On Sunday I officially started my Arabic language study. I think that sentence alone could suffice for explaining what my life has been like the past few days.
Arabic is a very interesting language, and so far my initial traipse into it has been fairly positive. It seems to me that structurally it is more similar to English than oh….say Greek. At least for now; we’ll see how I feel about all of this in a few weeks or months.
The most difficult part for me thus far has been forming and hearing the various sounds that we as English speakers either don’t use or don’t differentiate between. The hard “h” versus the “h” we use in English presents a challenge. Then there’s the “kh” sound which sounds like you’ve breathed too heavily while making a “k” sound. Oh and I’d be remiss if I forgot the “gh” sound which is similar to making a trilled “r” in the back of your throat.
That's an interesting one.
Enough of the linguistics lesson; I’ll tell a story from my first day of class. I’m sitting and listening to my nurturer (they aren’t called teachers…) point to pictures and say words again and again. After about two hours of this, he decides that it’s time for me to learn to speak. I was all for that. Unfortunately, the phrases he starts teaching me contain two different words that sound EXACTLY the same to me. I ask him to stop and say them back to back. I think he was messing with me cause it sounded like he just said the same word twice while telling me two different meanings. I laugh and say “I can’t hear a difference.” We spent the next 30 minutes on these two words and slowly separating out the sounds so that I could learn the difference. Believe me, the difference was/is minute.
I’m proud to say though, after 3 days of language, I’m beginning to recognize it. The majority of my learning at this point is just vocabulary and I imagine that I have close to 100 words by now.
These picture sheets show some of what I can either say or recognize. I’ll keep you informed as to my progress and assured blunders to come. Until next time…
4 comments:
Don't fret you will achieve the mastery of your new language. Keep studying! PS: Love the blog!! The Johnson's
Thanks for the encouragement. Don't worry, I'm sticking with it. Glad you like the blog. - Andrew
So do you speak in pictures too? Seriously, I think it's awesome that you have accomplished so much in this short period of time. KUDOS my friend. Keep up the great work! Look forward to hearing more.
TTYL
Andrew -- Hey guy I wanted to send you HAPPY 25TH BIRTHDAY wishes. I'm not sure if you are half a day ahead or behind us, so I'm sending you this tonight. I have enjoyed your blog so much.I check it every day,anxiously awaiting your next posting. It's nice to be able to hear of your exciting adventures! I think of you daily and speak to your Father often concerning you. Love, Kathy Sellers
Post a Comment