I Survived… My First Semester of Arabic Class
MarHaba! Hello! It is hard to believe that I started my Arabic-learning journey fourteen blog posts ago. Shukran, thank you, for supporting me this semester. It’s been a lot of hard work as I learn how to study for this class and to navigate learning an entirely different alphabet.
The Exam: Thursday, December 3
Yesterday I had my final exam. I was slightly terrified and my stomach was in knots as 10:30am was approaching. I spent the previous night rewriting all the vocab we had learned this semester, reviewing a simple verb conjugation, and quizzing myself on the entire alphabet. On Tuesday, my professor hosted a review session and she went over everything that was going to be on the quiz: letter connection, conversation responses, and writing simple descriptions. After the review session, I knew my knowledge of the vocab was not sufficient and I did my best studying, knowing I did not give myself enough time.
We had two hours to complete the exam; I finished in fifty minutes. For an exam, it was fairly short. I think I used the word for white five times when describing things. My mind blanked on the word for juice, so I wrote down “sugar water”… I hope my professor has a sense of humor. That all being said, I hope she will give partial credit for the things I did know. I think I probably got a C+ on my exam, if I’m being honest with myself. And the other night, when I was pondering my exam, I came to the conclusion that I truly am okay with getting a B in this class for the semester. I know I did not work as hard as I should have, but part of that was due to knowing not how to study. I’m hoping over winter break I can fix some of my errors and come back to the language strong in February. (Yes, my winter break is long. I love it.)
The Wrap-Up
Since I’ve chronicled my journey of learning Arabic, I want to go back to my first blog post and see if I stuck with what I said I was going to do. (You can read that blog post here.)
First, the notebooks. I did use my yellow composition notebook to take notes. It’s deformed now because of how many times I’ve bent it back. However, the other notebook my friend gifted me, was only used once. It’s safe to say that I will not be using that notebook to record my vocab. I have yet to find a way to record my vocab. Maybe I’ll use a spreadsheet—who knows.
Second, flashcards. I didn’t start making them until about a month ago, and I didn’t use them a lot. I plan on remaking them and using them a lot more in the spring, since now I know how to write the entire Arabic alphabet.
Third, my fall 2020 goals.
I would say that I completed half of my first goal: I learned the entire Arabic alphabet. I know a few phrases, such as ones to introduce myself, and please and thank you, but that’s about it.
For my second goal, I definitely did not study on my off-days. I want to better my habits for the spring, however. Hopefully that is something I can cultivate during my break.
Regarding my last goal, I do not think I am ready to change my phone’s language to Arabic, but I am hoping after the spring semester I can. The change will be a bit disorienting, since Arabic is read right-to-left, but I know I would eventually adjust.
I haven’t thought about my potential goals for the spring 2021 semester, but I know I will be learning from my fall 2020 mistakes. One action I picked up twenty-eight days ago is Duolingo, While it’s not 100% accurate, it lets me engage with the Arabic language on a daily basis. Currently I am set to only five minutes, but normally I play for longer, so I think I will set my goal to play ten or fifteen minutes a day. I also want to fix my Quizlet flashcards. I think they can be very useful to me if I just figure out how I want them to be set up.
I hope you have enjoyed following along with me and my journey. Since I won’t be in class during break, I will not be doing weekly updates. Come back in early February for the first #ArabicWithAlex post of the spring 2021 semester!
Peace! !سلام