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 AM [.....] IN SEARCH OF A MAN WHO UNDERSTANDS THE MEANING OF LOVE AS TRUST AND FAITH IN EACH OTHER RATHER THAN ONE WHO SEES LOVE AS ONLY A WAY OF FUN BUT A MATURE MAN WITH NICE VISSION OF WHAT THE WORLD IS ALL ABOUT AND AFTER READING YOUR PROFILE I TOOK INTEREST IN YOU SO REPLY TO ME

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.