If you’ve ever studied Arabic then you and I may share a similar story. Let’s see how well they line up:
I took Arabic for six semesters in university. Modern Standard, of course. My first semesters were exciting and engaging. I had high hopes, I tell you. A UN interpreter, perhaps? I got annoyed when my roommate studying French had essays due in her first semester, when my homework in semester #3 was writing basic sentences using the simple past. Homework assignments that involved reading two paragraphs were dreadful, because we all knew that these were the hardest, most time-consuming ones. But, I could not be deterred. I was so serious about learning Arabic that I spent one semester living in Morocco, and I stayed with a host family. I requested one that spoke no English, and I was forced to practice. I made Moroccan friends, and we communicated semi-frequently in Arabic. I came home, graduated from university, and haven’t really touched Arabic since.
Now, two and a half years have gone by, and my Arabic-learning years feel like an eternity ago. Occasionally, it comes up in conversation and it goes something like this:
Person: Oh, you spent time in Morocco?
Me: Yes, I did. I spent a semester there.
Person: So do you speak Arabic?
Me: *As IF someone could speak Arabic after one semester. * Well, um… I studied it, but I wouldn’t quite say that I speak it.
At this point, my wonderful, monoglot husband interjects.
Loving husband: No, she speaks it!
Then we proceed to have a polite disagreement about how I do not speak it. I just studied it. You see, there is a BIG difference between the two. And chances are, if you studied Arabic in university, you probably know what I’m talking about.
I recently watched an inspiring video of a Swedish woman who wanted to study law in Argentina. The only problem was that she didn’t speak Spanish. So in six months, she inundated her world with Spanish: songs, videos, apps, TV, the news, conversation exchanges. Anything and everything. In the video, she speaks in Spanish the whole time. I’d be the first to admit that it’s not perfect, but to see her progress in less than a year was inspiring.
Now when I get inspired, I know some big action or commitment or goal is going to bubble out of me at any moment. I am addicted to resolutions. So I braced myself. And then it hit me. I’m going to pick Arabic up again. I will not stop learning or studying it until I feel that I have achieved a functional level of Arabic.
I want to either be able to read the news, or comfortably start a conversation with an Arabic speaker, or maybe even interpret for someone who needs to be understood. Right now? I can pick up fancy words in a broadcast and pretend to string them together, but honestly, I wouldn’t be able to tell you with a straight face what it’s about. I can read food labels and get excited when there are warning signs in Arabic. But, let’s be honest, I wouldn’t be able to tell you what the warning was for. The amount of Arabic I have is useless.
So here I am, publicly declaring my intent to stick with Arabic. In this monthly column, I’ll be posting a video documenting my progress. (Yikes, terrifying!) I’ll also be sharing some key resources I’ve stumbled upon for those of you wanting to focus on Arabic. Not interested in Arabic? No worries! I’ll also be sharing my specific strategies that month; I’ll let you into my schedule and my disappointments, frustrations and language-learning barriers. I’ll open up, and we’ll have some real chats about the highs and lows of language learning.
So, I do hope you’ll stick around. Pull up a seat, grab a coffee. Let’s chat.