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.