Blogarismos 2
A young man sends me his picture standing next to a religious clerk. They are both smiling at each other. He is from Iraq and reads my Arabic blog on occasion. Why did he send me his picture with a religious clerk whom I don’t recognize? Is it because he thinks that he looks good in it? Is it because he is trying to tell me that he is a good religious man? Is the religious clerk somebody important that I should recognize and therefore he is implying that he has important connections to important people? I don’t know the answer to any of these questions, but it is just one of the surprises and mysteries of blogging in Arabic and there have been many.
It all started with me wondering why was it that there were thousands of Persian blogs and no blogs in the Arabic language. I started searching of blogs in the Arabic language and was able to discover only a handful. Why is it that Iranians are proud of there language and we are not? Why are we putting so much energy into having a dialogue with the west and no energy into having a dialogue amongst ourselves? Why? Why? Why? ….. instead of cursing at the dark reality I decided to attempt to light a small candle in the dark. I decided I would blog in Arabic ….. but first I had to train myself to type on my English computer keyboard with letters mapped to Arabic alphabet. It would take me 30 minutes to string two sentences together since I had to look up each character from a chart I had. (Alef correspond to h, Lam corresponds to g …. etc on my keyboard). I couldn’t blog like that and so instead I decided I would start by writing all emails to arab speaking friends in Arabic. Yes I am ashamed to say that I used to write all emails in English even to my own husband. After about a month I was able to type Arabic faster, about a paragraph in 30 minutes ….. “good enough for blogging”, I thought for myself. And that is when the next obstacle hit me. Everything I wrote was weak and poorly written. Soooo! this is what happens when you neglect a language for 15 years, you start loosing it. I suddenly realized that I haven’t written anything in Arabic for that long and it was showing in my writing style. My sentences were all short and abbreviated they way you would write in English only Arabic is supposed be a flowery, poetic and expressive language and my version of it was a brain sore. My own husband told me that he enjoys reading my English blog and can’t stand reading my Arabic blog because it is unreadable. He told me that most people that are reading my English blog would be shocked if they read my Arabic blog because of the difference in standards. He advised me to stop writing in Arabic to save my own face.
Luckily most people that read “Don’t shoot! …… I have another story to tell you.” don’t know Arabic and so the embarrassment was minimized. Despite the huge kick in the gut I decided to continue writing in Arabic; but this time I thought I would do less writing and substitute it with the equivalent of lots of hand waving in blog world and that is …… pictures. To compensate for my poor language, I would post pictures of my daily life and fun stuff that I do and that way I would only have to write just a little bit. Plus, if I talk about my children I could use child language which is suitable for my writing abilities. Wallah! … it worked and people started coming to my Arabic blog. My husband still refuses to read my Arabic blog because he still thinks it is crap but other people are reading it. He will come around eventually I think.
And then suddenly! …. as if by magic all sorts of Arabic blogs started to spring from all over the place. Egypt, Kuwait, Bahrain, Morocco. All sorts of blogs. Poetry blogs ….. tons and tons of blogs where the authors publishes his or her own poetry …. most of it is crap poetry but who knew that young arabs are so poetic …. I am talking love poetry that would put Maxican soap opera’s to shame. Religious blogs, fanatically anti religious blogs, technology blogs, random rambling blogs. Some with impressive and unique designs and others with run of the mill templates. Some with fiery political commentary and others with same old b.s. At first I used to try to read them all everyday but over time it became impossible. I tried to put links to many on my blog but the list of blogs that I read got longer and longer and I couldn’t keep up. Finally I stole an idea from Iraq Blog Count and started Arab Blog Count with a group of friend bloggers. So far we have accumulated over 200 blogs in Arabic and the list is growing every day.
Arabic blogs have been mentioned in a few Arabic news papers and even one Israeli newspaper. They have been a great source news of local events since most Arabic media is censored and is crap anyway, I frequently get more informed by reading blogs from a certain country that reading the online newspaper coverage. But most surprising of all has been the community feeling. Because the Arabic blogophere is still fairly small there is a sense of comradely between the bloggers. Although some of us strongly disagree with each other for the most part the discussion is civil and polite. I don’t get the “You are a whore and you deserve to go to hell” comments like I do on this blogs. Isn’t it funny that arab commentators would be more civilized than some American commentators? Considering the fact that Americans live in a democracy and enjoy freedom of speech from birth yet arabs living in the middle east have to endure horrid dictatorships and have no such access to a diversity of views you would expect that the situation would be the other way around? …. wouldn’t you? …… but life is full of surprises.
I can sense my writing skills in Arabic improving over time …. slowly but surly and I feel totally excited by the whole experiemce.
It all started with me wondering why was it that there were thousands of Persian blogs and no blogs in the Arabic language. I started searching of blogs in the Arabic language and was able to discover only a handful. Why is it that Iranians are proud of there language and we are not? Why are we putting so much energy into having a dialogue with the west and no energy into having a dialogue amongst ourselves? Why? Why? Why? ….. instead of cursing at the dark reality I decided to attempt to light a small candle in the dark. I decided I would blog in Arabic ….. but first I had to train myself to type on my English computer keyboard with letters mapped to Arabic alphabet. It would take me 30 minutes to string two sentences together since I had to look up each character from a chart I had. (Alef correspond to h, Lam corresponds to g …. etc on my keyboard). I couldn’t blog like that and so instead I decided I would start by writing all emails to arab speaking friends in Arabic. Yes I am ashamed to say that I used to write all emails in English even to my own husband. After about a month I was able to type Arabic faster, about a paragraph in 30 minutes ….. “good enough for blogging”, I thought for myself. And that is when the next obstacle hit me. Everything I wrote was weak and poorly written. Soooo! this is what happens when you neglect a language for 15 years, you start loosing it. I suddenly realized that I haven’t written anything in Arabic for that long and it was showing in my writing style. My sentences were all short and abbreviated they way you would write in English only Arabic is supposed be a flowery, poetic and expressive language and my version of it was a brain sore. My own husband told me that he enjoys reading my English blog and can’t stand reading my Arabic blog because it is unreadable. He told me that most people that are reading my English blog would be shocked if they read my Arabic blog because of the difference in standards. He advised me to stop writing in Arabic to save my own face.
Luckily most people that read “Don’t shoot! …… I have another story to tell you.” don’t know Arabic and so the embarrassment was minimized. Despite the huge kick in the gut I decided to continue writing in Arabic; but this time I thought I would do less writing and substitute it with the equivalent of lots of hand waving in blog world and that is …… pictures. To compensate for my poor language, I would post pictures of my daily life and fun stuff that I do and that way I would only have to write just a little bit. Plus, if I talk about my children I could use child language which is suitable for my writing abilities. Wallah! … it worked and people started coming to my Arabic blog. My husband still refuses to read my Arabic blog because he still thinks it is crap but other people are reading it. He will come around eventually I think.
And then suddenly! …. as if by magic all sorts of Arabic blogs started to spring from all over the place. Egypt, Kuwait, Bahrain, Morocco. All sorts of blogs. Poetry blogs ….. tons and tons of blogs where the authors publishes his or her own poetry …. most of it is crap poetry but who knew that young arabs are so poetic …. I am talking love poetry that would put Maxican soap opera’s to shame. Religious blogs, fanatically anti religious blogs, technology blogs, random rambling blogs. Some with impressive and unique designs and others with run of the mill templates. Some with fiery political commentary and others with same old b.s. At first I used to try to read them all everyday but over time it became impossible. I tried to put links to many on my blog but the list of blogs that I read got longer and longer and I couldn’t keep up. Finally I stole an idea from Iraq Blog Count and started Arab Blog Count with a group of friend bloggers. So far we have accumulated over 200 blogs in Arabic and the list is growing every day.
Arabic blogs have been mentioned in a few Arabic news papers and even one Israeli newspaper. They have been a great source news of local events since most Arabic media is censored and is crap anyway, I frequently get more informed by reading blogs from a certain country that reading the online newspaper coverage. But most surprising of all has been the community feeling. Because the Arabic blogophere is still fairly small there is a sense of comradely between the bloggers. Although some of us strongly disagree with each other for the most part the discussion is civil and polite. I don’t get the “You are a whore and you deserve to go to hell” comments like I do on this blogs. Isn’t it funny that arab commentators would be more civilized than some American commentators? Considering the fact that Americans live in a democracy and enjoy freedom of speech from birth yet arabs living in the middle east have to endure horrid dictatorships and have no such access to a diversity of views you would expect that the situation would be the other way around? …. wouldn’t you? …… but life is full of surprises.
I can sense my writing skills in Arabic improving over time …. slowly but surly and I feel totally excited by the whole experiemce.
There is a way between voice and presence where information flows.
In disciplined silence it opens.
With wandering talk it closes. .... Rumi
3:47 AMGo Ihath :-)
Your Arabic blog is as good as your English, to me.
I am an admirer of Persians too, for many things, including their blogoshpere.
Some people think that's its their duty to explain 'us' to the west, and defend them to us, in English, and they demand money for it too!
Despite of them being born to Arab parents, living among us, they already think and talk like Americans, so they don't make good ambassadors.
4:40 AM
Perhaps they were smiling because they had just read your Arabic blog. :)
Not only Arabs suffer from this. It may be, in part, that English is the language of the internet, just as written language differs from spoken language. You have to know some English in order to be able to use a computer, and it seems natural to conduct online conversations in the language of the medium.
Much has been made of the small literary output of the Arabic world... a proliferation of Arabic-language blogs could be a sign of better times ahead.
Good luck on Saturday, Ihath.
9:09 AM
As you know, Ihath, I visit your Arabic blog for the pictures, and I only comment there when I am inebriated. I am more than a little jealous of your ability to speak, read and write Arabic, not because any of my views about my country or society has changed, but because my views about Arab society have changed. It never dawned on me that it could be so diverse, so many different cultures, beliefs and prejudices, and smart people, loads of really smart, thoughtful people and far better read than I. I would really love to be able to read Arabic so that I could obtain additional exposure to those personalities and ideas. I suspect, though, and notwithstanding your personal experience, that if I could read Arabic, I might find one or two empty headed, hate filled, uncivilized commentators whose sole purpose was to disrupt the communication of others. Just a suspicion.
To ??? above: I happen to thoroughly enjoy Sam's thoughts and reflections, not because he is spouting what I want to hear (Ihath doesn't do that either), but because he says what is on his mind, and reading all of his posts, I like him. He is bright, prolific, provocative and very funny. That's my opinion, for what its worth. I also enjoy the comments of those who disagree with him and the various discussions that they engage in on the other blogs. Some of those others, I think, have impeccable credentials for not “thinking and talking like Americans.” Makes for interesting reading. But there is something else that you should know. One of my favorite bloggers, perhaps one of yours, solicited a donation from me the very first time when I emailed her, before she allowed comments. She’s even got a Support link in her side bar. LOL I’ll never click it though, until she starts talkin ‘Merican. (Like Sam's "demand", this is an attempt at humor too.)
9:19 AM
Alef, thank you for the sweet compilemt. I am very happy to hear that somebody enjoys reading the arabic blog.
AngloGermanicAmerican,
Here is the million dollar question ..... so did you or did you not? ..... make a donation to Sam whose blog you enjoy so much.
10:50 AM
im still waiting for 1 arab to try to explain their ways to the west without using explosives or vulgar comments. by the way, i never heard of a "maxican" soap opera before. while you are working so hard on your arabic skills, perhaps you should concentrate more on your english too, as it is written with the skill of a 9 year old.
2:01 PM
This may not be too germane to the discussion about Arabic blogs (sadly I have little room to comment as I do not know Arabic, though I should get off my butt and learn it, along with a wide variety of subjects), but I wish you luck tonight on your flamenco, and hopefully some pictures or such :)
While not knowing Arabic (I still need to learn Latin, which I have been incredibly lazy about), I have found the language to contain an artistic beauty, which would seem sensible when Islam restricts certain forms of art (three-dimmensional paintings if i am correct), the alpahabet's beauty makes up for it. Of course the art of calligraphy is Arabic in origin, which would explain the care in the Arabic written on discs in a mosque (I remember that in Istanbul's blue mosque) in lieu of paintings.
7:00 AM
What a fab idea!!! Your Arabic blog sounds like one I could actually read (being woefully unskilled in the fluency part of Arabic I think the flowery ones would be just WAYYYYYY too OTT for me.). Please don't take that as an insult though (eeek).
4:32 PM
Hmmm. Million dollar question? Should the left hand know what the right hand does? I think not, but to answer the question you asked re Sam, the answer is "no". There are other questions there, all good, and it seems that I better get busy answering them.
5:55 PM
this brown cow is STILL blogging. my god, who is reading this shit?!?!
12:08 AM
Hey, anonymous, I work in the publishing industry, and you should see some of the writing that comes from graduates of (American) journalism schools and people with degrees in literature ... very sad. I guess it's the generation of the spellcheck. BTW, maybe you could pick up an AP guide or a copy of Strunk and White's and learn how to use hyphens and uppercase letters. ... I know darned well I sound ridiculous in my best second language (French), and I can't play an instrument or read music, but that doesn't keep me from singing "Frere Jacques." Bravo for ihath for expressing herself in not one, but two languages! Spelling errors are not ignorance; they're just mistakes. And anyway, ignorance can be remedied by education. Stupidity and arrogance, on the other hand, are simply the output of an inferior mind.
9:19 PM
I'm still reading, though I should be writing and NOT watching those Mexican Soap Operas LOL! How on earth did anyone so "uncontroversial" attract such a following of anonymice who find her so "controversial"...seems I will never know the answer to that.
9:30 AM
Emmunah - You should be writing. Thanks to you, I hesitate to think before peeling an orange. :) Mary - I may be both naive and entirely wrong; but, I do not believe that either stupidity or arrogance, while manifest, play more than a minimal role in these comments. Remove the stupidity and false sense of superiority, and I think you would just get more effectively disrupting and disturbing comments. My suspicion is that at the core one would find self loathing. Individual human nature, like Nature, abhors a vacuum.
4:09 AM
what gives you the right to say anything negative about the US? you're just a stupid SAND NIGGER! fuck you and your family. i hope you all die. go fuck a camel, you ugly bitch.
8:02 AM
Ihath,
Do you counts ME blogs that publish both in English and Arabic?
8:31 AM
Fayrouz,
Yes we do. Any blog that has arabic presence we list even if the person blogs partially in English.
10:30 AM
"Frere Jacques"
pffft, i was all ready to post something cogent and serious, but then I started reading your comments.
and yes, i cannot write in caps right now - am giggling too much.
thanks for link ihath - great post, as usual.
4:00 AM
How are you? your website is cool
look at at this funny emo video:
http://tinyurl.com/75993v
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