Form, Content, Meta-poetics - Co-op Arabic class

A reminder to myself, always look for these 3 aspects in the Mod Po Plus texts. Just those 3 will keep us busy for hours.

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Co-op Arabic class

This is very enjoyable, we sit and go through whatever we choose to go through. One person tells me I know so much... I then promptly get to a word which just looks like squiggles on the page, no hints at all. But then, after a bit of wondering and not finding it in the dictionary, I come up with how to split it up. That's good.

Then I top it off with a mini-lecture on the other meanings I remember. Was I shut up with a piece of cake??

We are all teachers in our other lives, so I carefully ask my friend whether she can say that word, and is she clear about the vowels? We don't have to try to keep up, we repeat what the sentence means, bit by bit, pointing at each word and clarifying tricky letters. We ask what we are puzzled by and look up endings, going over the same basic stuff again and again.

I blow my own trumpet by saying al-qahira more times than I need to, because I like saying it :)

I'm given homework to keep me quiet, because my friend can see I'm the sort who needs to be kept busy.

I get all bossy and tell the next person to tackle the next few words, going round the table anti-clockwise. By the end of the session we are going round the other way without planning it. How did that happen?

I have promised to bring in 3 copies of a poem. They will be poem-ed by me whether they like it or not! There are some age 6 children's books I could bring instead, much easier and, since we have all had children, would be a reminder of old times.

The thistle is growing huge and the bees are happy. No-one has yet fallen off their chair and we exchange news about our lives while eating cherries.

We encourage each other and say that none of us learnt English from a book, but by repeating things in our own ways, as and when we wanted. Whatever we do is a bonus.

We have shared language lesson traumas together already, so are very appreciative of our current freedom. We still need an actual Arabic speaker to talk to us as if we were toddlers: Here is the cup, Where is the cup? I like the cup because it is red. This morning I wanted tea, but also wanted coffee. My mother drinks coffee, then she drinks tea, in the garden, by the sea...

Can't believe my luck

Two of us will be meeting every week to discuss one of my favourite subjects in a structured and planned way. There is a cafe and the best view for miles from the Ridgeway over towards Oxford. We met online and just click :)

Well, we did have an exploratory chat to share what we each wanted at the moment and whether those things were compatible, where our interests lie and what we each really wanted to do.

I was spectacularly late last time and this time as well, but she didn't give up on me.

So: Tracie Morris this time and Laynie Browne next time.

...

Again from my draft posts, written a couple of weeks ago.

Giving each other pleasure: I see 3 sonnets go sailing by on Court Hill in the sunshine

Well, that's where we got to on Thursday with our poem we couldn't let go of. We were walking around talking about it and wondering why we didn't like it, but just couldn't move on from it. Then I said 'I bet it is made up of 3 sonnets' more as a joke, the most unlikely thing I could think of, so we counted the lines and lo and behold, the poems is made of 3 sets of 14 lines, each 14th line is the end of a stanza.

We both laughed with glee at this. So satisfying. Noisy poetry discussions!

So where did that get us? Well, we started looking at the poem in an entirely different light. How is it that a new respect comes in, a new sharper assessment, looking for the meaning given by the two breaks between the three sonnet lengths, the creation of 3 more separate sections. A greater appreciation for the choice of stanza lengths, enjoyment of the 2 line sections in particular.

Anyway, I need to write the rest on the forum where we both chat.