Arabic (page 6)
Intermediate Arabic II: Watching a Movie
Angelina
Brief Background
From Japan to Egypt (Yabani Asli originally in Arabic) is an Egyptian comedy film which first aired in 2017. The film follows Moahram who falls in love with Sakura, a Japanese diplomat who leaves to go to Japan with their twin sons due to the bad living conditions they found themselves in. Moahram had refused to go, and fights for custody, gaining six months with his two kids, in Egypt. I found this film on Netflix after completing Lesson 3 of al-Kitaab, in an attempt to find something both in Arabic and with Arabic subtitles.
Although I would recommend this movie for Arabic-language learners for exposure to consistent variation in verb conjugations, I would not recommend it as a simple pastime.
The story occasionally jumps making it harder to keep track of the plot, so I would recommend rewatching certain scenes to gain a better understanding of the Arabic and what is going on.
Personal Report
I truly enjoyed this film, not so much for the context of the film per se but rather for the application of Arabic I used. In an effort to fully immerse myself in the language I watched this film entirely in Arabic with Arabic subtitles! Frankly, I thought I would be frequently lost, and while I did not understand every word, much to my surprise I figured out what was going on using key words I knew, body language, and the mise en scene. The first scene included an interview in which the protagonist recalled meeting his wife and her not speaking Arabic. He recalls his efforts to learn Japanese in trying to converse with her. From this first scene I deduced that the film was in Egyptian Arabic, as they pronounced “ج” as “g”, used “مش” to negate past tense actions, and constructed من الصعب أن and من اللازم أن, without “من”. This was something new we learned in class and while it was not applied as formally, it allowed me to understand much more from a given situation.
It was interesting to consistently hear actions presented in the “we (nahnu)” form as the kids would always speak together. When the twins spoke it was typically easier to understand as they spoke very clearly, and as scenes with them were usually slower I could deduce meanings of words better. For example, when they said نحل, I quickly understood they meant “we solve” as I know حل is a solution and it was conjugated in a nahnu verb form. The film provided me great exposure to new vocabulary words, filling in the context without understanding all the words and this nahnu form through more such as قبل أن ننام____نستمع (before we sleep…we listen). Here I understood they were asking for permission to listen to their bedtime music before they sleep, using their diction, his response, and so forth, as I typically do in class. As the movie progressed I got faster at putting concepts together as chunks, and as a strategy I grouped things by topics I understood, for example (in my head as follows):
- The solution to his wife having left with two kids
- Asking for their opinion (ma ra’yuki)
- Talked about the things he must sell
- In a fight they talk about what they know and what they speak the truth of
- Ma zaal– something continues to be
Some interesting things I picked up from the film included:
- In the airport they refer to the terminal number and gate number as baab __
- Different aghani (songs) playing in the car and in one of them she uses the command “say! To me” (which I learned last semester!)
- They refer to the two little kids occasionally with saghireen which I believed to be two small (ones)
- When the kid fixed the TV and one man turned to the protagonist yasalah! (afterwards they started a sweatshop unbeknown to their father, and indicative of their mischievous nature, but I doubt I will ever forget that verb now!)
- Twinkle twinkle in a different language with the same rhythm from the English baby shows (I am planning on going back to see if the lyrics actually align too)
I found it very difficult to understand when Moahram’s sister would speak as she did so very quickly, to emphasize her dramatic character, and seemingly slurred all of the vowels together, but it was helpful to an extent in forcing me to work faster to do so. During these times I noticed that I was focusing on the captions to be sure I was following along and picking out key words at a faster pace. (I noticed my brain somehow knew what it was looking for?!)
While watching the film, I understood that this way of speaking was supposed to add to the comedic aspect, however I found it stereotyped Arab mothers in a certain chaotic light, and I could not fathom someone always having such a “rush of pace” and unnecessary reactions. There was also a lot of yelling (particularly including her), which in a film’s perspective, took away from the overall plot of the film, especially when the scene immediately preceding had melancholy music. All of my conclusions are entirely derived from my understanding of the Arabic language, and while some may be wrong, I am confident in what I have gathered overall from the film and my application of Arabic.
Overall, I am very happy to see the wide overlap and connections between watching this film and the class material, including the very own strategies I have learned to use.
Bibliography
https://madmovieman.com/2595-from-japan-to-egypt-2017