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

Ayat tells us about her favorite hobbies. Can you guess what they are from the pictures?

من صغرى و انا بحب الرسم و القرايه اوى. و بعتبرهم هواياتى المفضله. اول مره ارسم كانت من زمان جدا لما كان عندى اربع سنين. ايامها رسمى كان عباره عن شوية خطوط عشوائيه مش مفهومه. و بعد ما كبرت شويه و ظهر حبى الشديد للرسم بقيت برسم حاجات اوضح شويه، يعنى: مثلا ورده، عربيه، الشمس، شجره، ناس، بيوت. ماما و بابا بعد ما ظهرلهم حبى للرسم شجعونى جدا، وجابولى الوان و ورق علشان ارسم عليه. و كانوا لما ارسم اى حاجه يقولولى “برافوا عليكى”. كبرت و كبرت معايا هواية الرسم. كنت عايزه احسن مهارتى فى الرسم. فا بقيت برسم كتيركنوع من انواع التمرين، و فعلا رسمى بقى احسن كتير. بصراحه انا اتبسطت جدا علشان تعبى جاب نتيجه، و حسيت ان فعلا الواحد يقدر يحقق اى حاجه طالما انه عنده امل و بيحاول مره و اتنين و تلاته من غير ياس. خلينا بقى نتكلم شويه عن هواية القرايه. الهوايه دى بدأت معايا متأخر شويه عن هواية الرسم. بدأت و انا عندى ١١ سنه. وقتها كنت بروح المكتبه بتاعة المدرسه علشان اقرا القصص و الحواديت. بس لما كبرت، بدأت اقرا فى مجالات اكتر. فا مثلا كنت بقرا كتب علميه و تاريخيه و دينيه و احيانا كتب فلسفيه، و كمان بقرا روايات بوليسيه و روايات الخيال العلمى. كل كتاب او روايه بقراها بياثر فيا، و كمان بيشكل جزء من شخصيتى و طريقة تفكيرى. يعنى من الاخر، القرايه فتحت مخى، و نورت روحي، و زودت ثقافتى، و علمتنى كتيرعن العالم، و عن نفسى.

I have been in love with drawing and reading since I was little. And I consider them my favorite hobbies. The first time I drew was long ago when I was four years old. Back then, I was drawing random lines with no meaning. And after I got a little older and my passion for drawing had appeared, I started drawing things more clearly, you know — for example, a flower, a car, the sun, a tree, people, houses. After my passion for drawing became apparent to mom and dad, they encouraged me so much. They bought me color pencils and paper to draw on. And they’d say “well done” to me whenever I drew anything. I grew up, and my hobby of drawing grew with me. I wanted to improve my drawing skills, so I drew more often for practice. And indeed, my drawing skills improved so much. To be honest, I was very happy because my hard work paid off. And I felt that anyone can really achieve anything as long as he has hope and tries time after time without despair. Let’s talk about my hobby of reading now. This hobby started a little later than my hobby of drawing. It started when I was 11 years old. Back then, I went to the school library to read tales and stories. But when I grew up, I started to read in more various fields. For example, I was reading scientific, historical, religious, and sometimes philosophy books. I was reading detective novels and science fiction novels. Every book or novel I read affects me and also shapes a part of my personality and my way of thinking. To sum up, reading opened my mind, enlightened my soul, increased my knowledge, and it taught me a lot about the world, and about myself.

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