Deewan Arabic Podcast (بودكاست ديوان عربي) is a Levantine Arabic learning podcast comprised of conversations between students and teachers at the Deewan institute for Languages and Cultural Studies in Amman, Jordan. In each episode, a student talks about a topic that interests them while their teacher asks questions and interjects with corrections as needed. As an Arabic learner myself, it’s useful for me to listen to the mistakes - especially the grammar ones - that the students make and to hear the corrections from the teacher. When I’m in the middle of a conversation and make a mistake, it often goes uncorrected or I’m too busy trying to continue the rest of the story to really focus on what my mistake was. In this podcast, I get the opportunity, not only to hear the mistake and the correction clearly, but to play it back if I want to.

Episodes of Deewan Arabic Podcast open with a short summary in English of the episode topic and a list of relevant vocabulary. After the discussion, the host asks a series of reflection questions in Arabic, and translates them into English. The learning level of the student is included in the episode title, so you can choose which episodes to listen to based on topic and your own learning level. Or, if you are a teacher, assign episodes for students to listen to based on their learning level.

In this post, we’re going to focus on an intermediate episode from season two about tango dancing. Nicole, the student, discusses her interest in and experience with learning tango with her teacher, Areen. We’ve written out some of the vocabulary and transcribed the reflection questions below. We recommend reviewing the questions and vocabulary words before listening to the episode, then writing or speaking the answers to the reflection questions after you listen.

Tango Vocabulary/مفردات

Selected from the list at minute 2:00 in the episode

الطبقة العامِلة
The working class

جامد/ة
Stiff or rigid

مهتم/ة ب
Interested in

مُثير/ة
Sexy; exciting; stimulating

خطوة بخطوة
Step by step

توقع / يتوقع
He anticipated / he anticipates

عارف / بيعارف
Knowing, or to make someone know something

حزين/ة
Sad or melancholic

الأحساس
The feeling

مُعين/ة
Specific or certain

عمق / بيعمق
He deepened / he deepens

تواصل جسدي
Bodily communication; body language; physical contact

قائد/ة  ج قادة
Leader/s

حضن ج احضان
Hug/s

جوهر
Essence; root; core

متحيّز/ة
Biased or prejudiced

متحيّز جنسيا
Sexist

مجلّة
Magazine

أسئلة التأمل

شو هو تانجو؟ شو حَكَت نيكول عنو؟

كيف بلَشَت نيكول بتانجو؟

شو فكرت نيكول عن التانجو قبل ما تيجي عالأردن؟

شو تعّلَمَت نيكول اشياء جديد عن التانجو؟

الأردنين مهتمين بتانجو؟

ليش نيكول بتحب التانجو؟

شو الفرق بين الدبكة والتانجو؟

دَبَكَت نيكول بالأردن من قبل؟

نيكول بتنصح الناس يتعلمه تانجو؟

شو صار بدروس تانجو مع مشكلة الكورونا؟

Reflection Questions

What is tango? What did Nicole say about it?

How did Nicole start doing tango?

What did Nicole think about tango before coming to Jordan?

What new things did Nicole learn about tango?

Are Jordanians interested in tango?

Why does Nicole love tango?

What’s the difference between dabkeh and tango?

Has Nicole ever dabkehed in Jordan?

Does Nicole recommend learning tango?

What happened to Tango classes during Covid?
Literal translation: what happened to Tango studies with the problem of Covid?