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All Arabic All The Time | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Gilgamesh Tetraglot Senior Member England Joined 6244 days ago 452 posts - 468 votes  14 sounds Speaks: Dutch, English, German, French Studies: Polish | Message 17 of 27 26 July 2009 at 1:09pm | IP Logged |
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Works resumed. ;-)
From now on, will be posting breakthroughs here. Edited by Gilgamesh on 26 July 2009 at 1:09pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| anamsc Triglot Senior Member Andorra Joined 6205 days ago 296 posts - 382 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Catalan Studies: Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Written), French | Message 18 of 27 26 July 2009 at 4:56pm | IP Logged |
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Good luck on your reinvigorated Arabic studies. I'd like to do an "all Arabic all the time" someday, so I'll be
watching/taking mental notes on how to copy you :D 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Katie Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6720 days ago 495 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, Hungarian Studies: French, German | Message 19 of 27 26 July 2009 at 11:33pm | IP Logged |
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I'll be very interested to see how you go about this! For the last 3-4 weeks or more I have been trying to create an "All Hungarian All The Time" environment for myself. My weaknesses are things like this website... and also the fact that I study...
But I am trying to do as much as possible and probably hit an average of 8-10 hours a day at the moment. I'm slowly collecting enough materials, and then I plan to just run them continuously... Anyway - I'm looking forward to reading from you! Please let us know details of your activities! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| pohaku Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5653 days ago 192 posts - 367 votes Speaks: English*, Persian Studies: Arabic (classical), French, German, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 20 of 27 27 July 2009 at 12:22am | IP Logged |
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Good luck with your Arabic! My study partner and I started working on Arabic about five weeks ago, taking just a few lines a day from 1001 Nights (Alf Leila wa Leila) and understanding how they work--vocabulary, grammar, pronounciation. Our goal is basically reading fluency (though we do work on pronounciation, if not conversation), to complement our Persian studies (we've been reading Hafez, Rumi, Nezami, etc. for four years). The good thing about Alf Leila--for us at least--is that it's interesting. I'll work ridiculously hard to understand a weird ancient tale (sons turned to calves, women turning up out of nowhere and saying, "Couple with me now and you will not go unrequited!"), whereas today's newspaper would leave me cold. We're probably spending about an hour a day on this project. Edited by pohaku on 27 July 2009 at 2:56am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| apparition Octoglot Senior Member United States Joined 6652 days ago 600 posts - 667 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), French, Arabic (Iraqi), Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Pashto | Message 21 of 27 27 July 2009 at 2:43am | IP Logged |
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Good luck with Arabic! Might I suggest you check out www.naturalarabic.com for good authentic materials. It's a pay site (pretty cheap), but there's a sample section you can check out. For reading/listening to the news (mostly MSA), it's a great resource.
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| Gilgamesh Tetraglot Senior Member England Joined 6244 days ago 452 posts - 468 votes 14 sounds Speaks: Dutch, English, German, French Studies: Polish | Message 22 of 27 31 July 2009 at 11:39am | IP Logged |
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Hi,
thanks for your nice replies. Well, I have been a bit busy the past few days (trying to move and do some exercise for a change), but I have managed to overcome my usual laziness and tried to cram Arabic into every free minute I could (OK, maybe not that rigorous, but still, it's a step up from doing nothing for weeks). I'm usually quite bad at documenting what I do and why I do it, for I fear that it might come across as irrational and/or silly (or even useless) to others. So, where to begin? Well, I think it's nice to begin summing up the materials that I am happy with, those about whom I feel that they can make you advance. As a native German speaker (and still living in Germany, but not for that much longer), I have and use and praise the "Langenscheidt Lehrbuch des modernen Arabisch". This is NOT a "Praktisches Lehrbuch", like the ones that come with the regular Langenscheidt courses. I have the "Praktisches Lehrbuch", too, but I only glanced at it, and think that this "Lehrbuch des modernen Arabisch" is more accurate, more extensive and more useful. Others have said it didn't do much for them as I recall; maybe this is because it is written partly in the style of a teacher's manual, or IS, in fact, a teacher's manual (there are "instructions for the teacher"-ish sections, etc.), but that doesn't bother me. Of course, it handles the language the same way most manuals do; a few grammar points are introduced at the beginning of each lesson (all in a no-nonsense, almost academic fashion - so no jokes, no gimmicks, no pictures), then a text with a pretty self-explanatory vocabulary list ensue. There are usually two texts, one of whom is a dialogue. I have worked through the first six chapters now, and can usually comfortably assimilate the texts; I try sometimes out of misplaced idealism to stick a little longer with the grammar because I want to be as thorough as the book is on that. Yes, I know and realize a language is not grammar. As a matter of fact, I even understand all the grammar sceptics. Yet I like looking at and reading at grammar. Why? Not because I think it will get me there quicker, but because I actually enjoy it. So get over it. I'm quite content about the recordings, too. Normal speed, neither painstakingly slow (as is the case with Assimil's "L'Arabe sans peine"), nor incoherent muttering. This is my main source. Of course, it is under my conviction that one should not learn from one source alone if this is avoidable, and indeed the internet may be the greatest tool that can deliver us from this one-sidedness in learning. I have bought one or two textbooks, too, but I haven't really worked with them yet, so I cannot give an objective review. When I learn a language, I usually try to find a way to say basic things right away; that is, I learn the most important verbs, prepositions, numbers, etc. and find that I'm usually able to express myself in a very basic way very quickly. With Arabic, that kind of learning curve is not that steep; and I wondered what it was that halted my being able to yack about nothing for at least ten minutes in Arabic. It came to me quite quickly; most of the manuals are quite lazy with verbs. The first couple of chapters hardly include any of them, as there is no verb for the present tense of "to be", and therefore the entire first or even many subsequent chapters do not have any real verbs in them. They seem to be quite lazy with that, and when they do start to teach them, they teach the perfect ("past") tense first... Of course, that's logically sound, as it is the more basic, and, in many ways, more regular and learner-friendly tense, yet it is a pity they don't introduce them earlier sometimes. Because of this, I've been looking at my book of verb tabels quite often and try to get down as many verbs as possible - usually with good results. Of course, I try to complement this by reading, so that I can learn from context, yet even simple children's books are quite advanced for me. However, if I keep going at it at this peace, that may very well soon be mended. People talk about input, comprehensible input in particular. True, comprehensible is great, but to get tuned into the language, to its speakers, to its culture and to just feel you are being a part of it for a short while, I usually watch what's on the Al-Jazeera Channel on Youtube every day. Usually for about half an hour. However, there is watching and watching; you can put it on and then mindlessly chat on MSN while you hear someone talking in the background in what could basically be any language... I try to really listen, however, I try to make out what it is exactly that defines Arabic, specifically its speech. All these words I don't understand, I try to "hear" them - that is, imagine whether they are adjectives or verbs or nouns, trying to infer what they mean from context, trying to make out which ones would be used more often, and so eventually still getting one or two or even more words per day. I also try to look at greetings and all these things. People may doubt the usefulness of this, but I do not. Because I know that if I continue to do this (and it is indeed only useful to do it like this if you COMPLEMENT your studies with it), Arabic will never really sound foreign to me once I get better, because my ears and my eyes already know it well. So yes, I'm talking about actual listening/watching here, and about complementing your studies with it. So, what else? I think I've managed to sum up quite a few major parts of what I find important and relevant here, I think. I usually don't make entries like this, but I have to say it was a pleasure writing this one - I just hope that whoever read it enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5599 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes Speaks: English* | Message 23 of 27 31 July 2009 at 8:21pm | IP Logged |
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Hey, just jumping in to say that I definitely agree on your point about
watching/listening to video regardless of how much you understand. I've been watching Al-Jazeera too but have not picked up a lot of new words from it; I've recognized a few words I already know, but I'm not really actively seeking to learn new terms - I mean, that'd be nice, but I haven't had much success thus far. There is just so much that I don't understand that the context is not always clear to me, especially when there are no visuals! Do you have any listening resources that you especially enjoy, besides Al-Jazeera? (I tried to write this post in my rudimentary Arabic but ended up inserting too many words that I don't know how to say/use - oh well! Next time.) Edited by bouda on 31 July 2009 at 8:23pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Gilgamesh Tetraglot Senior Member England Joined 6244 days ago 452 posts - 468 votes 14 sounds Speaks: Dutch, English, German, French Studies: Polish | Message 24 of 27 02 August 2009 at 1:19pm | IP Logged |
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I think I was a bit hasty with my judgement of Assimil.
I have "L'Arabe sans peine" in my collection. What disappointed me here was the painstakingly slow pace in the first couple of lessons. This included the recordings, which were being read out with what I find to be extremely exaggerated and over-careful pronunciation, thus hindering understanding of the natural flow of the language. However, after skipping the first couple of three-word lessons, I found that while Assimil doesn't exactly live up to its standard there, it is at least useful to read them. They also like to include a richer variety of verbs, at least more than other courses usually do. So yes, I was quite surprised at that. I have been slacking a bit these past days, mainly due to the move that I am about to make. I'll keep on updating here, however, though preferably not every day. Edited by Gilgamesh on 02 August 2009 at 1:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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