People very often ask me, "How did you learn Arabic?" It's a very long story! Here it is in its entirety, but feel free to skip through to the "Dos and Don'ts" from each section. Arabic was the first language I tried to learn "on my own," and although I was far from efficient, I learned a lot in the process.
Of course I didn't learn completely on my own - I had many teachers and friends who helped throughout the years. Arabic was simply the first language I took on out of my own initiative, outside of a traditional school setting. I am eternally grateful to all who lent me a hand and shared their language with me!
This story is so long, I'm splitting it into parts. Here's the first part of the journey:
Phase 1: High school
Duration: 3 years
I owe my start in the Arabic language to Ivan the Terrible. Yes. Ivan IV, Tsar of Russia.
See, I had this wonderful history teacher in high school named Mr. Arend. He absolutely loved Russian history, especially the epoch of the Tsars. He'd tell us animated stories about each of the Ivans, making history come alive. His passion was infectious and spread far beyond the domain of Russian imperialism; in fact, one of my classmates went on to study Chinese language and history at graduate level.
The first course with this teacher only covered the Middle East from the perspective of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but even then I was curious about all these other societies and empires that came and went in the region throughout time. Who were these Ummayads and Babylonians and Akkadians? Mr. Arend only mentioned their names briefly, as there wasn't enough space in the curriculum to cover them in more depth, but it was enough to alight my interest.
My second course with this teacher was an AP course on the entire history of the entire world. This is clearly too much to handle in one year. Mr. Arend encouraged us to become "experts" in one region of the world of our choice, and learn a little bit about all the other regions, in order to maximize our chances of passing the AP exam.
For some strange reason, every time we had a unit on the Middle East, I would get excited. I found it far more interesting than the other regions of the world. To this day, I have no idea why; some people like the color blue, and I liked the Middle East.
Somehow even at 15 I considered myself "a person who likes to learn languages," even though my highest proficiency level was 2nd-year German, so naturally my interest in ancient Middle Eastern history should lead to learning the Arabic language. I looked up the alphabet and practiced writing people's names phonetically on the edges of my notes during school. I learned some very simple phrases, which I used during my senior project when I did an online exchange between students in my school and Iraq.
A few months ago, I rediscovered my high school graduation cap, upon which I'd adorably tried to write "سلام" (peace), but mistakenly wrote "سلم" (to greet, to surrender, or a ladder, depending on the short vowels/context). "A" for effort!
In three years time, however, I'd not even arrived at a basic A1 level. I had no concept of learning quickly, speaking as soon as possible... anything.
Do: Get inspired
Do: Learn about other cultures
Do: Use the language even if you make mistakes
Don't: Spend three years just doodling letters and repeating "Hello, how are you?"
Phase 2: Arabic and Saudi Clubs
Duration: 2 years
When I went on to university, I joined my school's Middle Eastern Cultures and Languages Club, at that time run by Nazir Harb. His course, and the lessons kindly given to me by his successor Aacer the following year, gave me a solid foundation in Arabic grammar and basic expressions. To this day the book he used, "Easy Arabic Grammar," is my favorite Arabic resource. Unfortunately I was not a dedicated enough student to practice outside of class
I also joined our university's Ramadan gatherings and Saudi Student Association, where I met who would eventually become my lovely husband! As time went on, I made many friends in Saudi club, and was often more excited to go and chat with people than my husband. The Saudi ladies and I would exchange a few words from time to time, but we never really tried to speak.
I preferred to try out my Arabic on their kids. Looking back, this was probably not the smartest idea. Of course it was great that I was attempting to use my weak Arabic at all, but those kids were being raised bilingually and would often mix up Arabic and English ("hinna car!"), so they probably weren't the best teachers.
Do: Check out the book "Easy Arabic Grammar," by Jane Wightwick and Mahmoud Gaafar
Do: Get a solid foundation in MSA
Do: Try your best to use what language you have
Do: Spend time with native speakers, for both language and cultural reasons
Don't: Practice speaking primarily with semi-bilingual preschoolers who have no idea which language they are currently speaking, if any
Don't: Study mainly grammar, take only weekly classes and rarely study, and never try to carry on a full conversation!
Phase 3: Syria, with a dash of Egypt and Lebanon
Duration: 6 months
I was greeted at the airport by a former classmate of my husband. They spoke good English, but from the first I was learning new words!
I recall the first time I tried to talk with their little 5-year-old cousin in MSA. She immediately covered her ears and said "I don't need to know how to talk like that!" She hadn't started school yet, so she knew little about MSA or why she'd need to learn it too. It was definitely a big wake-up call to the need to learn a dialect! Within the first couple weeks I had to get established in Damascus all in my incredibly weak Arabic; I was completely out of touch with the world for a while because when I bought a sim card, I didn't understand that I had to fill out additional paperwork later, so they cut off my service after two weeks.
For both MSA and dialect, I faced a steep learning curve. Taking the bus was a huge challenge because my reading speed was so slow that before I managed to read the label on the bus, it would take off! I started just jumping on a bus and crossing my fingers that I'd end up in the right place. For a long time thereafter my reading speed was incredibly slow; I could recognize the letters but putting them together was painful.
Host family:
After a crazy housing situation story, I landed with a host family where I had five lovely host sisters. They taught me so much - about Arabic, Syrian culture, about people in general. They treated me like a sister, and I got the label of "the one who doesn't understand anything." They put up with me as I went through culture shock for the first time. The only one who spoke some English was working two jobs, so until she came home at night, I had to speak Arabic all the time! One girl could translate individual vocabulary words if I wrote them down, but had a very hard time speaking.
In spite of the struggles I went through in the household, my Arabic improved much more quickly out of necessity than my few American friends who lived on their own or with other foreigners. I eventually moved out with an American roommate in order to have a bit more of my own space (psychologically moreso than physically; I didn't mind living in close quarters with others), but besides the fact that I got into a bad habit of using only the feminine second person from speaking with my host sisters, my Arabic benefitted greatly from immersion.
Official Arabic study:
Thanks to my time with Arabic Club, I placed into level 4 out of 8 for grammar knowledge. Speaking and writing and vocabulary and such... I placed into level 2. They averaged it out and put me in level 3, and wow, was that a struggle! I constantly felt lost and behind, although I definitely learned a lot from the experience.
During my one-month stint at the University of Damascus Arabic Language Program, I was continuously bewildered by my classmates. They would come only for the Arabic program, arriving just before and leaving right after. We were given so much homework and coursework that if you want to actually learn the material effectively, you have to go home immediately after class study for the rest of the day. And my classmates would do this!! Seriously, they'd spend their time in Syria without hardly ever leaving their rooms, let alone interacting with Syrians!!
My approach was very different. I came to Syria not just for the language, but also to learn about the culture. I miraculously passed the class with the minimum required grade, but I have no regrets about the enriched experiences I had instead.
Afterwards I tried to switch to a different institute housed within a mosque that was said to go at a more moderate pace (and was way cheaper), but it was Ramadan and the mosque was changing leadership so that was impossible. And so, I opted for the highly common route chosen by foreigners studying in Damascus: Take 1-2 months of language courses at the university, then switch to a private tutor a few times a week.
In spite of what I said above about really needing to speak a dialect, I am very thankful that I had a foundation in MSA first. I watched several classmates who'd learned only "3amiyya" (dialect) struggle immensely during our MSA course - even more than me, with my level 2 speaking ability. Arabic dialect is essentially simplified and mildly distorted MSA with loan words and local vocabulary, and in my opinion, it is MUCH easier to go from MSA to dialect. Learning MSA first also helps you switch between dialects more easily. I'll write more about this later, but I'm glad I didn't have to go through what they did.
Do: Immerse yourself
Do: Have no fear of making mistakes
Do: Improve your reading speed
Do: Get a solid foundation in MSA before starting into a dialect
Do: Focus on learning a dialect afterwards
Do: Be aware of the differences between dialects
Do: Become culturally informed
Do: Get lost ;-)
Don't: Only spend time with people of one gender (not good for Arabic grammar)
Don't: Stay in your room and only study MSA all day. Get out and interact!
