When Doubt Starts to Set In: Finding Progress (Arabic Week 16)

About a month ago I was getting very frustrated with my Arabic progress. I didn’t feel like I was getting better, I couldn’t figure out how to form sentences, I wasn’t confident in what dialect to use, and I just overall didn’t like the way things were going. About the only thing I had going for me was that I could recognize almost all the letters in all their forms. In all honesty, I wanted to learn, I just didn’t know how. I feel that Arabic is one of the most beautiful languages to listen to and I wanted to be able to understand what I was listening to; I just couldn’t figure out how to go about progressing.

A lot of times when I get frustrated with Arabic I start to doubt myself. Maybe Arabic is just too hard for me to learn by myself? I have considered giving up countless times and just focusing on Mandarin. I have a good thing going with Mandarin; why not focus on that and come back to Arabic in a few years?  Mandarin is more fun because I can use it. Most situations that come up in my day, I can talk about in some way or another.

Recently, I found a school in China that I could attend that is a full immersion school. This would allow me to improve my Mandarin while living in the country, using it to explore, learn, grow, etc. But is this what I want? Do I want to spend money to be taught how to use a language or do I want to make mistakes and learn from personal experiences? I’ve started to plan a 10-14-day trip where I would travel through China, visiting the people that I’ve met while learning this language and seeing their cities. Sure, this school would be easier to coordinate the experience, but would I be able to make it my own? For now, I’m putting it on a back burner.

One thing that has kept me going is this blog. I can't just give up on something so quickly, what would I really be proving with that? At times I feel embarrassed that I'm struggling because I wanted to be able to show everyone that anybody can learn a language. What instead I'm hoping this shows is that, yes, it is hard, you will have bad days, you will doubt yourself, you will think of giving up, but you are not alone. I hope this will show you that even with any success I've had it hasn't been an easy path. I hope you realize that if you are trying to do the same thing and feel confused, I've been there as well. I can tell you from experience that it does get better, it does get easier, and it does get a lot more fun once you can really start to use a language. So thank you for taking the time to read this. Knowing that wherever you are, you are watching what I'm doing, has given me motivation to not give up and to help keep this journey going. I couldn't do it without you.

This week has given me some optimism. I’ve finally started learning more of a dialect than the Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) because nobody speaks using MSA. I found some videos that go through some simple phrases in Egyptian Arabic and have started to repeat those phrases to myself more and more each day. I’m feeling better that I can say those without too much trouble. Not only have I started to focus on a few videos, I also watched a few other people speaking Arabic and I recognized more than I thought I would. I figured I would catch the first two sentences and that would be it, but I could follow for almost a minute!

Even more exciting for me was trying to pick up random words further into the dialogue. Sometimes when taking on a new challenge the easiest part may not be at the beginning. This could be why, using my triathlon experience, you learn to ride a bicycle before you attempt a flying mount. When learning a new song, you might start at a portion in the middle of the song that is simpler than just the beginning. For languages, you can’t always start with the first word and begin learning that word before moving further on. I was so excited while listening to somebody speak Arabic when suddenly I recognized the word for “film” which I hadn’t practiced for a month or so. Sure, I didn’t catch the whole sentence but by knowing a few words within a sentence you can piece together the meaning of the whole.

When you have two hours between flights, you be productive!

This weekend I’m going to be busy with a wedding (Congrats to Cameron and Kylie!) so I won’t be able to dedicate as much time to my blog which is why I’m currently writing it in an airport. My video is going to be reflecting on as many phrases and words that I can remember in all dialects of Arabic that I’ve learned (MSA, Egyptian, Iraqi). When we don’t take the time to reflect on our progress, it can quickly seem like we haven’t made any progress. I hope that this video will do more good for myself than for you in reminding me of how far I’ve come.

Until next time.

A Weekend That Changed My Life: How I Began Learning a Language

When I first started learning a new language, a common question I got asked a lot was, "Why did you decide to learn Chinese?" Why would I take on what a lot of people consider to be one of the hardest languages in the world? Why would I decide at this point in my life to learn a new language? Do I have plans to use it? What really am I hoping to gain from this?

The reason I began learning a new language is not the same reason that I am still learning. As most people know, I volunteer with HOBY and now get the honor of helping out at the DC seminar. In 2015 I had a group that forever changed my life. During our first time together we did an icebreaker called "hot seat" where everybody spends one minute getting asked any questions that the group can come up with. Each time a new student was in the middle, one of the questions continually came from another student asking, "What languages do you speak?" As each kid came through the middle, they all mentioned at least one other language that they spoke. Finally, when the student who kept asking everyone else about languages had his moment in the middle I instantly threw the question at him, "What languages do you speak?" to which he listed off about five languages. As we went through the weekend, languages seemed to come up multiple times. Our groups count-off was done in multiple languages, and I was forced to say my number in English.

I remember going home that night following the weekend. It was so amazing to see all of these high school students that actually could use a language that they had learned, but it also had me feeling a tad embarrassed. I spent four years learning Spanish but never felt confident saying anything. To put myself further down, somehow I ended up watching Inglorious Basterds that night where multiple languages are used. I didn't pay much attention to the movie but was instead focused on all of the languages.

It hit me that not being able to speak more than one language was limiting me. I told myself that to stay competitive in the job market, I needed to have another language that I could speak or soon I would be left behind. I found some online quiz that was to determine what language would be best for me to learn and it told me German. Instantly I was like, "No, that's no fun!" and kept trying to find a language that I thought would be impressive to learn. My goal was not to find a language to speak at that moment, but one that would be useful ten years down the road. Somehow, this put me looking at Mandarin Chinese as I felt that would be exceptionally useful in 2025. I downloaded Rosetta Stone and started working my way through the program.

Goal setting is something I've had success and failure with. I knew the instant excitement I had for learning a new language would fade. Most people set goals at one time in the year: New Year's. The statistics are not very promising for taking on new challenges as people get discouraged and slowly stop doing the goal they had set out to go for. I wanted to make sure this wasn't me. I emailed those students who inspired me and told them my plan. I wanted them to hold me accountable. As I started learning words and phrases, I kept preparing for the moment when one of them saw me and asked how my Chinese was so that I could respond and say I was making it work.

The email I sent back on June 2nd, 2015 in hopes of being held accountable for my actions.

This was a ten year goal in the making. I knew from the start that this was a very long shot of working. I didn't have plans of actually using the language for a while; like I could really be able to use it anytime soon, anyways. I read blogs, books, articles, and watched videos to try to get myself ahead. I felt good that I could say some things and understand how the language worked, but most of that was just something I kept to myself. It wasn't until I tried using Chinese that I suddenly felt a rush of excitement. That rush has been mentioned before but more than anything, it was fun! It was a way to see the work I had put in finally be put to use.

A few of those students I still hear from. The ones that I do, they all know what I'm up to. One of them was actually able to help me get over one of my fears this summer and we went to a Chinese Speaking Meetup group in DC. Another has helped me with my Arabic if I get frustrated. I was so happy to get to talk to another a few weeks ago that I hadn't talked to for over a year, but she remembered that goal I said to them.

Now, I don't learn the language for the same reason.  My end goal isn't to be able to use a language for work; my goal is to be able to communicate with people. There are 7.4 billion people in the world, each one with their own unique story, and less than 400 million of them speak English. Now, I'm learning languages to be able to meet as many of those people as possible.

In honor of this experience that really got me going down this path, here is a video of me trying to explain in short how it all happened in the language that got me on going.

Until next time.

How Do You Remember a Language for Longer?

As I go about learning languages, there are good days and there are bad days. Some days I am able to really focus my time and I feel like I'm making progress; some days I get distracted and don't take time to work on my new language. I could say I'm busy but the choice to do other things instead of practice is still mine. Missing a day isn't an issue, but when that day turns into two or three the gap can add up.

A primary model of learning is called "Spaced-Repetition" which helps convert short term memory into long term memory. When you learn something new, it will easily be forgotten if you don't refresh yourself of it quickly. The more times you review it, the more time you can spend between reviewing it without fear of losing it. This is especially important for language learning as you learn new vocabulary.The more you use a phrase, the more likely it is that you will remember it if you take a break from using it for a while.

Back when I was in high school I took four years of Spanish. During this time we did a block scheduling where you had the class for twice as long but only half of the year. Although I was able to retain a lot of information for short periods of time, my long term memory never truly gathered everything from each year. The first few weeks of each year were mostly reviewing the previous year instead of building upon it.

Why am I bringing up my previous language learning? I studied a language for four years and never really got to a successful or comfortable level that I could use. This is a lot to do with how I reviewed and the repetition.  My Chinese for example allowed me to have a conversation in less than a year. My conversation wasn't just with a teacher of the language, but somebody who didn't really have experience teaching it. If I go a longer time without practicing my Chinese, I notice it pretty quickly. The only time I really ever "tried" to use  my Spanish previously was when my family went to an all-inclusive resort in Mexico where everybody spoke English. I'd try to greet people and thank them in Spanish but that was ever about it. The first time I actually used it for practical purposes was just this past January when I was at an airport in Iowa and tried to help a few women who couldn't speak English. Being as I had gotten past the idea of trying to sound perfect but instead just tried to communicate, I was able to help them locate their plane.

Today's video is going to be a little entertaining to demonstrate this. I have Jessie joining me to have a conversation in Spanish, a language that I studied for four years, but haven't really "studied" for over eight years. How much will I be able to remember? I'm guessing a lot of simple phrases from the first year due to the quantity of repetition and getting moved further into long term memory, but most likely, not very much from the other three years. She also studied Spanish but actually used it during her time studying and continued even after her schooling so you can likely tell a difference between our levels. You can tell during the video when she realizes that I'm messing up but goes along with it as she realizes what I'm trying to say.

Until next time.

Reflecting on New Ideas (Arabic Week 13)

So last week I was getting a little down on myself and the progress I've made. I didn't feel like I had a clear idea of where I was going with Arabic as the language is not the same as Mandarin has been. Last week I had a few plans of how I was going to effectively improve my skills and am taking some time now to look back on those ideas and see what has worked and what hasn't. I also will take a second to break down a few issues that still are coming up.

One thing that helped me a lot this past week was speaking with a native Arabic speaker. I was able to talk about how I can better pronounce three letters (ه خ ح). After trying to do them it was much better to have them point out which ways were correct or not. I'd quickly take notes to try to explain to myself what I was doing with my mouth to better emphasize that for future times.

I started with the alphabet. When I originally began learning the language I wanted to learn the alphabet as I felt it would help me to sound words out whether I understood what they meant or not. By using an Arabic keyboard, I've forced myself to learn all of the letters and now am much better at recognizing certain ones that I wasn't as sure of before. This also allowed me to learn new words in a way that as I am chatting using HelloTalk I can actually recognize certain words that I have been using myself. I would rate this as success!

I'm starting to get used to finding these letters on a keyboard!

Following my video from last week, I worked more on writing the alphabet. When I first began I was able to find a video playlist that went through the letters and helped me to pronounce them as well. Unfortunately, I went through them a little too fast and overwhelmed myself. Also, somehow I couldn't find any videos for a few of the later letters. While practicing this week with my writing, I have been able to sound out the words as I go so that I can get a better idea of what they would sound like before I even use an audio assistance. This has also helped me to get comfortable writing words and even has caused me to look around my keyboard for the write letter that I know is next. This is also helping my progress.

My last plan was to use a CD that I got to listen to Arabic dialogue while driving in my car. This would in turn allow me to practice repeating phrases and listening to them as well. Great news, the CD is not actually a CD, it is a DVD. I put it in my car on Monday morning and was all set like, "Here we go let's do this!!!" and my car spit it right back out......yay. This plan did not go as well as I had hoped, due to I literally can't do it, so I'm just going to move past it.

A few things that have caused some issues for me beyond just knowing where to go is understanding what language to really learn. Within Arabic there are many different dialects that are spoken based on the countries. Most people begin by either learning Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Egyptian Arabic. MSA is a more formal style that is reserved primarily for writing whereas Egyptian Arabic is the dialect you hear in most movies. I didn't want to settle on a dialect immediately because I want the ability to speak with people from many countries. Who knows if somebody from Iraq or Morocco would understand an Egyptian dialect? These dialects don't just have different accents but different words and phrases as well.

Another part that makes reading difficult is that a lot of the vowel sounds are not shown. In more formal tenses that use accents to indicate the vowels but otherwise short vowels are not written. That means you basically have a lot of consonants with no clear idea of what vowel sounds to make. My approach for this is to think of how in English certain letters have different sounds in specific words. I'm hoping that the more I see certain words, I will instinctively know how to pronounce them without the vowels.

This weeks video is going to cover me doing two things. First, I'll go over trying to pronounce the three different letters I worked on all week (ه خ ح). Second, I'll try to cover a little small talk that would be something you can talk to almost anybody about. Typically, as I struggle I'll use the pronunciation that I've created but this time I will only be using the Arabic letters that make up the words. I'll likely miss some vowels a bit.

Until next time.

Pushing Past Struggles: Needing New Ideas (Arabic Week 12)

So I'll preface this post with a few things. First, I don't feel like I'm progressing very well with Arabic. This is mostly due to not having as clear of an understanding of the foundation of the language as I did with Chinese when I began that. Why? That's part two. Second, I am trying to spend as LITTLE money as possible on this language as possible (in hopes of a interesting blog post later). This prevents me from getting professional classes, courses, tutoring, etc. as they all can add up in expenses. This definitely has discouraged me as I go about my learning. I'm no expert on this, I'm struggling just like most people who likely try to start a new language.

What are these words? What am I doing?!

If I can't spend any money on this language, then what can I do? I've rethought out how I approach it as (in contrast to my last post) I feel that Arabic is a very difficult language to learn. This is mainly due to not being sure of the path to go on. So I'm going to mix it up a little to take a few different ideas of how I can improve and see what works best.

First, I'm just going to force myself to use the alphabet. One of the big claims of why Arabic is hard is because all of the letters look different depending on where they are written in the word. That means there are four ways to write all 28 letters (independent, initial, medial, and final position). That sounds terrifying right? Well, I've tried to approach it differently this past week and I saw some improvement. First off, not all letters change based on their position (see alif). Also, when you grow up learning cursive the letters have to change their shape just slightly when there is a letter before or after it. It just takes time to recognize those. By forcing myself to type the letters this past week I have been able to recognize all of the letters in each form A LOT better than previously.

The more that I write, I feel that I get used to seeing the letters. That seems pretty obvious but it was something I originally backed away from.

Second, carrying on from this I plan to really practice on writing all of the letters and phrases. I'm hoping multiple ways of drilling these words into my head can really help absorb more ideas. When I first started learning to write the alphabet I got discouraged and stopped because I sucked to be honest. Well, who said I would be perfect at the start? To assume I would be some amazing calligraphist in a foreign language when even my written English is nothing to brag about was just a silly idea.

Third, I'm going to use this CD that came with the Arabic book I got (the only expense so far!). I have about 40 minutes of driving both in the morning and the evening that I either call people, jam out to music, or pretend to give motivational speeches during. This will allow me to repeat back words and sounds in the comfort of my car and be as ridiculous as possible without worrying about other people staring at me in disbelief.

When I first began learning a new language I came across this. I think it is a good reminder that the beginning will be rough but when you get to a point later on, things will get much better.

So here we go. I've not been too successful, but that doesn't mean I stop. There will be rough patches and you just have to keep working past them. I've been able to have a lot of people encourage me and knowing people are keeping track of my progress holds me accountable for what I do.

This weeks video is of me writing in Arabic. Honestly, the written language is extremely beautiful and I really want to be able to read it. The whole language is beautiful which was one of the reasons I was intrigued to learn it. You can see me struggle at times but I keep pushing through.

If you have any ideas of things that may help or any comments at all, please feel free to share them!

Until next time.