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Middle Eastern Languages (having trouble) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| kristinepeterso Newbie United States ccjk.com/ Joined 3386 days ago 5 posts - 6 votes | Message 1 of 11 05 February 2015 at 7:57am | IP Logged |
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I'd like to learn at least one language from the group of Arabic, Hebrew, and Farsi.
I think Arabic was the one that initially appealed to me the most, as I love the writing system, the interesting grammatical features like triconsonantal roots, etc. However, I also am uncertain if Arabic is really the right choice for me, as I recognize the fact that in order to be able to both speak and write, I am looking at learning at least MSA and one dialect of Arabic, and then after that possibly additional dialects, given that a single dialect would only get you so far. For Hebrew, it seems a somewhat obvious secondary choice, it retains many of the sounds, vocabulary, and grammatical features of Arabic, though at the same time, it is the least widely spoken language of the three, and I like the writing system less (nothing against Hebrew just personal aesthetic preference). Farsi is a good answer for the writing system, but despite having a fair amount of Arabic loanwords does not have any real relation to the Semitic languages, being Indo- European, and I'm not sure to what extent that is or is not a problem for me. I considered Turkish but it is probably the weaker contender on the list for me. I already plan to learn multiple other languages that have varying debatable degrees of relation to Turkish, so I don't really want to learn another language from the same family. Additionally it uses the Latin script which is less interesting to me in terms of learning something new. Also since I feel someone is likely to suggest it as a Semitic alternative, I have already looked at Ge'ez and it's not really what I'm looking for. I think I'd be happy learning any of these languages to some extent, but I'm really looking to find one I can definitely put on my list, and reserve the others for if I have time once I get through my current list of languages. Basically I'm just hoping someone can tell me some things I may not be aware of that may make this an easier choice, or provide me with an alternative (although that may just make it a harder choice). Thanks for your help! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| lichtrausch Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5749 days ago 525 posts - 1072 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 2 of 11 05 February 2015 at 7:09pm | IP Logged |
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Persian is a great gateway language. You get a new script that is used by loads of
languages, vocabulary that will help you with practically every language in the middle of Eurasia (Turkish, Hindi/Urdu, Arabic, the central Asian languages), and the richness of a 2500 year old civilization that has had a huge influence on the middle of Eurasia. And yet due to its Indo-European origins, it is not an extreme challenge on the scale of Mandarin or Arabic. Oh, and it is spoken from the Persian Gulf all the way to the border of China. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6371 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 3 of 11 05 February 2015 at 8:19pm | IP Logged |
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It sounds to me like you want to learn Arabic. You should learn Arabic. As far as I understand, once you have MSA down, learning the dialects is a much smaller task, and many dialects are mutually intelligible even if they differ, so it's not really the case that one dialect limits you to the areas where that dialect is spoken. As I understand it (someone correct me if I'm mistaken), Egyptian tends to be understood pretty much throughout the Arab world, though you might have to work on passive understanding of other dialects to be able to have a conversation. But then we're down to "passive understanding of a closely related language" and that sounds pretty manageable to me. The big hurdle with Arabic is the first step, learning MSA, and that step is just as big for Hebrew (though of course a lot smaller for Persian).
So go ahead with Arabic. You know you want to. Edited by Ari on 05 February 2015 at 8:20pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| robarb Nonaglot Senior Member United States languagenpluson Joined 4848 days ago 361 posts - 921 votes Speaks: Portuguese, English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, French Studies: Mandarin, Danish, Russian, Norwegian, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Greek, Latin, Nepali, Modern Hebrew | Message 4 of 11 06 February 2015 at 5:21am | IP Logged |
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If you're already multilingual:
If you want to learn Arabic most, learn Arabic first. Motivation is the most important thing. But if your goal is to reach an advanced level in all those languages, I think it would be more efficient to start with Persian (as an Indo-European language, it'll be less of a challenge and you'll learn some relevant vocabulary and culture, plus the writing system) or Hebrew (more accessible than Arabic because it's easier to pronounce and less difference between the written and spoken form, plus the alphabet is more straightforward, so more time is saved by going Hebrew to Arabic than the other way around). If you're monolingual: I would strongly recommend going for Persian before Arabic. I'm not saying you couldn't learn Arabic as a second language if you set your mind to it, but it would not be easy. You might need hundreds of hours before seeing any significant amount of comprehension. It's better to get to know yourself as a language learner while dealing with something more manageable like Persian, and then your methods and confidence will both be stronger when it's time to learn Arabic. I learned how to learn languages while at first sticking to European languages only. Jump in the deep end of the pool, but not straight into the ocean! Edited by robarb on 06 February 2015 at 5:23am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Darya0Khoshki Triglot Groupie United States Joined 4857 days ago 71 posts - 91 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Arabic (Iraqi) Studies: Persian | Message 5 of 11 07 February 2015 at 3:23am | IP Logged |
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I may pose the opposite perspective as others, just something to consider, depending on
what works best for you as a learner. Arabic is a lifelong endeavor if you want to have a REAL FULL knowledge of it. I started when I was 15/16 and I'm almost 29 now, have spent time in Arab countries, and still feel like I will never know everything! (Especially slang, comedy, plays on words, jokes -- I still struggle there). :-) Learning Persian AFTER Arabic, though, was a snap. You already have about 40% of the vocab (though beware of false friends -- the Arabic word for mule means armpit in Farsi). So, if you want to tackle the one with the more massive vocabulary first, you will find Persian very easy to tack on after the fact. Just something to consider. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4496 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 6 of 11 07 February 2015 at 4:54am | IP Logged |
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I think you should go for the one you like best.
Just learn Arabic. Difficulty is in the eye of the beholder anyways 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6386 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 7 of 11 07 February 2015 at 12:11pm | IP Logged |
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Agreed. Persian may be easier than Arabic, but it's not that easy. If you want to learn how to learn languages, consider Esperanto.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4496 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 8 of 11 07 February 2015 at 12:26pm | IP Logged |
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Besides that the discount you get by learning Persian instead of Arabic isn't very big
anyway, so I'd just learn Arabic if that's what you want. And I'd focus waaaaaay more on dialect since that's what you'll be speaking 1 person has voted this message useful |
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