: No, you're a teacher.
and my personal favourite ...
Student: “Mees, are you having a baby?”
Mees: “Do I look pregnant? WAIT, don't answer that.”
Friday and Saturday is my weekend now, which is still a bit weird. Going to church on Friday morning is a nice way to start the weekend - I feel like I should be winding down and getting ready to go back tomorrow, but instead I have another day! Bring on week 2!
We finally had a week of school here in Cairo, and it felt so good to be back in the classroom, doing something that fortunately I still enjoy, even after 3 months off!
Routine feels good, and I am at the mercy of a strict teacher bus schedule. No more rolling out of bed 10 minutes before work and sprinting to beat Mr. Buwalda to the front doors of Durham. Bus leaves at 7am, and returns around 5pm. It makes for a longer day, but so far I've managed to leave my work at school. Most days after school there is time to play ball hockey or ultimate with other teachers or run or swim before heading home. I'm enjoying this kind of schedule a lot.
I am now teaching middle school, all of my work until this point in my career has been in high school. It's been a steep learning curve, to say the least. Some of the finer points of management seem silly to me, like the detailed, step-by-step directions I need to give more often; but I'm also loving that I can get away with being so much more juvenile. We spent 10 minutes on Friday guessing how many fingers I was holding up, after learning 0-10. They never got sick of it!
The students are mostly Arabic, but they speak English quite well. I am supposed to enforce a “no Arabic rule” in my classroom, and after 2 years of language and identity discussions at university of Toronto I am having some ideological issues with this rule. When I realized, however, that the students were talking about me and each other behind my back, I became a big fan of the no Arabic rule.
Here are some of the finer conversations of the week.
[after at least 15 students ask if they can write with blue/black pen]. “Raise your hand if you think Mlle Marcus cares whether you write in blue or black ink.”
Student: “Mees, you can call me Aziz, it's easier to say that Abdel.”
Mees: “Is that your name?”
Student: “No, but it's easier to say.”
[you should know, Aziz is my favourite now... there's something in his little eyes...]
Student: Mees, I need to change classes, I'm the only girl.
Mees: Don't be silly, you're not changing classes. Besides, I'm a girl too.
Student: No, you're a teacher.
and my personal favourite ...
Student: “Mees, are you having a baby?”
Mees: “Do I look pregnant? WAIT, don't answer that.”
Friday and Saturday is my weekend now, which is still a bit weird. Going to church on Friday morning is a nice way to start the weekend - I feel like I should be winding down and getting ready to go back tomorrow, but instead I have another day! Bring on week 2!
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