So the Journey Begins
Hello! (MarHaba!) Welcome to the first installment of #ArabicWithAlex! Every Friday throughout the semester, I will be journaling about my Arabic-learning experience. I will be learning Modern Standard Arabic, which is the formal written version of Arabic, as well as the Levantine dialect that is used throughout Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.
Before my classes start on Monday, I thought I would share my two notebooks I plan on using. The first one is a simple yellow composition notebook. This will be used to take class notes and such. I plan on having this notebook for a long time, so I didn’t want something that had pages that could be easily ripped out.
The second notebook is one my freshman year roommate Haylie (love you!) gave me when we first moved in together. The cover is the painting Las Meninas (1656) by Diego Velázquez. She bought it for me when she was in Granada, Spain. (Fun fact: the Spanish word granada means “pomegranate” in English!) I plan on using this notebook to store my vocab words, color coding everything as I go.
I also plan on using flashcards. Lots and lots of flashcards.
Early this summer, I Googled “tips on learning Arabic” and this article from Pink Jinn popped up. It is from this article that I write down my goals for learning Arabic, as well as a reminder to myself of why I want to learn this beautiful language. The inside of my two notebooks will look something like this:
Why Do I Want to Study Arabic?
I want to travel to the Middle East and be able to communicate with the people who live there.
I want to expand my mind in new ways.
I want to help further my career.
My Goals for Fall 2020
During this semester, I want to learn the Arabic alphabet, as well as basic phrases and words that are useful for day-to-day interactions.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have class. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I want to spend at least 10 minutes studying my vocab or grammar. And on the weekends, maybe 5 minutes each day.
At some point, I want to change the language on my phone to Arabic so I can become more familiar with the language.
Besides setting up my notebooks for the coming semester, I have subscribed to a daily email from Transparent Language: the Modern Standard Arabic Word of the Day. I am trying to get myself familiar with how the alphabet looks before classes start, and this is a great way for me to look intentionally at Arabic every single day.
I’m looking forward to my first class on Tuesday! Come back next Friday for a recap of my first week of Arabic classes!
Arabic Word of the Week
welcome / marhaba / مرحباً
Learn how to pronounce it here.