California's Annual Arab film festival

On Opening Night, October 16th 2008, the 2008 Arab Film Festival Jury announced the recipients of the Noor Awards at the Castro Theater (in green)

In SF, SJ, and LA * 12th Annual Arab Film Festival * 16-28 October 2008 http://www.aff.org/AFF_2008_film_list.pdf (text below)

FEATURE FILMS: FICTION
All My Life (Dir. Maher Sabry / Egypt, USA / 2008 / 120min)
Amours D' Enfants (Dir. Fares Khalil / Lebanon / 2008 / 107min)
Bahraini Tale (Dir. Bassam Al Thawadi / Bahrain / 2007 / 96min)
Burned Hearts (Dir. Ahmed El Maanouni / Morocco / 2007 / 84min)
Captain Abu Raed (Dir. Amin Matalqa / Jordan / 2007 / 110min)
Falling from Earth (Dir. Chadi Zeneddine / Lebanon / 2007 / 70min)
Four Girls (Dir. Hassin Al Halibi / Bahrain / 2008 / 144min)
Out of Coverage (Dir. Abdellatif Abdulhamid / Syria / 2008 / 100min) - Not in Competition
Paloma Delight (Dir. Nadir Mokneche/ Algeria / 2007/ 134min) Noor Award for Best Feature Fiction
The President's Chef (Dir. Saeed Hamed / Egypt / 2008 / 150min) - Not in Competition
Samira's Garden (Dir. Latif Lahlou / Morocco / 2007 / 110min)
Seventh Heaven (Dir. Saad Hendawy / Egypt / 2008 / 100min)
The Shadow of Silence (Dir. Abdullah Al Muheisen / Saudi Arabia / 2006 / 96min)
The TV Is Coming (Dir. Moncef Dhouib / Tunisia / 2006 / 95min) - Not in Competition
Waiting for Pasolini (Dir. Daoud Aoulad-Syad / Morocco / 2007 / 100 min) -OPENING NIGHT - Not in Competition
The Yellow House (Dir. Amor Hakkar / Algeria / 2008 / 84min) Special Mention for Best Feature Fiction

FEATURE FILMS: DOCUMENTARIES
33 Days (Dir. Mai Masri / Lebanon / 2007 / 70 min)
Amina (Dir. Khadija Al-Salami / Yemen / 2008 / 52min)
Dancers (Dir. Celame Barge / Egypt / 2007 / 51min)
Gaza Souvenirs (Dir. Samuel Albaric / France / 2006 / 46min)
Life after the Fall (Dir. Kasim Abid / Iraq / Documentary / 2008 / 155 min) Noor Award for Best Feature Documentary
Made in Egypt (Dir. Karim Goury / Egypt / France / 2006 / 69min)
Memory of a Woman (Dir. Lassaad Oueslati / Tunisia / 2008 / 52min)
Recycle (Dir. Mahmoud Al-Massad / Jordan / 2007 / 78 min)
Refugees for Life (Dir. Hady Zaccak / Lebanon / 2008 / 48min)
Roundabout Chatila (Dir. Maher Abi Samra / Lebanon / 2005 / 50min) - Not in Competition
Seeing through the Sand (Dir. Noor Al-Dabbagh / Saudi Arabia / 2008 / 50min)
Slingshot Hip Hop (Dir. Jackie Salloum / Palestine / 2008 / 89min)
Storm from the South (Dir. Walid Al Awadi / Kuwait, UAE / 2006 / 52min)
Waiting for the Day (Dir. Meyar al Roumi / France, Syria / 2003 / 50min) - Not in Competition
War, Love, God, Madness (Dir. Mohamed Al-Daradji / Iraq / 2008 / 72 min) - Not in Competition
The Way North: Maghrebi Women in Marseille (Dir. Shara K. Lange. / France / 2007 / 58min)

SHORT FILMS: FICTION
Alienation (Dir. Fady Copty / Palestine / 2007 / 8min)
Arafat & I (Dir. Mahdi Fleifel/ Palestine, UK / 2008 / 15min)
At the Day's End (Dir. Sherif El Bendary / Egypt / 2007 / 15min)
Before the Wind Blows (Dir. Samer Najari / Canada / 2006 / 18min)
Bint Mariam (Dir. Saeed Salmeen Al Murry / UAE / 2008 / 25min)

The Cistern (Dir. Lassaad Oueslati / Tunisia / 2006 /12min) - Not in Competition
Clean Hands Dirty Soap (Dir. Karim Fanous / Egypt / 2007 / 25min) Noor Award for Best Short Fiction
Dead Fish (Dir. Malik Amara / Tunisia / 2008 / 19min)
Flou (Dir. Youssef Britel / Morocco / 2007 / 6min)
Free to Fly (Dir. Sajeda Abousaif & Alabbas Saed / Jordan / 2008 / 6min)
I Am Ready (Dir. Omar Saleh / Jordan / 2008 / 12min)
Karma (Dir. Faisal Alibrahim / Kuwait / 2007 / 10min)
Messaoud (Dir. Omar Mouldouira / Morocco / 2006 / 8 min)
The Maid (Dir. Heidi Saman / Egypt / 2008 / 19min)
Neighbors (Dir. Gina Asfour / Palestine / 2008 / 13 min)
Noor (Dir. Eyas Salman / Palestine / 2008 / 20 min)
Pickled (Dir. Razi Najar / Palestine / 2008 / 16 min)
Tenbak (Dir. Abdullah Hassan Ahmed / UAE / 2008 / 26min) Special Mention for Best Short Fiction
Tough Crowd (Dir. Iman Zawahry / USA / 2007 / 9min)
The Shooter (Dir. Ihab Jadallah / Palestine / 2007 / 7min)
The View (Dir. Omar Saleh / Jordan / 2008 / 16min)
A Winter Day's Visits (Dir. Ismaeel Hamdy / Egypt / 2007 / 37min)
Ya Hala Wood (Dir. Hazim Bitar / Jordan / 2008 / 10min)
The Young Lady and the School (Dir. Mohamed Nadif / Morocco / 2008 / 10min)
The Young Lady and the Teacher (Dir. Mohamed Nadif / Morocco / 2007 / 16min)

SHORT FILMS: DOCUMENTARIES
Against the Light (Dir. Koutaiba al Janabi / UK, Czech Republic / 2007 / 15min)
A Candle for the Shabandar Café (Dir. Emad Ali / Iraq / 2007 / 23min) - Not in Competition
Deadly Playground (Dir. Katia Saleh / Lebanon / 2007 / 23min)
Doctor Nabil (Dir. Ahmed Jabbar / Iraq / 2007 / 15min) - Not in Competition
Leaving (Dir. Bahram Al Zuhairi / Iraq / 2007 / 23min) - Not in Competition
Merely a Smell (Dir. Maher Abi Samra / Lebanon / 2007 / 11min)
Mimoune (Dir. Gonzalo Ballester / Spain/ Morocco / 2006 / 11min)
Nights and Days (Dir. Lamia Joreige / Lebanon / 2007 / 17min)
Not My Turn Yet (Dir. Rabee Zureikat & Hazim Bitar / Jordan / 2008 / 6min)
Open Eyes (Dir. Jana Sintschnig / USA / 2007 / 7min)
Out of the Frame (Dir. Nizar Annadawi / Iraq / 2007 / 22min) Noor Award for Best Short Documentary
A Palestinian Mural (Dir. Norma Sayage / USA / 2008 / 12 min)
(Posthumous) (Dir. Ghassan Salhab / Lebanon / 2007 / 28min)
A Stranger in His Own Country (Dir. Hassanain Al Hani / Iraq / 2007 / 10min) - Not in Competition
When Walls Speak (Dir. May Odeh / Palestine / 2008 / 16 min)

On-line (free) courses

Peace Corps audio files: http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/multimedia/language/index.cfm#arabic

Jordanian Arabic
Download the transcript of this lesson (pdf–265 KB)
Lesson 1: Greetings & Personal Identification
Lesson 2: Physical State
Lesson 3: Family
Lesson 4: Useful Expressions
Lesson 5: Communication Difficulties
Lesson 6: Food
Lesson 7: Directions
Lesson 8: Numbers & Money
Lesson 9: Question Words
Lesson 10: Time SenseS

ubscribe to the Peace Corps' Jordanian Arabic lessons by pasting the XML file into your podcast software.
http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/multimedia/language/arabic.xml
Additional Resources:
Lesson: Serious Doodling
Holiday: Eid al-Fitr

"pharyngeal fricative" is not an expletive

____IPA___decimal__hex
ح__ħ_____295____0127
voiceless pharyngeal fricative

In English, try saying "hot sauce" to get the right /h/.





references:
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) in Unicode (Wells)
http://schools-wikipedia.org/wp/a/Arabic_language.htm move to dialects section

Downloadable software

http://totalrecalllearning.com/index.pacq (free)
Topics include:
Checkpoint Operations
Greetings
Colors
Days of the Week
Command
Months
Directions
Parts of the Day
House Search
Meals of the Day
Instructions
Relatives
Intelligence Operations
Grammar
Military Rank
Engineering Words
Military Words
Finance
Patrol
Medical Services
Tactical Questioning
Medical Terms
Warnings
Cultural Do's & Don'ts
Weapons
And more!

Arabic videos available from the library

San Diego Public Library:

North UC
Zaman [videorecording] : the man from the reeds
from Iraq
DVD ARA 791.4372/ZAMAN

call number:DVD 914.9504/RICK ID:31336076399428 Rick Steves'. Greece, Turkey, Israel & Egypt 2000-2007 [videorecording] / Back Door Productions in association with American Public Television and Oregon Public Broadcasting. Steves, Rick, 1955- due:9/29/2008,23:59

Practice reading

Omniglot's Arabic alphabet

In how many countries is Arabic the official language?

It depends who you ask!

Wikipedia: Arabic is the official language in 26 countries:
Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Israel
Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman
Palestinian Territories, Qatar. Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan
Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Western Sahara, Yemen

Georegetown University: Arabic is the official language of 20 countries ranging from northwest Africa to the Arabian gulf. Those countries include: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. [I count 19 here --mkg]

Grossmont College: Arabic is the official language of 22 countries. [Not enumerated --mkg]

Certificate and degree programs in San Diego

I'm writing this list as I find the links; feel free to add.
National University
SDSU
Grossmont College Spring 2008 classes language, CCS 147 MIDDLE EAST HISTORY & CULTURE
AA Curriculum and Certificate

Classes available:
UCSD
USD
Palomar College
Miramar College