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I was in a similar situation to you a few years back. I taught myself the language using the following book:

https://www.amazon.fr/dialecte-Libanais-larabe-litt%C3%A9ral-partie/dp/095288822X

This is the French version which can easily be bought online. There exists an English version that is easy to get your hands on in Lebanon but from abroad I am not sure it is easy to find.

I also found the following book incredibly helpful:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/701-Lebanese-Verbs-Maroun-Kassab/dp/0615751245

Honestly, every Lebanese worth his/her weight in salt should own a copy of that book. It's the closest thing I can find to a Lebanese dictionary (obviously just for verbs).

After learning the language, I started watching some Lebanese TV programs. Being of a younger generation, I can't stand soaps and Lebanese soaps are some of the worst soaps out there. I eventually stumbled on 'Mafi Metlo'. It's a sketch comedy show which is honestly quite funny (at least, the earlier seasons are). The accent they usually speak with is a bog-standard Beiruti one which is the most common you would hear in the media (and one of the easier ones for a person who did not grow up in the Arab world to understand I find). The advantage of watching a show like Mafi Metlo (there are other sketch comedies like 'Ktir Salbeh Show' but I'm not a huge fan of that one) is that you also get a heavy dose of Lebanese culture, politics and (more relevantly to language) idioms and common phrases that you wouldn't pick up in a textbook. This greatly increases your capacity to speak Lebanese since the language is full of (usually unwritten although I do now recall that my grandfather has a book on Lebanese proverbs) such things.

When it comes to Arabic script, Lebanese is hardly ever written (at least by the younger generations) in that script. Most young people will use Latin letters and the Lebanese form of the 'chat arabic alphabet' (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_chat_alphabet ). Note that there is some internal variation in the country as to how certain letters are transliterated. For example, Christians and French educated people tend to use 'ch' to transliterate ش whereas it is usually the case that Non-Christian and English/Arabic educated people will default to 'sh' (forgive me for the sectarianism but it's something valid to be pointed out).

Levantine Arabic (which Lebanese is a form of; to be specific, it is Western Levantine) is surprisingly very formulaic (or perhaps unsurprisingly since it is heavily [and most uniformly] influenced by Aramaic). The more you get used to it, the more you realise the underlying (and sadly not well-exposed pedagogically I find) patterns. To a newish speaker the various forms of Levantine Arabic can sound very different (even within a country: the Tripoli accent is quite different to the Beiruti accent; similarly, Eastern Syrian sounds more like Iraqi than it does Damascene [which is pretty much grouped in Western Levantine afaik]). However, the more exposure you have, the more you realise that these languages all sound very much the same where the differences are mostly due to pronounciation rather than grammatical structure.

As an American who grew up in Beirut I can only tell you how jealous I am.

My advice:

1)Learn Arabic. Yes it's hard, and no you won't master it. And yes, everyone speaks English, French or both...but do it.

2) Learn the history - it's very interesting and people will be impressed that you cared enough to do so.

Start with: http://www.amazon.com/Beirut-Samir-Kassir/dp/0520271262/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348796298&sr=1-1&keywords=Beirut

http://www.amazon.com/Beware-Small-States-Lebanon-Battleground/dp/1568586574/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348796349&sr=1-1&keywords=beware+of+small+states

3) Almost everybody has a home town/village. Learn the geography and accept all invitations to visit. Beirut is great, but you learn Lebanon from the small towns.

4) Yes, Americans are appreciated and given some slack. But get yourself an informal coach there and give them permission to enlighten you on the cultural norms. They are very different than the US and if you can make mistakes only once, you show you are interested and care.

5) The Lebanese food is the best in the Middle East and they are very proud of it. Learn it before you go and try everything....over and over again. Even the stuff you don't like to begin with will grow on you.

6) Find a brie (drinking jug) and learn to drink out of the spout (this means swallowing while the water is still coming out. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_cP-2t4P84Og/TI4r2ji5hxI/AAAAAAAABCg/C5ZmKwrNSYI/s1600/IMG_1257.jpg

Here's what I found to be the best ones. There are a few here but out of all the ones on Amazon, these are the ones I've seen recommended most or are by reputable authors.

Classic Lebanese Cuisine: 170 Fresh And Healthy Mediterranean Favorites

Julie Taboulie's Lebanese Kitchen: Authentic Recipes for Fresh and Flavorful Mediterranean Home Cooking

Rose Water and Orange Blossoms: Fresh & Classic Recipes from my Lebanese Kitchen

Saha: A Chef's Journey Through Lebanon and Syria

Middle Eastern Cookbook, 150 Recipes

Lebanese Cuisine: More than 200 Simple, Delicious, Authentic Recipes

The Lebanese Kitchen

A Taste of Lebanon: Cooking Today the Lebanese Way

There are several resources that I think you might find helpful, however I would advise against the Lebanese YouTuber as she only gives very basic lessons and uses allot of English.

[701 Lebanese Verbs] (https://www.amazon.com/701-Lebanese-Verbs-Maroun-Kassab/dp/0615751245)

The book is good, not great, but the verbs are very very lebanese so that may be a plus.

Also YouTube has quite a few shows in the dialect that are pretty entertaining. If you are advanced I would suggest Ma Fi Metlo, DNA, as well as just searching for anything using the terms "مسلسلات باللهجة اللبنانية"

If you just want to get familiar with the dialect go for either Beirut I Love You (The mini series not the short film) or the film West Beirut as they both have subtitles.

Alain ménargues, Les secrets de la guerre du Liban.



Honestly, the best book by far. It provided all sources, some as scanned documents in the end of the book.

Ménargues was a grand reporter de guerre, and he was in Lebanon the whole war time, or most of it.

As a French, he stayed a lot with Gemayel, and he have a looooot of original document in his possession. Most of them are provided in this book.


They had it in Antoine librairie, if your Beruti, but if not here's a link.




https://www.amazon.fr/Secrets-guerre-Liban-massacres-palestiniens/dp/2226121277



Look carefully if it is the tome 1, but I believe so.


It's to know that it is him that implied the Israeli leadership in the Sabra & Chatila massacre, by quoting a Sharon aid camp know as Scorpio iirc.

Well read the book brother, can never say how well documented and how good it is.

I hope that I've helped. Cheers guys.

Edit: he was the chief of RFI too, which can tell you how serious he was in his journalist job.

You can get them using aramex or company called onyourway.
This is the link to the product from amazon B'Loonies 4 Pack (6 Count) 6 Packs of 4 (24 Total) B'Loonies Four Colors - Green, Yellow, Blue, Red Blow up with 2 GosuToys Stickers https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07T2FT9SG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_j2uoDbJ66QBBT

You can get them for 10$ shipping delivered to your door If i remember correctly from onyourway, its pretty cool stuff, so its like what? 22$? I would love that nostalgia trip so i may get one.

A friend of mine who lives in Fredricton told me how awful some winters are with the storms and power cuts (I used to live in Edmonton, so it's basically the same lol), but very beautiful in the summer, will surely visit it!

A bit related to your documentary, there's this book by Anthony Shadid called House of Stone, he talks about how he went back to Lebanon to rebuild an old family house. In his book, he also talks a lot about how his family immigrated to the US in the early 1900s and what they went through to get there, your documentary reminded me a lot of it!

How about unsaturated fats (with limits), you can use a bit of olive oil if necessary; just try to avoid it because it contains a bit of saturated fat as well (2 g). Oh and Tefal to prevent sticking. Egg whites instead of a whole egg, soy milk, beans, oatmeal, soups and vegetable sandwiches, spaghetti (without the meat-balls), etc. should do.

Oh and you should consider ordering this book. Roy Swank is one of the leading researchers on the effect of diet on MS. While it's controversial if MS is linked to diet (causality wise), there are many studies showing diet helps patients.

Edit: Wanted to add /r/MultipleSclerosis . Best of luck.

> The illegitimate state of israel

What exactly is a legitimate state? I'm genuinely curious.

>Why is 25% of harvard is jewish?

Because they basically put a huge religious emphasis in education since the Middle-Ages.

Every Jewish family was pressured by Rabbis to become litterate when most people were illiterates. Combine that for several generations and you get a sustrainable advantage.

Here are two excellent books on the matter:

https://www.amazon.com/Chosen-Few-Education-Princeton-Economic/dp/0691163510

https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691153063/capitalism-and-the-jews

I second JohannQ on this. You might be interesting in reading this book: http://www.amazon.com/Start-up-Nation-Israels-Economic-Miracle/dp/0446541478/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410626536&sr=8-1&keywords=startup+nation

It explains to you Israel's economy and how successful their IT sector is.


In the introduction to the book, Shimon Perez talks about AI being an important technology in the next 20 years.

Nice, Silkroads is on my to read list, didn't know it talked about the Levant that much.

Nassim Taleb mentioned once, that the Levant, was the most economically prospersous region of the world for the longest time, from the discovery of agriculture to arguably the demise of the ottoman empire.

On that topic i think you'd like this book Levant: Splendour and Catastrophe on the Mediterranean basically focuses on the three great trade cities of the Ottoman Empire Smyrna, Alexandria and Beirut

Anyways, If you look at it through the context of history, the norm is for our region to be booming, it just seems that by fluke we were born at a time when its going through its current phase. 70 years of instability vs +4000 years of mostly prominence. Our current period is only temporary in the grad scheme of things i guess

I bought my girlfriend, whose Lebanese this one. We like it. It's nice and broad in its content.

Author also has a YouTube channel.
Taste of Beirut: 175+ Delicious Lebanese Recipes from Classics to Contemporary to Mezzes and More https://www.amazon.com/dp/0757317707/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_rIUKAbP7QH7TR

Check out Franck Salameh : Language, Memory, & identity in the Middle East and Charles Corm: An Intellectual Biography of a Twentieth-century Lebanese Young Phoen...

Beirut - Samir Kassir
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beirut-Samir-Kassir/dp/0520271262
I also suggest researching the author :)

Although I haven't read it, myself, Lebanon: A History, 600 - 2011 by William Harris comes highly recommended as a, thorough, yet contrite, and unbiased, yet delicate examination of Lebanon's history from 600AD - 2011.

Actually, if I'm not mistaken, there was an earlier post dealing with the same topic on this sub, no?

 

Update: Found the post

What do you think about this review of the book? https://www.amazon.ca/secrets-guerre-Liban-massacres-palestiniens/product-reviews/2226121277/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_show_all_btm?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews

>every single one of your sources are megaphones of IDF

John Merscheimer wrote an entire book against Israel. If The National Review is a "Megaphone for the Israeli Army" then why did they invite John Merscheimer to write new articles ? It's completely illogical.

The Economist is the most respected magazine in Britain. It was founded in the 1840. Bill Gates says "I read every issue of The Economist, from cover to cover, it makes me think critically"


You claim that the targets were not Iranians. When I give you sources explaining a proxy war is happening, you falsely accuse the sources of helping the Israeli Army. While still refusing to answer about your claim

I have a very hard time following you.

Has anyone read this book :
The Lebanese Connection: Corruption, Civil War, and the International Drug Traffic

http://www.amazon.com/The-Lebanese-Connection-Corruption-International/dp/0804781311

Ch.16 sections 5-7 of Arab Awakening, George Antonius

No you're wrong. Get a copy of that book and read those sections. It even has the letters sent between the Frangieh family and the French commanders discussing this in more detail (and more complicated than the way you are simplifying it to). I wish I had a copy with me to paste them here for you but I read this six years ago cover to cover and I remember distinctly being surprised when seeing Frangieh's name and then reading the letters he sent, asking the French to keep Lebanon only in the mountainous Christian areas to keep the country Christian. They so did not want to include the coast because they feared the country would slip back into Muslim rule and then they would be going back to "Ottoman" days.

Jesus you dont even have a primary-school level understanding of the Lebanese civil war or Lebanese history. Are you 12 years old by any chance?

All I can do is recommend that you read the following:

A House of Many Mansions by Kamal Salibi

Inventing Lebanon by Kais Firro

These are my favourite. I'm sure there are many other good ones. Pick one, read it. Then come back and discuss the Lebanese civil war and history


>It is the same reason why arabs are still at war with israel: a jewish majority. This is the imperialist ambitions of islam.

Ohh yeaaah. It's about the imperialist ambitions of Islam, not, you know, the Nakba or anything like that. What a goddamn dumbass. You're entirely clueless, I can only hope you're still in middle school.