r'iyye hilwe

A few weeks ago, we met a friend of a friend named Ahmed, a junior doctor who is hoping to travel to Germany soon to specialise. He himself is studying German and was very interested in how my friend and I are getting on with our Arabic. When he heard that our teacher is unable to teach us any longer, we was insistent that he wanted to help.

He contacted me on Facebook to repeat the offer and we met for coffee today to get started. We sat at one of the plastic tables behind Al Salaam restaurant, which are on a small headland jutting out into the sea. It was sunny, with a fresh wind coming in off the sea.

Unsurprisingly, considering what you can see in this photograph, one of the first expressions we learned was 'haadi r'iyye hilwe', which means "This is a beautiful view."'

Ahmed told us that the key to perfecting Arabic is to learn the proper pronunciation, which we are in a unique position to do being in the Middle East, and to "capture the sound" or, as we say in English, get it "on the ear". That way, you don't have to spend too much time learning grammar rules because your instinct ('hassa') will tell you if something sounds right.

We sat together for more than two hours and he refused to take any money or even allow us to pay for his coffee. He is eager for us to meet at least once a week to continue our lessons. People in Gaza are so incredibly kind.