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Learning Arabic - OR - mission 12PM | ||
Tags: Arabic | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Nickels Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 4703 days ago 23 posts - 24 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Arabic (Written) | Message 1 of 8 19 April 2012 at 10:28pm | IP Logged |
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Ahlan wa sahlan language learners,
there are some personal characteristics bothering me: The most annoying are my lack of diligence, my lack of consistency and finally that i tend to procrastinate things ("tomorrow" is my favourite day). I also get very interested in new topics from time to time until I eventually loose my focus a few days later or I fail to get off my backside to get started!... I have been thinking about how I might change these habits and an idea appeared, the idea to set me a personal challenge which requires some (but not too much) consistency and endurance by myself and which would make it easier for me to plunge into the Arabic language (I'm a total beginner). So "mission 12PM" was born... EVERY DAY at 12:00PM I will spend 30 minutes studying Modern Standard Arabic (until 12:30PM). Of course it's possible to invest more time at any time whenever I feel like doing it. But these 30 minutes are NOT NEGOTIABLE! Why did I choose a fixed time? - Because a fixed time (hopefully) prevents procrastinations. Why did I choose 12PM? - It's a compromise (it's not easy to find one reasonable time slot for every day). At the moment my main resourrce is "Alif Baa"(3rd Edition), the first book of the Al-Kitaab series. I'll say some words about it in my next entry. I will update my log from time to time and hopefully it will not stop apruptly like all the other Arabic logs after a short period of time. 19.04.12: [✔] Greetings, Nickels Edited by Nickels on 19 April 2012 at 11:01pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Nickels Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 4703 days ago 23 posts - 24 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Arabic (Written) | Message 2 of 8 23 April 2012 at 10:51pm | IP Logged |
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20.04.12: [✔], 21.04.12: [✔], 22.04.12: [✔], 23.04.12: [✔]
Studying at a fixed time is working very well for me. Because 30 minutes aren't a very long time it's easy to stay motivated and concentrated. But the best thing is, that I don't feel guilty when i stop after 30 minutes, because than I already reached my daily goal. At some days I used to spend some additional time in the evening too. I have nearly finished the first two chapters of Alif Baa and have learned so far: To pronounce, read, write (all shapes) and identify (the sound of) the consonants ب(b), ت(t), ث(thaa), the 3 long vowels, the 3 short vowels. I have also learned some (very basic) vocabulary (mainly greetings). I'm largely satisfied with the book (I really like it!) but there are some things which are not ideal:
Edited by Nickels on 23 April 2012 at 11:09pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Alanjazz Triglot Groupie United States Joined 4655 days ago 65 posts - 129 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese | Message 3 of 8 25 April 2012 at 4:30am | IP Logged |
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Interesting tactic, I have a similar situation - I would love to just be able to plow through 4 hours of French study
every day and then have lots of energy/mental space left over for Spanish, Russian, and Italian - but I am amazed that I only get an hour or two out of French and then wind up pretty tired. I should set a non-negotiable time like you! Great idea. I am hoping to take up Arabic next, I will follow your log with interest! Best of luck! Maa salaama! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Nickels Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 4703 days ago 23 posts - 24 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Arabic (Written) | Message 5 of 8 01 May 2012 at 10:22am | IP Logged |
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24.04.12: [✔], 25.04.12: [✔], 26.04.12: [✔],27.04.12: [✔], 28.04.12: [✔], 29.04.12: [✔], 30.04.12: [✔]
Thank you Ahlanjazz. The method is still working pretty well for me and I would recommend it to everyone who might have the same problems as I have. I'm not sure if the method would work with such a a big amount of time and it would be very difficult to find a free time slot for every day where you won't get disturbed regulary. Since I have been using this method it happend twice that I was disturbed and had to interrupt my studies. After the disturbance i used to proceed with my studies immediately. I nearly finished chapter 3. I learned some new vocabulary, the next 3 consonants of the arabic alphabet (jiim, Haa, khaa) and the second function of the long vowels uu and ii (when preceeded or followed by a long or short vowel they represent a consonant). I really enjoy studying this language and also the book with it's listening, reading and writing drills. At this moment I'm totally satisfied with the structure of the book. I also noticed a positive side effect: During my studies I feel quite relaxed and balanced. It's a good compensation to my studies at university. And finally: Giving meaning to a bulk of signs which seem to be cryptic for the vast majority of Europeans doesn't feel bad as well :-). Edited by Nickels on 01 May 2012 at 10:24am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Nickels Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 4703 days ago 23 posts - 24 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Arabic (Written) | Message 6 of 8 08 May 2012 at 10:12pm | IP Logged |
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01.05.12: [✔], 02.05.12: [✔], 03.05.12: [✔], 04.05.12: [✔], 05.05.12: [✔], 06.05.12: [✔], 07.05.12: [✔], 08.05.12: [✔]
As you can see, I am still consistent even though I usually just spend the minimimum of 30 minutes per day doing drills and excercises of "Alif Baa". Additionally I spend a few minutes revising vocabulary in Anki. I built 3 different models in Anki: English-transliteration, sound-English and ArabicLetters-English. At the moment I just use the first two models. The next day(s) I will furthermore try to improve my pronunciation of ح (Haa). I think yesterday I overused my pipes while I worked on it :-(. Edited by Nickels on 08 May 2012 at 10:19pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| loveroflanguage Groupie United States Joined 5206 days ago 57 posts - 83 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Arabic (Egyptian) | Message 7 of 8 12 May 2012 at 4:03pm | IP Logged |
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Wow! Congrats! You are doing a great job! I am currently doing Japanese because I burnt out on Arabic, which was mainly my fault. I was like you with inconsistency and stopping and starting, as a result, I never got anywhere and it frustrated me to no end because I had to restart over chapters I had previously read but forgotten because of not following thru on a regular study time everyday. Arabic is a lot like Asian languages, in that if you don't keep on top of it, it slips away and quickly. While that is true of any language, it seems faster with these languages, for some reason. At least to me it does.
My other problem was I had so many resources I was trying to use at the same time, I was overwhelming myself trying to read and study several different materials til I went insane! lol. By the time I realized what I was doing to myself, I couldn't get my mind back into studying. I still have to use it everyday for prayer and stuff but beyond that, I am not actively studying it for now. I am inspired by your blog and I think you are doing great with setting goals of set times, which is what I am trying to do now with Japanese. Good luck with your journey and keep up the good work. When you are done with Alif baa, I have some recommendations that may help you when you want to move on. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Nickels Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 4703 days ago 23 posts - 24 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Arabic (Written) | Message 8 of 8 17 May 2012 at 3:21pm | IP Logged |
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09.05.12: [✔], 10.05.12: [✔],11.05.12: [X],12.05.12: [✔],13.05.12: [✔], 14.05.12: [✔✔],15.05.12: [✔],16.05.12: [✔],17.05.12: [✔]
Thank you loveroflanguage and good luck with your studies. Comments and especially recommendations are always highly appreciated. I gained some similar experiences in the past, mainly in topics I was not (enough) interested in - or when I lacked discipline as usual. I spent hours and hours thinking about the perfect way to tackle a topic, about the best ressources and even bought books (I skimmed through and barely used) but I NEVER got started. This is also the reason why I just use a single book at the moment. The more language material I had the more time I would waste thinking about the ideal way to use it. I will definetly go for the next book of the Al-Kitaab series after I'll have finished Alif baa. I completed unit 4 today and there are still 6 units left - so I won't have to look for (and buy) new ressources too soon. If I continue to spend the same amount of time I will need approximately 70 days to finish the book. It's more important for me to be consistent than to finish the book quickly so I don't think too much about that. There has been one day where I didn't study because I did not sleep a single minute the night before and I was just toooo tired (I struggled to stay awake during the lectures as well). A few days later I was in a flow and spent more than twice as much time as usual (so I still feel like a winner :) ). At the moment I'm not so precise with the "12:00PM" as I was at the begining of my challenge - the habit of studying some Arabic every day is strong enough now and getting started not too difficult. Nevertheless 12PM is the time I usually do my studies. What I learned new in unit four: - the letters daa, dh, raa, z - hamza - the numbers from 0-10 and writing Arabic-Indic Numberals in general - new vocabulary Edited by Nickels on 17 May 2012 at 3:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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