Tuesday, March 17, 2009

.: First lesson :.


In Arabic class.

Sis:: You know, if you had given the class your other names, chances are the others would use it more often in the answers as compared to mine.
Me:: I’m no attention seeker. :P
Sis:: Right. Well, it’s too late for that. The teacher keeps calling you. :P

I presume in Malaysia, Hajar is not a common name as compared to Khadijah. Subsequent classes later, let's see whether I make the cut as the teacher's pet. *coughs*

At home.

Sis:: Dad, the teacher picked on lil sister. He kept calling her name, and she blurs out.
Dad:: :)

Because the teacher had called me to answer a question, I assumed he’d pick someone else. Apparently not. He constantly picked on me. I wasn’t looking at him, I wasn’t having one of my inquisitive looks neither was I not paying attention nor sleeping in class. *sleeping, a tempting act indeed*

1st Task - Introduce the names of our classmates in Arabic. In all, 15 people including the teacher.

Teacher:: Hajar, you!
Me:: starts sputtering in Arabic.
Teacher:: Mumtaz! :)
Sis:: You remembered everyone’s names? *gasping look splashed allover*

2nd Task - Identifying words that sound similar to Malay. Total, 3300 Arabic loan words are present in the Malay language. *as alleged by my teacher. I shall not be held responsible if the facts are far from the truth*

Teacher:: Yes Hajar? Did you find something?
Me:: Yeah. Insan?
Teacher:: Yaban?
Me:: Insan?
Teacher:: Yaban?
Me:: Insan?
Teacher:: Yaban?
Me:: Aih~ Ya ya, yaban. *whatever that means* Have it your way.
Teacher:: Barakallah feek! Haha~ Mumtaz! starts speaking Arabic, laughing like it’s the biggest joke he ever heard. I still don’t get it.

The number of times he said mumtaz each time I answer his questions. The word has practically embedded itself in my head. Anyone can tell me what it means? I'm too lazy to google it up or go through my books. The spelling is based on my acute sense of hearing, as like all the other Arabic words he used so I may get it wrong. *you have been warned* In case anyone is wondering, my teacher is Egyptian.

Considering this is my first time being in a class with my sis, after catching a glimpse of my notes, answers, behavior, observation etc. she has only one thing to say about me …

My little sister, the ultimate geek.
9.46am Malaysian Time

5 comments:

Hajar Zamzam Ismail said...

It sounds like fun... :P

Aisyah Mazelan said...

LOL. The 2nd task is so funny. I studied Arab in standard one until standard six. But it's not on grammar. Instead, it's on how to communicate. I usually understand Arab but I can't speak Arab.

BTW, mumtaz means good. Teachers usually write mumtaz in our books if me and my classmates did a great job on homeworks.:)

Hajar Alwi said...

Hajar Zamzam Ismail:: LoL~ It is! :P

Ash Mazelan:: Wait, are you referring to the syllables in sekolah agama? If yes, I went till standard 3. The teacher actually drew stars instead of writing mumtaz, thus explains my ignorance. Thanks for the explanation! ^^

By chance, d'u know what yaban means? I can only remember laban, but that's totally way off. *I seem to have no probs in remembering Arabic foodstuff* :P

Ms.Unique said...

Looool ... dats so funny ... why ddn't he pick others too? Guess U knew more than others ...

Anyways "Mumtaz" means "excellent", "good" means "jayyid" and "v.good" means "jayyid-jiddan" .... "Yaban" means "Japan" .... :)

Hajar Alwi said...

No idea sis. In our 2nd class, he wasn't as attentive. :) Thanks for the clarifications esp. on 'jayyid'. He used lots of that. ^^ Japan eh? But Japan in Malay is Jepun! Aih~ I'll let him know in the next class. :)