|
 |
What makes Arabic difficult? | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Woodpecker Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5816 days ago 351 posts - 590 votes  Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Arabic (Egyptian) Studies: Arabic (classical) | Message 17 of 53 12 October 2009 at 7:29am | IP Logged | ||
|
The most huge and obvious difference between Arabic and Hebrew is that one doesn't have to learn two languages to communicate effectively in Hebrew.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ulrike Tetraglot Newbie Germany Joined 5566 days ago 23 posts - 27 votes Speaks: German*, Latin, English, French Studies: Persian, Arabic (classical) | Message 18 of 53 12 October 2009 at 11:19am | IP Logged | ||
|
Working through an Arabic textbook I have come to the conclusion that the biggest difficulty to me is the pronounciation of the emphatic consonants. Everything else cannot be learned as quickly as if it was a part of an indo-european language. With a little bit of patience and some hard work it can be achieved.
Myself I try to work a little bit every day. A quarter of an hour or half an hour is better than not study at all and I notice a slow, but steady progress. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| snoppingasusual Quadrilingual Hexaglot Groupie Lebanon Joined 5572 days ago 49 posts - 65 votes Speaks: Arabic (Egyptian), French*, English*, Arabic (Written)*, Arabic (Levantine)*, Spanish | Message 19 of 53 12 October 2009 at 4:29pm | IP Logged | ||
Six exceptions to this rule are: Qwait, Lebanon, Sudan, Iraq, Jordan, and Morocco. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Fazla Hexaglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6267 days ago 166 posts - 255 votes Speaks: Italian, Serbo-Croatian*, English, Russian, Portuguese, French Studies: Arabic (classical), German, Turkish, Mandarin | Message 20 of 53 12 October 2009 at 9:15pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I definitely do not get why people make such a big fuzz about Arabic alphabet. It was seriously the easiest aspect of Arabic. It's like cursive.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Woodpecker Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5816 days ago 351 posts - 590 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Arabic (Egyptian) Studies: Arabic (classical) | Message 21 of 53 12 October 2009 at 10:05pm | IP Logged | ||
I think that's a very good point. Not only is the script not hard to learn, it's very efficient. Assuming I can think at equal speed, I can actually already write in Arabic faster than I can write in English, and my Arabic is still quite bad. Perhaps it's because my handwriting stinks, but still, there's something to be said for the efficacy of a standardized cursive. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| xtremelingo Trilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6292 days ago 398 posts - 515 votes Speaks: English*, Hindi*, Punjabi* Studies: German, French, Arabic (Written) | Message 22 of 53 12 October 2009 at 10:49pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I am glad someone pointed out that it is like "cursive." That's exactly how I see it too. It is like right->left cursive. Also, I don't think it's really that hard to read/write it at all. It *looks* intimidating but when you get the hang of it, it's quite easy. Oddly enough, I also find it easier and faster to read right --> left. It feels very natural. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| delta910 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5880 days ago 267 posts - 313 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Dutch, German | Message 23 of 53 12 October 2009 at 11:17pm | IP Logged | ||
I agree. The script was really easy to learn. To me the hardest thing about the language would be some of the sounds and some grammar but other than that. I don't find it that difficult. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ANK47 Triglot Senior Member United States thearabicstudent.blo Joined 7102 days ago 188 posts - 259 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Arabic (classical) | Message 24 of 53 13 October 2009 at 3:20am | IP Logged | ||
|
Why is Arabic difficult for English speakers?
Well, it is totally foreign. You have to start from scratch. Never having studied French an English speaker can understand many of the words due to the many Latin roots that both French and English share. Succomber = to succumb, traverse = to cross (to traverse), fixer = to fix. You know 1/4 of the language before you even start learning it. On the other hand, Arabic is entirely foreign to English. You get no head start on Arabic if you know English. Another thing that plays a part in making Arabic difficult is the fact that there are so many dialects. If someone is learning English, once you know one version of English, let's say British English, you can pretty much understand any English. With Arabic, once you know MSA you aren't going to be able to understand the dialects without studying them specifically. There are many similarities that you notice once you start learning a dialect (and already know MSA) which make the dialects easier to learn than if you had just started learning one without first studying MSA, but it still isn't simple to learn them. Something that seems to be obvious that make Arabic difficult is the pronunciation. I know people who have been studying Arabic for years but who still are not understood by Arabs. They speak Arabic with an American accent which is something you really can't do if you want to be understood. Personally I think accent is something some people are just born being able to imitate. It's not something you can learn as far as I'm concerned. Many people who have been studying a language for a long time and even living in the country for decades still have accents. It's a rare person who can learn a language and speak it without an accent. Arabs are really amazed when they come across a person who learned Arabic and speaks it like a native (or even close to a native proficiency). Here is a video of an Irish guy speaking Saudi Arabic like a native. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLTZminxf6Q&feature=related They had the guy on TV just because of how well he could speak Arabic. That says something about how rare it is to find someone who isn't a native Arab who can speak Arabic fluently and without accent. There are just so many letters that aren't found in English (or in ANY language for that matter). 3 persons have voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
