Learn Arabic as it is really spoken. Listen to and read Egyptian Colloquial Arabic.

Ahmed didn’t get much studying done before the exam. What distracted him? And how was the exam?

من يومين، كنت قاعد في البيت بحاول أذاكر عشان عندي امتحان مهم تاني يوم. كنت حاسس أني مش عارف اركّز. وفجأة، اتّصل بيّا صاحبي عمرو، وقالّي أنٌه كمان زهقان من المذاكرة، فاقترحت عليه ننزل عشان نذاكر سوا في المكتبة على أمل اننا نشجّع بعض، ووافق. قمت لمّيت كل كتبي في الشّنطة وخرجت. عدّيت على صاحبي الأوّل وبعدين اتمشّينا لحد المكتبة. لمّا وصلنا، كنّا متحمّسين جدّا، وبدأنا نذاكر فعلًا، لكن كانت كلّها نص ساعة بس قبل ما نفتح حوار ملهوش أي علاقة بالمذاكرة عمرو قرأ عنٌه عالنت. وهو ان نظريّة التطوٌر مش حقيقية. حاولت اقنع صاحبي ان مش كل حاجة عالنت صح ولازم نصدّقها. عمرو كان فاكر أن الّنظريَة بتقول أن الإنسان أصله قرد، وعشان أثبتله أن الكلام ده غلط، فضلت أدوّر على كتاب داروين نفسه، ولمّا لقيته، ورّيته أن معظم المعلومات اللي قرأها تلفيق من حد معندوش فكرة عن النّظرية أصلا. العجيب في الموضوع أن رغم ده كله، صاحبي فضل مصمّم أن النّظريّة مش حقيقية. ولأنّي متأكّد أن عمرو دماغه ناشفة، كبّرت دماغي، ومحاولتش أقنعه تاني. بعد ما خلّصنا كلام، بصّيت في الموبايل لقيت أن الوقت سرقنا، ومذاكرناش كتير زى ما كنّا عاملين حسابنا. كان لازم نمشي عشان المكتبة هتقفل. مكنش قدّامنا حل غير اننا نسهر لمّا نروّح. شربت قهوة كتير، وطبّقنا أنا وعمرو ليلة الامتحان. لمّا رحنا الجامعة تاني يوم الصبح، كنّا متوترين جدّا. عمرو كان بيهزّر ويقول: “أنا مستعد أقتنع بنظرية التطوٌر لو الامتحان طلع سهل.” خرجنا من الامتحان وكنّا مبسوطين جدّا، لكن طبعّا عمرو مغيّرش رأيه ودا اللي كنت متوقعه!

Two days ago, I was home trying to study as I had an important exam on the following day. I couldn’t really concentrate. Then suddenly, my friend Amr called me and told me that he, too, was sick of studying, so I suggested that we go out together to study at the library in the hope of encouraging each other, and he agreed. I got up, packed all my books in the bag and went out. First, I went by my friend’s, and then we walked to the library. When we arrived, we were very excited, and we indeed started to study, but it was just half an hour before we started having a discussion that had nothing at all to do with studying… something about which Amr had read on the Internet. It was that the theory of evolution was not a fact. I tried to persuade Amr that not everything on the Internet was true or we need to believe. Amr thought the theory stated that humans’ origins were monkeys. And to prove to him that this was false, I started looking for Darwin’s book itself. When I found it, I showed him that most of the information that he had read was a fabrication made by someone who basically had no idea about the theory. What’s strange is that, despite all that, my friend still insisted that the theory was not true. And as I was sure that Amr was stubborn, I let it go and did not try to persuade him further. After we had finished talking, I looked at my cell phone and realized that we had lost track of time and had not studied as much as we had planned. We had to leave because the library was closing. There was nothing else we could do other than stay up late when we got home. I drank a lot of coffee, and Amr and I pulled an all-nighter the night before the exam. When we went to university the following morning, we were very nervous. Amr was joking and saying, “I am ready to be convinced of the theory of evolution if the exam is easy!” We left the exam satisfied, but, of course, Amr did not change his mind and that was what I was expecting!

One Comment

  1. Dear Ahmed. Thank you for posting this story. Very interesting. I have been learning Egyptian Arabic for five years now. It remains so extremely difficult for me to grasp the main context of a native speaker`s story. Not sure if I ever will be able to call myself fluent in this beautiful language, but what a quest.

Leave a Reply