Learn how to make complaints at a hotel
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone, and welcome back to ArabicPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 16 - Making a Complaint at an Egyptian Hotel. I’m Becky. |
| Hany: مرحبا I'm Hany. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to make a complaint about a hotel room to the reception. The conversation takes place at a hotel, over the phone. |
| Hany: It's between Karim and a Receptionist. |
| Becky: The speakers are strangers, and they will use a mixture of formal and informal Arabic. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| كريم: ألو |
| موظفة الاستقبال: أهلاً وسهلاً, الاستقبال مع حضرتك. |
| كريم: لو سمحت, أود التحدث مع المدير. |
| موظفة الاستقبال: ما الأمر يا أستاذ؟ إذا لم تكن راضياً عن خدمات الفندق, اخبرنا و نحن سوف نتولى الأمر. |
| كريم: أنا لست راض عن الكثير من الأشياء! ملائة السرير متسخة, و غطاء الوسادة رائحته غريبة. |
| موظفة الاستقبال: آسفون جداً يا أستاذ. سوف أبعث بأحد ليغيرهم فوراً. |
| كريم: ليس هذا فقط! فباب الحمام لا يغلق, و ريموت التلفاز لا يعمل. ما هذه الغرفة؟ |
| موظفة الاستقبال: نحن متأسفون جداً يا أستاذ. سوف ننقلك إلى غرفة أخرى حالاً! |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Karim: Hello. |
| Receptionist: Hello sir, reception speaking. |
| Karim: Excuse me, I need to speak to the manager. |
| Receptionist: What is it, sir? If you aren't satisfied with our services, tell us, and we will handle it. |
| Karim: I'm not satisfied with a lot of things! The bed sheets are dirty, the pillowcase has a weird smell to it. |
| Receptionist: We are very sorry, sir! We will send someone to change them immediately. |
| Karim: Not just those! The bathroom door doesn't close, and the TV remote control isn't working. What is this room?! |
| Receptionist: We are extremely sorry, sir. We will move you to another room right away! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Hany, could you tell us something about hotels in Egypt? |
| Hany: The hotel industry is huge in Egypt and all the big hotel chains are represented there. |
| Becky: Can you even find Hilton, Movenpick or Holiday Inn hotels? |
| Hany: Yes, you can find those. |
| Becky: What if we have issues, like Karim did in the dialogue? |
| Hany: Hospitality is cherished, so feel free to complain to the hotel staff because they are sure to help you. If you feel like you aren't getting what you paid for, don't be afraid to ask to see the manager. |
| Becky: That’s quite serious, though, isn’t it? |
| Hany: Right, leave it as a last resort, because it is the most effective way to make sure your complaint is heard, and make it clear that you will fight for your rights, no matter what. |
| Becky: In case the need arises, what’s the Arabic for “manager”? |
| Hany: المدير |
| Becky: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Hany: ألو [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Hello (on the phone) |
| Hany: ألو[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: ألو [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: ود [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to want |
| Hany: ود[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: ود [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: الأمر [natural native speed] |
| Becky: the matter |
| Hany: الأمر[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: الأمر [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: راضي [natural native speed] |
| Becky: satisfied |
| Hany: راضي[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: راضي [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: خدمة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: service |
| Hany: خدمة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: خدمة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: تولى [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to take charge of |
| Hany: تولى[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: تولى [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: ملائة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: bed sheet |
| Hany: ملائة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: ملائة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: متسخ [natural native speed] |
| Becky: dirty |
| Hany: متسخ[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: متسخ [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: غطاء [natural native speed] |
| Becky: cover |
| Hany: غطاء[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: غطاء [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And last.. |
| Hany: وسادة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: pillow |
| Hany: وسادة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: وسادة [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is.. |
| Hany: تَوَلّى الأَمر |
| Becky: meaning "to handle the situation" |
| Hany: This expression is made up of 2 words: tawallaa meaning "to take charge of", and al-amr meaning "the matter." |
| Becky: So literally it means "to take charge of the matter" or more commonly "to handle the situation". You use it when talking about business, work, and very serious matters. |
| Hany: That’s right. It isn't commonly used to talk about everyday situations. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Hany: Sure. For example, you can say.. عُد إلى الشَرِكَة و أَنا سَأَتَوَلّى الأَمر. |
| Becky: ..which means "Go back to the company and I will take care of the situation." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Hany: We have two words, حالاًً and فَوْراً |
| Becky: both meaning "immediately." They both imply ultimate urgency and are used only with pressing matters. |
| Hany: Using them as a reply when someone asks you a favor implies politeness and care for the asker's needs. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Hany: Sure. For example, you can say.. اِتَّصِل بِرَئيس الوُزَراءِ حالاً! |
| Becky: .. which means "Call the prime minister right now!" |
| Becky: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Becky: In this lesson, you'll learn about making complaints at a hotel. |
| Hany: We’ll also talk about how to form the genitive case in Arabic. |
| Becky: Let’s start by saying that the genitive case is when you want to specify that a certain thing is associated with another thing, like when in English you say “the doorbell” or “the mirror frame,” for example. You are talking about the bell or the frame, but you want to specify that the bell BELONGS to the door, and the frame to the mirror. |
| Hany: Another way to use the genitive case is for possession, like saying “Hany’s book,” for example. |
| Becky: Also here, we mean to talk about the book, but need to specify that the book belongs to Hany at the same time. |
| Hany: The genitive case applies new vowelling rules that are different from the raf’ and nasb vowelling states, and the dammah and fatha vowelling signs. |
| Becky: That means we will learn a new vowelling state and a new vowelling sign in this lesson, so stay focused! |
| Hany:First, let’s go over the components of a “genitive case phrase”, which in Arabic is جمل الإضافة |
| Becky: A genitive case phrase consists of 2 main components |
| Hany: the مضاف (mudaaf) |
| Becky: literally meaning "added” |
| Hany: and the مضاف إليه (mudaaf ilaih) |
| Becky: literally meaning "added to”. As we already mentioned, the genitive case helps us specify the object in question. Let’s see an example from the dialogue. |
| Hany: ملائة السرير متسخة (milāʾaẗu al-sarīri muttasiḫah) |
| Becky: meaning “The bed sheets are dirty.” |
| Hany: In this example the mudaaf, which is the object in question, is milāʾaẗu, |
| Becky: which means “sheets” |
| Hany: while the mudaaf ilaih, which is the word added to the mudaaf to make it more specific, is al-sarīri |
| Becky: which means “the bed” |
| Hany: all together, milāʾaẗu al-sarīri |
| Becky: or “the bed sheets.” Now let’s see the vowelling. |
| Hany: The mudaaf is vowelled according to its position in the sentence, so it’s not affected by the mudaaf ilaih. The mudaaf ilaih, on the other hand, is always in a vowelling state called jarr /جَرّ, which causes the nouns and adjectives to always end in a kasrah (an i sound) |
| Becky: as long as they satisfy three conditions, which are, first, they are singular nouns or adjectives, with NO suffixes; second, they end in a consonant and third; they are NOT proper nouns. |
| Hany: Let’s take the sentence we just gave as an example. The mudaaf which is milaa’atu meaning “sheets”, is in the mubtada’ position, and that’s why it is in the raf’ state with the dammah vowelling sign uُ in the end. |
| Becky: Listeners, if you don’t understand this part, please go back over the previous lessons in this series. |
| Hany: The new position we’re learning in this lesson, though, is the mudaaf ilaih, which in the example is al-sariiri meaning “the bed”. As we already mentioned, the mudaaf ilaih will gain a kasrah in the end as long as it follows the rules, which in this case, it does. |
| Becky: Let’s see another example from the dialogue. |
| Hany: غطاء الوسادة رائحته غريبة. (ūġiṭāʾu al-wisādaẗi rāʾiḥatahu ġarībah.) |
| Becky: meaning “The pillowcase smells weird.” Here also, both the elements of the genitive phrase follow the rules we mentioned. |
| Hany: Right, the word ghitaa’u meaning “case,” is a mubtada’, and that’s why it has the u sound in the end because it has a damma final vowelling. Al-wisaadati, meaning “the pillow,” is a mudaaf ilaih which follows the three conditions mentioned before, and that’s why it will gain a jarr state with a kasrah final vowelling sign i ِ. |
| Becky: In Arabic, a word like “receptionist” can be considered a genitive phrase. |
| Hany: That’s right, we say موظفة الاستقبال (muwazafatu al-istiqbaali) |
| Becky: Let’s break it down. |
| Hany: muwazafatu means “employee,” and al-istiqbal means “the receiving.” |
| Becky: Together, they mean “the receptionist” or literally “the employee associated with the receiving”. It might sound weird if you translate it literally, but many other Arabic nouns were formed based on loanwords from English and French, and the only way to form expressions that made sense, was to use the genitive case. Ok, let’s now go ahead and learn how to specify the object that we intend to talk about, and avoid lots of confusion when explaining an issue to the receptionist, for example, like we saw in the dialogue, or in any other context in your daily life. |
| Hany: At school, when we learn the genitive phrase for the first time, we tend to get confused between the adjective or na’t and the mudaaf ilaih that we just learned. |
| Becky: The reason behind that confusion is that they both contain two words: a noun, and a word that describes or specifies that noun. To avoid confusion, you just need to ask yourself, is the second word an adjective that DESCRIBES the noun before it? Or is it a noun that SPECIFIES what the noun before it belongs to? |
| Hany: If it DESCRIBES the noun before it, then it is an adjective. For example, يوجد شقة واسعة. (yūǧadu šaqqatun waāsiʿatun) |
| Becky: meaning “There is a big apartment.” Note how the word “big” describes the apartment. |
| Hany: If it SPECIFIES what the noun before it belongs to, then it is a mudaaf ilaih. For example خدمات الفندق (hadamaatu al funduq). Note how the word al-funduq meaning “hotel” SPECIFIES that the word hadamaat (“services”) belongs to the hotel. |
| Becky: They don’t DESCRIBE the services with a quality, for example as good or bad. |
| Hany: It’s important to be able to tell which is which, because each of them have different vowelling states and signs. |
| Becky: Ok, let’s wrap up this lesson with a couple of sample sentences. |
| Hany: Sure! أَتُريدُ ساعَةَ يَد أَم ساعَةَ حائِط؟ (ʾaturīdu sāʿaẗa yad ʾam sāʿaẗa ḥāʾiṭ?) |
| Becky: "Do you want a wrist watch, or a clock?" |
| Hany: هَذا المَحَل يَبيعُ دِهانات حَوَائِط. (haḏā al-maḥal yabīʿu dihānāt ḥawaāʾiṭ.) |
| Becky: "This store sells wall paint." |
Outro |
| Becky: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Hany: شكرا |
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