Here is another word search game in Arabic. The topic of this one is clothes (الملابس). There are 10 items of clothes to be found in the grid. Translations of words and answer of puzzle are found below. Enjoy!
Youssef Chahine (يوسف شاهين) is one of the most famous Arab film directors. He was born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1926 to a Lebanese father and a Greek mother. In 1946, Chahine convinced his parents to let him travel to Hollywood to study acting, where he attended the Pasadena Playhouse outside of Los Angeles, California.
After returning to Egypt, he turned his attention to directing. Chahine directed his first feature film in 1950, (بابا أمين) Daddy Amin at the age of 23. With Nile Boy (ابن النيل) he was first invited to the Cannes Film Festival in1951. The Blazing Sun, 1954 (صراع في الوادي) introduced Omar Sharif to the cinematic screen. Chahine’s first truly indicative film of his style and preoccupations was Cairo Central Station (باب الحديد), in 1958. Chahine himself plays the central character in this film.
In 1963 Chahine made Saladin (الناصر صلاح الدين), an epic, three-hour film in CinemaScope named after the 12th Century Sultan who, as the film begins, is preparing to liberate Jerusalem from its Christian Crusader occupiers. It was scripted by Naguib Mahfouz and the poet and progressive writer, Abderrahman Cherkaoui.
In 1976 he made The Return of the Prodigal Son (عودة الإبن الضال), a “musical tragedy”, but four years earlier had made one of his greatest films, The Sparrow (العصفور) (1972), both co-productions with Algeria. In 1970 he was awarded a Golden Tanit at the Carthage Film Festival for The Choice (الاختيار). He won a Silver Bear in Berlin for Alexandria…Why? (اسكندرية ليه؟) in 1978
In 1992 Jacques Lassalle approached him to stage a piece of his choice for Comedie-Francaise : Chahine chose to adapt Albert Camus’ Caligula, which proved hugely successful. The same year he started writing The Emigrant (المهاجر), a story inspired by the Biblical character of Joseph. This had long been a dream-project and he finally got to shoot it in 1994. This film created a controversy in Egypt between the enlightened wing and the fundamentalists who opposed the depiction of religious characters in films.
In 1997, 46 years and 5 invitations later, his work was acknowledged at the Cannes Film Festival with a lifetime achievement award on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the festival. He is also credited with discovering Omar Sharif, whose first starring role was in Chahine’s film The Blazing Sun (1954). He also provided Hind Rostom with a very early role as a murder victim in Bab al-Hadid (Cairo Station).
Youssef Chahine died in Egypt on July 27, 2008
Thanks Wikipedia!
Last week I posted about BBCe! Best Bits, an Arabic language podcast broadcast by the BBC and produced in partnership with Egypt Radio. Well, the BBC has a variety of Arabic programming, and there are several other podcasts in Arabic that deal with a variety of topics. I’ve compiled a list of BBC Arabic programing below.
Most of these podcasts will be for advanced listeners, but I think they can be extremely useful and especially interesting for those interested in Arabic culture, society, and current affairs in the Arab World. The most recent edition dealt with the emergence of electronic publishing and it’s impact on print media in the Middle East–a hot topic that is currently the center of attention in much of the developed world. Another edition discussed the impact of the Hijab on female athletes competing in sports events. BBC Xtra is a daily podcast with an average length of 23 minutes.
Subscribe to BBC Xtra podcast or listen directly from your browser 
The next podcast on this list is BBCe! Quiztime. This podcast is also produced by the BBC in partnership with Egypt Radio. However, unlike BBCe! Best Bits, Quiztime is a weekly 10 minute show where the host tests listeners on their English skills (in Arabic). While the learning order is reversed I believe this podcast is very useful.
Subscribe to BBCe! Quiztime or listen directly from your browser 
You can also find BBCe! Best Bits, which I blogged about a week or so ago, by using this link: BBCe! Best Bits
The BBC also has a dedicated-Arabic website with links to live TV and radio broadcast in the Arabic language. You can visit the BBC’s Arabic website through the following URL: www.bbc.co.uk/arabic/
Watch BBC news in Arabic (web TV – قناة بي بي سي العربية)
Listen to BBC news in Arabic (radio – راديو)
The following is a list of Arabic TV stations based in various parts of the Arab World:
Lebanese Broadcasting Channel (bilingual website of Lebanese news network LBC)
Future TV (bilingual website of Lebanese news network Future TV)
Al-Jazeera in Arabic (Arabic version of Al-Jazeera’s website–a news network based in Qatar)
Al-Jazeera in English (English version of Al-Jazeera’s website)
Al-Arabiya Network (Saudi news network available in four languages)
Middle East Broadcasting Center, or MBC (a Dubai based news network founded in UK)
Most of the above websites provide some type of live broadcast service over the internet.
So what month is it exactly? مايو ,أيار ,الماء, or ماي? Well, it depends on who you ask and where you are.
For a multitude of reasons names of calendar months vary across the Arab World. The Gregorian calendar is universally accepted for civil use, but–depending on where you are–you may find Aramaic and Babylonian calendar month names being used. Of course, current date does not change (unless you are in Saudi Arabia where there is a slight twist to that rule–but more on that later); it remains consistent regardless of where in the Arab World you find yourself. However, the names of months do change. This is because some countries, like Syria, for example, have opted to rename Gregorian calendar months after their Aramaic counterparts, which are based on the Babylonian calendar.
For example, in the Levant (Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and Jordan), the month of May is referred to as أيار .أيار is the Aramaic name for May. Go further south to Egypt and Sudan and you will find that May is مايو, as those countries use the Gregorian calendar. Going further west to Algeria and Morocco yields a similar result with a slight variation. مايو becomes ماي, which is based on the French names of Gregorian months, betraying both countries’ colonization by France.
There are exceptions that deviate from the above patterns: Libya’s calendar months are derived from various sources, chosen and assembled by it’s eccentric leader Mu’amar al-Ghaddafi. May in Libya is الماء, which means “water.” The other exception is Saudi Arabia where you will find Islamic calendar months are the norm, used concurrently with Gregorian ones. May in Saudi Arabia is either جمادى الأول or جمادى الثاني depending on what part of May you find yourself in. This is because the Islamic calendar dates lack Gregorian equivalents. According to the Islamic calendar, today’s date is the 11th of جمادى الثاني, year 1431. The first year of the Islamic calendar is based on the year in which the Prophet Mohamad left the city of Mecca and headed to Medina, 622CE.
I’ve included two lists below of Aramaic and Gregorian month names in Arabic.
Aramaic calendar months used in the Levant
| No. | Month | Arabic Name | In Arabic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | January | كانون الثاني | Kānūn al-Thānī |
| 2 | February | شباط | Šubāṭ |
| 3 | March | آذار | ‘Ādār |
| 4 | April | نيسان | Nīsān |
| 5 | May | أيار | ‘Ayyār |
| 6 | June | حزيران | Ḥazīrān / Ḥuzayrān |
| 7 | July | تموز | Tammūz |
| 8 | August | آب | ‘Āb |
| 9 | September | أيلول | Aylūl |
| 10 | October | تشرين الأول | Tišrīn al-Awwal |
| 11 | November | تشرين الثاني | Tišrīn al-Thānī |
| 12 | December | كانون الأول | Kānūn al-Awwal |
Gregorian calendar months used throughout the Arab World
| No. | Month | Arabic Name | In Arabic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | January | يناير | yanāyir |
| 2 | February | فبراير | fibrāyir |
| 3 | March | مارس | māris |
| 4 | April | أبريل/إبريل | abrīl/ibrīl |
| 5 | May | مايو | māyū |
| 6 | June | يونيو/يونيه | yūnyū/yūnya |
| 7 | July | يوليو/يوليه | yūlyū/yūlia |
| 8 | August | أغسطس | aġustus |
| 9 | September | سبتمبر | sibtambir |
| 10 | October | أكتوبر | uktūbar |
| 11 | November | نوفمبر | nūfambir |
| 12 | December | ديسمبر | dīsambir |
The Absolute Object (المفعول المطلق) is a special type of object that serves to emphasize the meaning of the main verb. It is typically formed by using the verbal noun (المصدر) derived from the main verb in the accusative form, e.g.
انتصر الجيش انتصاراً.
‘The army has achieved victory.’
The absolute objects can be modified by adjectives that modify the meaning further by adding certain qualifications, e.g.
انتصر الجيش انتصاراً حاسماً.
‘The army has achieved a decisive victory.’
مشيت مشياً سريعاً.
‘I walked quickly (lit. quick walking).’
The absolute object can serve to show the number of times an action has been performed, e.g.
ضربت الكرة ضربةً وأنت ضربتها ضربتين.
‘I hit the ball once (lit. one hit), and you hit it twice (lit. two hits).’
