What's inside
-
What’s inside the Abjadiye.com site?
-
Abjadiye.com contains 99 lessons divided into 3 levels of 33 lessons each. Lessons are built for 15 to 20 minutes sessions so that you can go through them painlessly at your pace, say 2-3 lessons a week.
Lessons are interactive and pleasant. This way you will one day find yourself communicating in Lebanese without having been discouraged by unreasonable efforts.
You will also find an easily accessible lexicon of thousands of verbs, adjectives and nouns, all classified by well-known categories. Verbs are conjugated, and all terms are given in their singular as well as in their plural forms.
-
What is the methodology used?
-
Abjadiye.com uses the latest methods in language teaching practice and research. The objective of the site being to teach you the spoken Lebanese language, we focus on the conversational element as being the central piece for each lesson.
Lessons are presented in a simple and pleasant interactive manner. All vocabulary words and terms are accompanied by their audio equivalent and illustrative images to help the learner in memorizing them. Users are asked to interact via short exercises whereby they are asked to click or write the correct term or missing word. Clicking alone is not enough, as writing a word is a good way to memorize it and allows users to communicate in writing at a later stage.
Abjadiye.com concentrates on the most popular words and expressions which linguists define as those you need to speak a language. The lessons deliberately do not provide exhaustive and lengthy lists of vocabulary. They rather make sure the few words they provide are well remembered and can be used through an interactive conversation.
-
Does Abjadiye.com use a specific alphabet?
-
The objective of Abjadiye.com is to teach you the Lebanese language as it is spoken and written by Lebanese people themselves.
We have therefore made a deliberate decision not to create or dictate yet another theoretical alphabet for Lebanese writing. We believe that Lebanese people have already decided for themselves, and communicate every day using English letters via mail, SMS and social networks.
We have carefully analyzed the way Lebanese communicate on Internet, and summarized the most frequently used conventions on the following page:
http://www.facebook.com/LebaneseWritingRules
These rules are based on the fact that you will only need a QWERTY (English) keyboard to write Lebanese. No special characters are required, and communication with Lebanese people all over the world will be natural.
Although all the nuances of the Lebanese pronunciation are not captured here, we believe that these can be acquired from listening to the provided conversations, and can be assimilated according to context. Think of the letter “u” in “put”, “busy”, “cut”, “burn” and “pure”.
Just get started, do not be afraid about pronunciation or accent, Lebanese people are very tolerant about this.
-
Does Abjadiye.com teach grammar?
-
Abjadiye.com is built around a full grammar of the Lebanese language which we had to formalize prior to developing the site. However, grammar rules are distilled in the form of notes in a very subtle manner, avoiding grammatical jargon, and without even a single mention of the term “grammar”.
We present the lessons in such a way that you can see the rules for yourself with the help of pleasant notes, without making a conscious effort of learning tedious grammar formalisms.
-
Where does Abjadiye.com come from?
-
Abjadiye.com is the result of many years of research effort. It has been developed by a team of Ph.D level experts in computing, ergonomics, cognitive psychology, linguistics and graphic design plus a large panel of children and adult users.
The term Abjadiye (pronounced abjadeeyeh, or abjadillé) simply means alphabet in Lebanese. Abjadiye.com does not teach alphabet, nor does it create a specific one. The name has been chosen in honor of the Phoenicians who invented the first alphabet, and provided us with the cornerstone for writing and learning.
-
Will my subscription be renewed automatically?
-
No. Abjadiye.com does not store your credit card data, and does not even handle it in any way. When you decide to pay, you will be redirected to Bank Audi, one of Lebanon’s largest banks, and you will connect directly with them using their secure e-payment gateway.
We will send you gentle reminders before your subscription to Abjadiye.com expires. But you will have to renew your subscription by yourself.
-
How can I offer a subscription to a friend or a relative?
-
This is extremely simple. All you need to know is their email address. You subscribe with their email address, and then send them the password you have created. You’re done! They can subsequently modify the password and their profile data as they wish.
Since your subscription will not be renewed automatically, you will not need to worry as to what will happen after subscription expiry date.
-
Is the content of the site adapted to children?
-
Yes. We have made every single effort to ensure that the thousands of chosen words, conversations, and images are compatible with all ages, religions, origins, beliefs and opinions.
Nevertheless, do not hesitate to contact us should you think we can improve in any way. We will carefully listen to your comments and will do something about them immediately.
-
How should I use Abjadiye.com?
-
International usability criteria and the latest methods in cognitive science are at the heart of the Abjadiye.com design. You should therefore have no difficulty in navigating through the lessons and going to the table of contents and lexicon as you wish. Abjadiye.com simply works with all browsers, as long as you have Adobe Flash player installed.
Each lesson is constructed around a vocabulary section and a conversational section. With each section come supplementary notes that provide additional vocabulary and the necessary grammar rules to better understand it.
We recommend you do the exercises, and repeat/stop the conversation as often as you can even if the conversation subject is of no interest to you. The 33 lessons of each of level 1 and level 2 cover the Lebanese language structure. We recommend therefore you go through the first 66 lessons in a linear manner. Level 3 contains 33 thematic lessons which you can pick and choose from at will.
Remember, you cannot learn a language overnight. Give yourself time, and organize your time in such a way so as not to overburden yourself and get discouraged. The lengths as well as the graphic design of the lessons have been especially thought out so as to make your journey a very pleasant experience.
A full lexicon is now available with thousands of verbs, nouns and adjectives, classified in 20 categories.
Abjadiye is now available in English, French and Portuguese