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ArabicHow's Arabic Coming Along?In a previous post I talked about beginning to learn Arabic. Recently, I was asked twice about how my Arabic is coming along. My answer was, "I've come a long way, but I have a long way to go." The best thing I did was start with the Alif Baa book and DVDs. I went through it carefully and did the exercises. It took several weeks and many hours, but I began to learn the various shapes of the letters and how they connected together. Most importantly, I began to learn the difference between those letters that are similar and how to pronounce or hear the "velarized" forms. I regret that I didn't continue practicing handwriting and want to get a book on Arabic handwriting. I also didn't finish the whole book. I've had to go back and study the last sections (about taa marbuta for example). I tried to use the next book in that series, Al Kitaab. I was not able to use that book studying on my own. It was not helpful to me at all, and I eventually returned it to the library. Maybe after i progress further I might be able to gain from it. The second best thing I did was to start with Rosetta Stone. I purchased a three-month subscription for the online version. It worked fairly well for me. Only one time did I have a technical problem. It may have had something to do with an update they were making to the online version. Over the course of a weekend I was not able to go on to the next screen. It just wouldn't load. I suppose it's understandable that I received no response from tech support. On Monday after their update everything worked fine again. I dutifully reported that my problem had been resolved. Still, it would have been nice to have received some acknowledgment from tech support. I get the idea that Rosetta Stone wants people to learn a language in a "natural" way by seeing images that provide a linguistic context. The focus for language study is the interaction with people in typical settings. From what I can tell, Rosetta Stone has "set in stone" one set of images and cultural interactions and then translated that into many, if not most, of the world's languages. There is something very artificial about that. The images, while showing people from various ethnic groups, represent a particular kind of urban, western culture. It can seem odd or even ridiculous at times to see blond, white people talking about situations that are quite foreign to most of Arab culture. At least one can say Rosetta Stone fails to include anything that is unique to the cultures which formed the languages they teach. They should have used images to teach languages framed within the culture of that language. Not every culture looks the same and interacts in the same way with the same kinds of linguistic features. Many people study a second language as an adult and by that time have learned something about how languages work. As a child we learn language through repeated encounters with language over many years. A more sophisticated -- and quicker -- approach is to understand how a language works in comparison to a known language. To my mind, both of these approaches are important aspects of learning a language. I think Rosetta Stone could do much more to help people learn language if they provided more tools for learning, such as grammatical explanations, vocabulary learning modules, and more interactive features that build on concepts. The other problem for Arabic is that Rosetta Stone seems to be teaching Modern Standard Arabic. That makes sense to teach the form of Arabic most widely used for formal communication. Since no one actually talks that way to each other, it has a whole other type of artificiality to it. I would love to use Rosetta Stone to learn Eastern (Levantine, Syrian) colloquial Arabic. Many people seem to focus on one of the other "dialects." In order for Rosetta Stone to fulfill its function, it would need to develop the series for each one of these Arabic colloquial dialects -- as happens with Spanish for Latin America, for example. The third great benefit to me has been good dictionaries. The Arabic Practical Dictionary (Awda & Smith) has been immensely helpful. It is an Arabic-English and English-Arabic dictionary. The Arabic section is alphabetical, which makes it easy to find the various forms of words irrespective of their root words. I've also started using the Hans Wehr Ararbic-English dictionary, which is based on the root words. It can make it a little more challenging to find words, if you can't figure out what the three (or sometimes more) radical root letters are. I feel I'm floundering a bit now. I continue to work at different aspects of Arabic using the Cowan Modern Literary Arabic and Wightwick/Gaafar Arabic Verbs & Essentials of Grammar. I'm not making steady progress through the language like I felt I was making with Rosetta Stone (I stopped using it after the initial three months was up). I have tried a few language-learning social websites like italki and VoxSwap. I've been unsuccessful finding anyone who actually wants to learn English from me and teach me Arabic. I think most people are just using it the web sites to chat with people around the world. I even received an email from some woman.
I don't know how she could discern all of that from my profile. My wife could set her straight about a few things. I hope soon to find an online tutor to work with over the next three or four months before traveling to Palestine. I have looked at some online sites, like Myngle , but I'm not confident that someone I find on the internet will be professional and worth the amount people are charging for the service. There are two online services I'm finding extremely helpful for the study of classical Arabic (MSA). One is the UK web site Natural Arabic. For $7 a month or $1.75 per article, you can read an Arabic text that is representative of contemporary or classical Arabic literature. You can view the Arabic either with vowels or vowel-less and also in transliteration. The English contains a choice between a good English translation or a word-for-word translation. The two texts are linked so that clicking on a word in one highlights that word in that text and in the parallel text. You hear the Arabic in a clear voice. You can either either each word individually by clicking on the word or using key strokes, or you can play the audio of the whole article and follow the red highlighting. I need to use Internet Explorer to use the site, though there are directions for how to make it work in Firefox. Last week I happened across a web site for a software package called ArabBible . The complete Arabic New Testament (Van Dyke translation) is the base text. This is an incredible amount of information. Every word is provided with detailed information about the word, its meaning, root, various forms, function, etc. For most verbs you can see a chart of its complete conjugation. Since I'm going to be teaching a New Testament class to Arabic-speaking people through an interpreter, this will be an invaluable tool for me to study the Arabic New Testament and learn classical Arabic as I go. And you can hear a good, clear voice reciting the Arabic either a verse or a chapter at a time. Another terrific feature is the ability to print out a vocabulary list for a complete chapter. The cost is only $89. There are a few oddities. Perhaps it's my screen resolution, but some parts of the software's interface don't line up quite right. The author, an evangelical Christian, has chosen to change the Van Dyke translation and not use Allah but the generic al-Ilaah. The notes on each verse seem to also contain comments about the Greek text. I haven't read through very many of these notes yet, but I don't put much confidence in the author's understanding of Greek. That judgment might be too hasty. All in all, this is a fantastic tool for studying classical Arabic. I have the book on Eastern Arabic and have gone through it a little bit with the accompanying mp3 files. It's difficult to go through it by oneself. One day I actually took some stuffed animals (a Pooh bear and a Valentine's bear) and pretended they were speaking Arabic to each other. Right now I have no other way to practice. Like I say, I have a long way to go. So far I'm enjoying the journey and continue to be excited about learning Arabic and coming to understand more about Arab culture. By seidti at 05/13/2008 - 12:21pm | Arabic | Sabbatical | seidti's blog | login or register to post comments | by seidti
Beginning to Learn ArabicSeveral years ago I had the idea of learning Arabic. I talked with someone and that person discouraged me from doing that. I wish I hadn't listened to her. But now does seem like the right time for me to do this, not only because I'm preparing for a six-month sabbatical but also because I'm turning 50. Rather than a mid-life crisis (yes, I'm hoping to live to 100 like my paternal grandmother), I'm trying to create a mid-life opportunity for growth. One of the best things that happened was coming across the book Alif Baa in the library. During a week's vacation I studied through that book and the accompanying DVD. I think it helped me to get a good start with recognizing Arabic letters, how to write them, and how to pronounce them properly. I've tried to go on to the next book in this series Al-Kitaab, but it is not working well as a text for learning on one's own. My wife, bless her heart, let me spend the money for a subscription to Rosetta Stone online. I've been working on that about two or three hours a day in the evening. It's great for what it's intended to do. But I don't know what it would be like if I weren't also studying vocabulary and grammar with other resources. I'm finding Amazon.com extremely helpful, as always. It's great to be able to read reviews of people who have worked with the available books and software. For the level I'm at, the Arabic Practical Dictionary is just what I need. I'm using Arabic Verbs & Essentials of Grammar by Wightwick & Gaafar. I also bought a used copy of what seems to be a concise, classic text on Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Literary Arabic by Cowan. I've also just ordered two books with audio CDs. These are intended to help me develop abilities with conversation in the dialect of Arabic spoken in Palestine: Teach Yourself Arabic Conversation (3CDs + Guide) by Wightwick & Gaafar and Instant Immersion Arabic. In a few months I will want to get The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic.
I looked for software to help me study vocabulary. I downloaded the trial versions of Verb Clinic and Vocab Clinic. Both have extensive databases of information with really good sound files. But there isn't much there for helping a person to study terms like one would with a flash cards. The program Before You Know It has a really good interface and well-designed program for studying vocabulary words. I spent the money to get the full version so I can add my own vocabulary words. My problems with BYKI for Arabic: One is the voice of the Arabic speaker in the sound files that come with the program--really difficult to listen to; the other is that when you type in new Arabic words the tops of the letters are not visible. It's still a good program. And it comes with mp3 files with the Arabic word and an English translation. I'll mention one more type of resource. These are social web sites with the focus on language learning. I haven't actually used one of them yet. I have registered in iTalki. The other is VoxSwap. I really like the premise of Myngle as a way to get language tutors and students together. For some unknown fee per session with a teacher, Myngle provides the audio/video technology for learning a language online. There are only a few who advertise teaching Arabic and only one who looks professional. Right now it's more than I want to spend for language instruction. Eventually I'll give iTalki a try and spend time teaching someone English in exchange for teaching me some Arabic. God willing إن شاء الله Note: One of the most difficult aspects of learning Arabic is the print is always so tiny. I spend most of the time with my glasses on the end of my nose trying to read the small letters. I've even been using a magnifying glass. One other thing. I got my laptop computer set up in Windows so I can very easily switch to typing Arabic. It's fantastic. God bless unicode. One problem. I can't seem to get the diacritical marks to appear when typing in Microsoft Word. Very strange. The irony is, after all my resistance to adopting OpenOffice, I've discovered typing Arabic in OO works very well. No, one more thing. I've found mp3 files of the recitation of the Qur'an. There's one set in which the Arabic is given (chanted) by phrases with an English translation following. Very meditative. Beautiful. I've found a ton of resources on the Internet. Here are my bookmarks of Arabic resources. The order is the order in which I have discovered the web sites.
By seidti at 03/08/2008 - 7:59pm | Arabic | Sabbatical | seidti's blog | login or register to post comments | by seidti
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