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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 25 of 160 03 August 2009 at 11:50pm | IP Logged |
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Thank you. I am still a beginner in Arabic. I can read some things, but I still use the dictionary a lot, and by that I mean a LOT. So I wouldn't call myself literate quite yet. I try to read newspaper articles frequently, and now literature too, but that's not indicative of my prowess so much as my high ambitions! I have a pattern in language learning of turning to literature very quickly, often before I "can" read the literature (ie high comprehension rate without dictionary), because poetry and fiction are where my interests lie.
That said, I will endeavor to answer your questions anyway. I do not have any background in Arabic. I have not learned any Semitic languages in the past, either. However, I did tackle Chinese and (oh so long ago) Japanese, and I believe that my experience with these two non-romanized languages did help me pick up the Arabic alphabet very quickly, which saved a lot of time and trouble. You are right in guessing that I am attending classes. I am personally not a very self-motivated person unless I am REALLY EXCITED about something, and while I am REALLY EXCITED about literature, I am not REALLY EXCITED about grammar. So I thought it would be best to take a class as external factors like competition and approval really help keep me, personally, on track. My class ends this week, though, so we'll see if I get anything done for the rest of the summer! As with all classes, there are advantages and disadvantages; you are held to the pace of your classmates (whether that is faster or slower than you), but sometimes the questions of your fellow learners serve to illuminate in a way you hadn't even anticipated. So I would say that generally I am happy with my decision to take a class. Now that I've been walked through the most basic things, I feel comfortable enough to study on my own without fear of being too far off the mark, for the most part. Hours per day: I would say that I spend 3 to 5 hours a day on Arabic. Class takes up 2 hours. Weekends are a toss - I either do nothing or study for the whole day! So I think in general, my schedule is not too out of the ordinary for this forum, apart from the fact that I am taking a class (as opposed to one-on-one work, which I've seen references to). I don't know if there is anything useful to be gleaned from all this blather on my part, but I hope I was somehow helpful! Take care. Edited by bouda on 03 August 2009 at 11:54pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes Speaks: English* | Message 26 of 160 04 August 2009 at 1:54am | IP Logged |
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So today I bought the textbooks I plan to use after I have finished this one.
Al-Kitaab fii Ta3allum al-3arabiya Part Two - the second bit to my textbook A Reader in Modern Literary Arabic - Ziadeh - my teacher recommended this to me and I actually think it'll be good for me to go through a book that has already been annotated for me to some extent. With any luck this reader will help me learn the most important vocabulary. Also, two English translations of Arabic books (completely unrelated to my Arabic study as I do not have the Arabic editions - I just wanted to read these translations): Mahfouz's Karnak Cafe and a beautiful clothbound hardcover of Hakim Barakat's Six Days. TO DO TODAY: - review all grammar in textbook - review all vocab in textbook - memorize 2 chapters Edited by bouda on 04 August 2009 at 1:57am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes Speaks: English* | Message 27 of 160 04 August 2009 at 2:25am | IP Logged |
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I'm thinking of starting a new blog - or maybe just adding onto my current one - for
Chinese. I'm not too worried about my Chinese. It's true that my writing is weaker than my speaking/listening in Chinese, because I speak a LOT with native speakers who do not always speak textbook-grammatically and it's definitely rubbed off. (I don't mean that they speaks worser Chinese, obviously, but you know how in conversation, you might inject filler words or use a few sentence fragments in English - things like that.) But in general, I think I've reached a level of proficiency that I am relatively happy with, and I feel now that I'll be able to share my experience and knowledge with others. This exercise would have the added benefit of letting me keep my Chinese in shape and review the basics. If I do go along this path, I plan to: - post transcripts in pinyin and in simplified characters for videos, so that Chinese learners can follow along more easily - post lyrics and translation with music videos - perhaps create a short series of grammar lessons for a slightly above complete beginner level - I noticed while searching around for Chinese resources for my tutoring that there are a lot of podcasts, etc, for complete beginners, but there doesn't seem to be that much material for the bump between beginner and intermediate. - post some simple conversations (with transcript) for learners to supplement their studies with - post some readings from my favorite novels (with transcript) for more advanced learners. The main question for me is whether I want to create a new blog or keep it on my Arabic learning blog. The answer seems obvious - to keep these two things separate - but I don't like having to have a lot of links to my things. The other thing I would do before starting this venture is to post a short recording of me just speaking and ask for comments about my speed, tones, accent. I hear very few complaints about my accent, but perhaps this is out of politeness! People tend to be more honest on the internet in this respect. Let me know if this sounds like a good or a bad idea, ex if there's already too much of this kind of thing. Edited by bouda on 04 August 2009 at 2:28am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Akatsuki Triglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 6302 days ago 226 posts - 236 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, French, English Studies: Norwegian | Message 28 of 160 04 August 2009 at 3:23am | IP Logged |
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Thanks for your clarifications! They were what I was hoping for. I was thinking of studying Arabic myself but I am a bit scared of the alphabet. Whenever I see a text in Arabic the letters seem too small and I wonder how can that be read.
So overall, you'd recomend taking classes for beginners in Arabic? Edited by Akatsuki on 04 August 2009 at 3:27am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes Speaks: English* | Message 29 of 160 04 August 2009 at 5:01am | IP Logged |
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I think the alphabet is the least of your worries! To be honest, the alphabet was
relatively easy to catch onto. I put "relatively" here because I might just be brainwashed as to what "easy" means from memorizing thousands of characters, but seriously, it was not that bad. The first week or two took a little getting used to, but once you know it, you know it. It just needs practice. One thing that really helped me with the alphabet is that I started out by cramming it in one day, and then I completed my alphabet workbook soon after that, and then I just jumped right into my textbook. So I spent a lot of hours on my alphabet but not a lot of days - just enough to get used to it before going right ahead and dealing with it. Classes for beginners: I hesitate to recommend something outright - I think this is one question where the answer will depend more on your own learning style and preferences than anything else. I can say that for me, personally, a class was a good place to start, just because I had access to native speakers who could answer all my needling questions. Good luck with your Arabic! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes Speaks: English* | Message 30 of 160 04 August 2009 at 1:48pm | IP Logged |
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So I've been experimenting with Anki lately because I've heard so many good things
about it, but it's not really doing much for me the way I'm using it right now. At the moment, I'm just looking at the flashcard, remembering the Arabic, and visualizing the spelling of the word. This is good because it allows me to recognize words quickly, but I tend to learn the meanings of words quite quickly anyway without Anki, so it's not that big of a difference in speed there. The bad thing is that since I'm not actively writing the words down, it's all deluding me into thinking I know how to spell things when I actually don't. The solution is evident, but I have no wish to look at Anki, then write on my paper. So I might just go back to my simple wordlist method (too simple for many on this forum, I fear, but it works for me!). Perhaps when I have more flashcards in Anki than I have columns written down in my notebook, it'll be more useful then. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes Speaks: English* | Message 31 of 160 05 August 2009 at 12:49am | IP Logged |
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All right! I've figured out how I want to study Arabic next year, so that's all good.
And my test today was much easier than I thought it'd be. TO DO TODAY - Memorize at least 2 chapters... darn, I haven't started on my list of 6 at all! - Write presentation about myself - this should be easy, if worse comes to worse I can just adapt it from one of my journal entries. - Post in my learning blog. - Do some reading... I forgot my dictionary today and had to free read. I was really surprised at how much I picked up! Not 100% or even 80% probably, but enough to follow the bare bones of the story, which is more than I thought it would be. Speaking of dictionaries, I can't decide... I'm using Hans Wehr, and I have a hardcover of the fourth printing of the first edition. But I've gotten an offer to trade for a paperback of the fourth edition. I'm leaning towards trading (unless they don't let me - my hardcover isn't in PERFECT condition), but the hardcover has bigger print, which is nice, and it's pretty... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes Speaks: English* | Message 32 of 160 05 August 2009 at 4:13am | IP Logged |
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So my main, huge, GLARING gap comes in form of my listening skills. I have never been a
very good listener - much more the yammering fool sort - and it's definitely showing. I can follow along with simple things all right and my teachers don't usually prove problematic for me, but I turn on the news and I'm back to catching just words instead of sentences or phrases. I know that this is normal, but it's so frustrating! Going to go enter some supplementary vocab into Anki now. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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