Aleppine Arabic

It is nearly a month that I'm staying in Aleppo and every day I feel more and more at home.

I'm learning to know more people each day and am getting better in Aleppine Arabic.

This is the dialect that the people are speaking here and I decided it is better to learn to communicate with the local people than putting my efforts in Standard Arabic which is not understood by a lot of Aleppines and certainly not spoken.

The Aleppine dialect is a "short" language by which I mean that it is spoken quickly skipping a lot of letters.

Even though I cannot translate exactly what they are saying, I'm beginning to understand what the conversation is about when they are speaking among each other. Especially when it is a story that I know.

In the Arabic culture the verbal communication is very important. People tend to visit each other a lot and the main purpose is to tell each other the latest news.

Because I am spending a lot of time with several members of one particular family - a huge family - I'm learning a lot about the family life here in Syria and how they interact. It is quite interesting. Like a soap serie. There is always something happening in such a big family. Good things and bad things. But that's life, after all !