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TAC 2013 Team Alef (Mid-Eastern) TEAM LOG | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6621 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes  Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 25 of 168 14 December 2012 at 5:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'll put strikingstar on my list, but please remember to tell me of anyone who joins the team in the future.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JohannaNYC Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4453 days ago 251 posts - 361 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, Italian Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Arabic (Egyptian) | Message 26 of 168 14 December 2012 at 5:57pm | IP Logged | ||
I was about to, but you're too fast for me. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| JohannaNYC Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4453 days ago 251 posts - 361 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, Italian Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Arabic (Egyptian) | Message 27 of 168 14 December 2012 at 6:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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I guess it's time for introductions so we know where we're coming from.
Feel free to make it short or long. I've been trying to learn Egyptian Arabic on and off for the last 3-4 years (more off than on). During this time I've done the Pimsleur course many times, but the lack of resources for this dialect (or my ignorance of what was available) was very discouraging. Luckily I found out through this forum that the Michel Thomas course is in the Egyptian dialect so now I'm once again all excited about learning on my own. I'm also learning to write Arabic script in order to acquire new vocabulary and know how to pronounce it correctly. But even in writing I'm concentrating more on Egyptian than on MSA, as unlike other dialects there's a good body of literature and popular books written in this dialect. In other words I'm still very much a beginner. So why not other dialects? It's because of the music. I teach and perform Oriental Dance (belly dance) so I want to know the meaning of the songs I'm using without depending on the internet. Also most of the internationally known songs are sung in this dialect regardless of the singer's country of origin. Of course, I'd also like to know the language when I visit Egypt sometime in the future. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Jappy58 Bilingual Super Polyglot Senior Member United States Joined 4639 days ago 200 posts - 413 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Guarani*, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Maghribi), Arabic (Written), French, English, Persian, Quechua, Portuguese Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 28 of 168 15 December 2012 at 2:58am | IP Logged | ||
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Hello, all! I'm not currently learning a Middle Eastern language, but I'd like to state that for those learning Arabic and Persian - I'm eager to help! I studied Arabic for about 5-6 years (it was my first language that I tackled out of interest), and Persian for about 4 years.
To be more specific: I started with Modern Standard Arabic, mostly because it had the most resources (and still does) out of any form of Arabic. I became interested in Arabic because I had friends from several Arabic countries - mainly Morocco, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Tunisia. I focused on MSA for about 3.5 years - it was difficult at first because materials were difficult to work with, but eventually I got to the point that I would now consider B2, and decided to branch off to my first dialect. At first, I was interested in learning the Moroccan dialect, but back then resources were extremely scarce for the dialect, so I ended up starting with Egyptian. I focused on Egyption for 6-8 months before I was able to have a trip abroad to Egypt for a few months. After this, my command of the dialect increased significantly, and when I got home I simply refined what I learned and kept practicing. From there, I went back to Moroccan. Resources were still scarce, but I had a stronger foundation now that I had both MSA and Egyptian under my belt. To my surprise, Moroccan shares a lot with other dialects, despite seeming so divergent on the surface. I focused on Moroccan for about five months and luckily was able to fund a trip to Morocco for three months. After Moroccan, I tackled Levantine, which was surprisingly accessible after having studied the other two dialects. I focused on this dialect for about five months. After these three dialects, I was able to understand most other Arabic dialects (Algerian, Tunisian, Libyan, Sudanese, Iraqi, Gulf, and with some effort, Yemeni). My advice about Arabic: 1. Do NOT let the diglossia discourage you: MSA and the dialects are far more closely intertwined than some people give them credit for; yes, the gap is wider than most other languages, but not to the point where Arabic deserves its notorious reputation. 2. Learn WHICHEVER dialect you're interested in: Clearly, the amount of resources is important in deciding this, but my point is that you should study a dialect that fascinates you. Yes, Egyptian is awesome and is widely understood, but the same could be said about Levantine. Contrary to popular belief, Moroccan Arabic and other Maghrebi dialects are more "Arabic" than they are given credit for. The low mutual intelligibility between Maghrebi and Mashriqi dialects has mostly to do with the phonology rather than the grammar or even vocabulary. 3. MSA before dialect is generally easier because of the solid amount of resources for MSA versus the dialects. Every dialect is also very closely founded by MSA also, so understanding the relationships between the dialects themselves becomes more intuitive. Of course, it depends on your goals whether you should learn MSA or a dialect first, so this is not a universal statement. As for Persian, I will add more later, especially if anyone has more questions. In general, though, each of the main Persian dialects (Farsi, Dari, and Tajiki) are all highly mutually intelligible. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Élan Senior Member United States Joined 5445 days ago 165 posts - 211 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Persian | Message 29 of 168 15 December 2012 at 5:14am | IP Logged | ||
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Hello everyone! I just signed up for this team in the main thread. I haven't officially been assigned yet, but I'm
sure I'll be placed here since I'm only studying 'MENA'-region languages. The main language I'll be working on is Persian. I consider myself conversational, but I haven't made the leap to the next level. It's mainly due to laziness! My husband is from Iran, so while we do speak Persian at home, we've gotten used to a weird hybrid of Persian, English, and a little Arabic. In 2013, it's time to get serious about speaking properly! I hope I can be a good resource for people who are new to Persian. My husband will be happy to answer advanced Persian questions. I especially love Persian music (both traditional & pop) and Iranian cinema, so expect a lot of song translations, movie recommendations, and Iranian cultural tidbits from me. I took a beginner's Arabic class this fall and had a lot of fun. Many of my friends, colleagues, and clients speak Arabic as their first language. I have good motivation to learn and a lot of opportunities to practice. Most of my connections are Iraqi and Sudanese, but my teacher is Lebanese. I will also be dabbling in Somali in 2013. Many of my colleagues and clients are from Somalia, so they will be my resources. I find that Somali people are really excited to practice their mother tongue with people who are learning their language, so I will do my best. Everyone else has Arabic resources covered, so I will do my best to collect Persian and Somali resources for everyone with an interest in either of those langs. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6621 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 30 of 168 15 December 2012 at 9:36am | IP Logged | ||
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I am posting this on the main sign-up thread and on all team logs.
This is a special announcement for all teams, certain ones more than others: -The purpose of TAC teams is to support, help and encourage each other. “All for one and one for all.” That means reading each other’s logs, and commenting them where appropriate. It also means no more bickering. - It the future all teams will be closed upon reaching 15 members, and new teams will be formed for those languages. Should a new team only attract a few members (about 5-7 depending on the team members prior TAC experience) by the sign-up deadline (31. January 2013), they will be merged with the original team. If in the course of the year, the teams lose half their members, they may also choose to merge. Any team that already has more than 15 members will not be divided, but they will not be allowed to add new members. - Each team is to choose a team leader by Tuesday, 18 December. Inform me of your choice by then. The leader must have prior TAC experience unless there is no such person on the team. The leader is to keep me up-to-date regarding their team. - I have created a French team and a Spanish team. Anyone studying those languages may choose to join them if they wish. The original Romance teams will remain in existence for those who are studying other Romance languages or who are interested in multiple languages. Note that even if you are only studying French or Spanish you may choose to be on a Romance team rather than a single language team. If there is enough interest for an Italian, Portuguese or Romanian team, I will create one. However, I would like those who may be interested in such a team to gather at least 5 team members before asking me to form the team.. I am sorry to have to make these additional rules, however it is obvious that certain teams are already on the verge of falling apart and a number of more experienced TAC members have noticed this and sent me PM’s requesting that I do something. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 TheGreaterFool Pro Member Canada Joined 4373 days ago 65 posts - 78 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Modern Hebrew, French Personal Language Map | Message 31 of 168 15 December 2012 at 4:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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just got a message from Johanna letting me know that someone else on the Middle Eastern Team is looking at learning Modern Hebrew...i would like to therefore rejoin the Middle Eastern team...i know this is extra and potentially frustrating for the moderators if people waffle back and forth and change teams, so i do really appreciate the extra effort.
cheers niels 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4869 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 32 of 168 15 December 2012 at 4:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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Élan, I'm so happy to see you join with Persian! It's decided, then. I'll stick with the Middle Eastern team. Your "expect to" sounds very promising! I'm curious about movie and music recommendations.
Can we have more than one godmother/godfather? If so, I think it would be great to add Jappy58 as an official godfather for Arabic/Persian. My Introduction I haven't got much experience with Persian as of yet. Last year I became interested in the language more or less by chance through doing volunteer work with refugees. Many are from Afghanistan and Iran, including a group of people I teach German. So I frequently hear Persian spoken and knowing even a little is very useful. That's why I decided to study Persian for the 6 Week Challenge last November and spent a month studying around 4 hours per day. You can find my log from that time here: my 6WC Persian log (starting at message 7, I couldn't open a thread at the time). In hindsight I realise that I was going too fast and got burned out. I then decided to focus solely on Korean for 2012 to bring the language to an acceptable level before starting something new. I succeeded in reaching my goals, so now I'm free and eager to start a new language. During the 6 week challenge I learned the writing system (which I need to refresh a little), some grammar and some vocabulary. I forgot a lot during the year (except for the few words and phrases I used now and then), so I'm basically a complete beginner. I'm not knowledgeable at all about the Persian-speaking part of the world. I think studying the language will also make the culture more accessible and make me interested in politics and history, which is something I look forward to. I haven't yet decided on a definite plan of action how I'll study, but I have a pretty good Persian course lying around and I may use easypersian.com and the G.L.O.S.S. Persian lessons as well. Finding a language tandem will probably be very easy, so I might do that as well, if time permits. I'll be interacting with Persian speakers in any case. I look forward to following everyone's journey! Edited by druckfehler on 15 December 2012 at 5:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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