I am from London England. However, my parents were originally from bangladesh (far east). I absolutely love Moroccans and their culture and I’ve already been to Morocco 4 times now! Believe it or not, my favourite city is Casablanca also known as ’ d-dar el-beida’. My ‘kunya’ - boo Rayyan means “Father of Rayyan”.
I am new a member but I am not new to the forum. I have been visiting it on and off, for quite a while now. I have found this forum to be the best forum out there (in English for learning the moroccan darija). Like many of the people here, my goal is to learn and master the dialect as much as I can. I am currently studying ‘A Basic course in Moroccan Arabic’ by Richard S. Harrel. I am in Chapter 76 now (finally!) and I am trying to figure out some of the grammer from ‘a short reference grammar of Moroccan Arabic’ - by the same author.
But despite all the learning, I still find it difficult to follow normal Moroccan conversations or what’s being said in moroccan TV shows - they just speak too darn FAST!!! I can’t find any good audio resources in English out there for helping to develop listening and comprehension. So far, the only book that I’ve found, on this forum - in Dutch(!), is ‘Marokkaans Arabisch - een cursus voor zelfstudie en klassikaal gebruik’ by Jan Hoogland. I’ve ordered a copy from a European bookstore and I’ve been told I should get it in a months time. Oh by the way, I don’t speak any Dutch but hopefully I’ll figure out how to translate it on the web somewhere.
So, that’s basically pretty much everything about me (sorry about the long intro lol). I am here to learn and learn… and learn some more!
mr7ba bik Boo_Rayyan, good luck with the darija learning and i might add, since you’re having auditory issues, why don’t you watch youtube videos in darija? there are some interviews, random videos in darija that will help you with verbal enhancement… if you will… + no shipping required
That’s my technique anyway… i can provide you with some links if you want.
salam
Shukran lalla Aicha. Yes that’s where the problem is, I’ve tried listening to some of the videos on youtube but I can only catch a few words here and there, not much to make sense out of. However, there are some audios, most of which I’ve found here, which I can understand (a bit) - most of them were from that Dutch book I mentioned above. But I am looking for more, which is why I am here. I’d be very very very happy if You could help me out. Please send me those links asap! And yes, via email please lol.
Any help would be much much appreciated. Shukran bezzaf!
mr7aba boo rayyan! good luck…i think it’s hard to do anything to simulate 1 on 1 conversation…maybe you can find some resources or moroccans in london-- youre lucky to live in such a big and cosmopolitan city!
Shukran ‘Acminfar9’ and Hiba. Yes, there are lots of moroccans here but I don’t know any personally. Maybe I need to find out where my local Moroccan communioty is and contact them. Also, It’s hard to find any centres which offer Moroccan darija courses. There are lots of centres offering courses for fusha arabic, Egyptian etc… but nothing for Moroccan Arabic, I guess there just isn’t the demand for it. The ones that do offer it, are usually private teaching institions that charge a hefty price. One was offering to give me one to one tuition if I paid £1000 (!) for only 60 hours or so of lessons.
I do have one resource though… I am actually married to a beautiful Moroccan girl from Casablanca lol. I know I didn’t mention that before, I just didn’t see the need to. I am trying to bring Her over to the UK and we are watiing for immigration to get back to us. But meanwhile, We talk regularly over the phone, in fact konna kanetkellmu fe-t-tilifun hadi ghir 9sem lol. She nearly always speaks English to me, albeit broken- She is learning English over there, and I speak back to Her in Darija.
I am just on a mission to learn as much moroccan Arabic as possible in oder to communicate with the in laws. I am indeed learning a lot, I’ve picked up a lot of vocabulary and Moroccan verbs, adjectives etc. I am now in Chapter 95 of Richard S. Harrel’s book, so I am not doing too bad. It’s just I am still lacking on the listening side of things, which is why I need to listen to good audio from somewhere. So far I’ve found these ones on this website:
Salam boo Rayyan, i’m so so so sorry, i totally forgot about this thread, i will email you the links asap, and just for the greater benefit, i’ll also post them here so others can get around some darija conversations aswell
Here’s the copy of the email:
I don’t have so many links, but here are a few that i’ve benefited from personally, You might like to pick and chose, u probably won’t find them all necessarily useful, but here you go anyway:
Another one by Ahmed Soultan, called “Hayatna”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqjvMHw5Fa4 (the graphics might not be likable to many, so minimize the screen if you like, while listening)
The reason i posted the last two songs, was because they help in pronunciation and realization of many darija words… if you don’t feel the need to listen to songs as a means of grasping darija, then turn to interviews, and there are many on youtube… just punch them into the search bar.
Thanks ever so much Aicha. That was very helpful. I love Rachid and Hicham, huma msettyin lol. I’ll be looking for more on Youtube in sha Allah. I found You get more videos in Moroccan, if You type in the french ‘marocaine’. After all, the second language in Morocco is French. I’ve found lots of videos that way, even clips of Moroccan Movies! I found this particular one really interesting:
Nice to have u among us…and good to hear that someone is really interested in morocco…well its not that easy so good luck with all the learning and if u have any questions we are here to help you!
Thank You for Your kind words. Yes, I need to be interested in Moroccan arabic, since I am considering moving to Morocco sometime in the not so distant future. I feel much more at home over there than here and for some reason the moroccans think I am one of them (so I have no problems blending with the moroccan crowd :D).
But before I consider making the big move, I still have a LOT to learn about the language and customs etc! Any help will be much much appreciated, especially from someone of a moroccan background like Yourself (I am assuming You’re Moroccan)
