Yes, a Dot

This week was a productive week for me. I could feel myself becoming more familiar with the language, and I am reveling in that for the week. 

Tuesday, September 8

Class was a bit weird on Tuesday. My professor was late and then spent over half the class time battling the technology. I feel so bad for professors this semester. Nothing is normal, and professors have to handle teaching both in-person and online. She eventually got things to work, but now she has moved our Arabic class fully online, rather than a hybrid-type class where half of it is in-person and the other half is fully online.

Technology issues aside, my professor did a crash course on three more letters in the Arabic alphabet: ج [jiin/giin], ح [Haa], and خ [khaa]. Yes, the only thing that makes them different is if there is a dot, and the position of that dot. 

We looked over the vocabulary from this chapter, and I am intimidated. Since Arabic is a gendered language, I use different words when addressing different genders. I really need to start going over the Quizlets I’ve made so far and practice saying words aloud. I want to be able to have a genuine introductory conversation with someone, but I know it takes time, practice, and patience. 

Thursday, September 10

In preparing for Thursday’s class, I poured over about fifteen pages of my Arabic textbook. And it paid off, because during class, my professor did several drills from the textbook that I had done the night before! I am finding more confidence in my ability to remember the letters, their different positions, and the sounds they make. The short vowels continue to give me trouble, but I know I will have time to get those down concrete because I will be using them often. 

I do need to spend some time learning vocabulary. The frustration I run into is that I am supposed to speak the Levantine dialectic but write in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). To me, there seems to be a lot of differences between the two. It’s frustrating because I want to be able to speak, write, and read this language, but it’s almost like I’m learning two different languages… think of it like someone learning American English and British English at the same time. I know at some point I will grasp the differences, but it’s intimidating right now. I am not used to not understanding or picking things up immediately. 

I can already tell that next week is going to be a good week. 

Arabic Word of the Week

darling / Habiib / حبيب