26.2.2021
In this meeting, we decided to do in Arabic something similar to what we did in Finnish last time, i.e. watching or listening to a children content since it is more interactive.
Since our meetings are on Zoom, we moved between different options and then settled on listening to a cartoon song which I watched during my childhood: Babar the elephant! I learnt that this cartoon is known in other countries and languages as well.
After listening a couple of times, I walked Umair and Ilona through the lyrics and explained everything they inquired about. In Arabic, it is not rare to use high-end words and phrases for children songs; it is a way of introducing sophisticated vocabulary to kids. Thus, the song itself needed a good time to probe.
I noticed that Umair was somehow familiar with many of the words already, not because he learnt them in Arabic. But because his mother language, Urdu, has loaned lots of Arabic words and modified them a bit. Hence, with a little clarification from me, he was able to untangle the whole song.
For Ilona, we tried to practice reading, which she did very well! Also, I taught her new basic vocabulary based on the lyrics.
It was a little bit tricky to teach people with different backgrounds at the same time, but I managed somehow to make them satisfied. I became also very thoughtful about how languages move and develop across time and geography!
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