Arabic, Adventures Learning a New Language

When I wrote about "Using the Bible to Learn Languages: Is That Possible?" here at AC I said that "there are many interesting ways of leaning a new language." At that time my concern was about learning Latin languages and the Anglo Saxon ones like English or German.

All over Latin America, people want to learn English to get better jobs or travel to the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, and study or work in those countries. So, actually, getting a bilingual book or Bible in Portuguese/English or Spanish/English is very easy so I rested my case.

Recently, I decided to go for a new linguistic adventure, to try something harder. I am getting older and I thought it's time I challenge my brain a bit, put it through some exercise while learning a whole, totally different language than the ones I know already, namely: English, Spanish and Portuguese.

I chose Arabic.

With no one to speak to, no material readily available on the radio or the TV -- when you are in countries like Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay -- you turn on the radio and eight times out of 10 you will hear English music playing. With Arabic, it's a totally different story!

It felt like I was going to climb the Everest wearing a T-shirt, shorts and sandals. And notice that I avoided Japanese for I knew it would be like going to the moon with the same previously mentioned apparel, so no. (Maybe next time.)

I took my own advice, but you know what? It is not so easy to find Arabic/English bilingual literature. Challenge accepted, I went to Amazon.com and I was very lucky to come across a book on the importance of the Arabic alphabet -- the first thing I learned was that studying the alphabet would take some time in the beginning but save a lot later on. Which is true.

Knowing the alphabet well has allowed me to read words I don't even know the meaning of yet and makes it easier to retain them when I finally find their meaning out. You can learn a lot through transliteration, but if you only use this means of learning when you do travel or talk to natives you will feel like an illiterate person.

Believe me, it is worth the time to learn the alphabet first. Here is the book I used. Learn with the kids too. Here is a free lesson on YouTube!

As I said before, parallel reading is not so easy to find, so I decided to read the Quran in a bilingual version (Eng/Arb). I still haven't got it yet, but a friend from Aqabar in Jordan will send me one. Her name is Orayb Keel and she decided to send me a bilingual Holy Quran as a gift. I got to know her and many other people from Aqabar in a Foreign Trade and Logistics Show in Sao Paulo Brazil last week -- the Intermodal 2008.

With her and her colleagues Mr Nabil, Mr Tamer, Mr Ala'a and Mr Jamal, I learned that people from Jordan are very friendly and that Jordan is a very nice country, actually a very pleasant place to travel to on vacation, business, or to study. Ala'a Ma'aytah is sending me an Arabic keyboard so I can transcribe my studies in Arabic with easy. So as you can see Aqaba people are really very friendly. They love to receive people from abroad in their homeland.

The point herein is that when you are learning a new language you have to be open and make the best of every opportunity to learn how to interact with native speakers and be open to the new culture and trends.

I am a Christian. I have read the Bible many times and in at least three languages, nevertheless I will read the Holy Quran with all due respect to learn more of the Arabic language, religion and culture. I am sure there will be many nice insights all the way through this linguistic journey.

Because I was open and met these people I learned about Jordan and Aqaba. I also found out about the American Peace Corps (because I was Googling about Jordan) and so I came across a wealth of material to study my target language, but not only that, but also Kazakh Russian, Bambara in Mali, French in Mali, Mandarin Chinese, Thai, and Ukrainian. All of which I will leave for another opportunity, but I mentioned them here because you or some other reader of this article may be looking for help in some of them, right? I also learned that many Americans go to study Arabic in Jordan.

Up until now, one may think it is great to learn languages if you know English, but if you don't, life is not so easy... Well, although there will be more material in English than in any other language, I found good material in Spanish and I bet there is more in other languages too. I will prepare something in Portuguese myself pretty soon.

On the other hand, there is something called instrumental English. Yes, if you are at an intermediate level or more advanced in learning English you may use your English to learn another language -- as a tool -- which is instrumental English. It is great for you to keep learning English while you learn something else. Here is a great place to put this concept to use (BBC).

As you can see, learning a new language is a great adventure. Pick yours and start right now. Let's go!

Materials on the Web:

1) On YouTube search for Arabic Alphabet. There are many options (look also for "LEARN TAJWEED" very nice with kids singing). Later still, look for the music "A is for Allah" by Zain Bhikha (all the letters of the alphabet are there and you will learn what the Islamic religion preaches in general) here.

1.2) There are lots of free lessons at YouTube which are easy to find.

2) There is a great Web site on Arabic here, some 18 lessons and an online key board here.

3) At Amazon there are many books if you are going to buy some I suggest you buy one about the alphabet and one with your first 100 words in Arabic

4) This is one of the best Web sites I came across packed with nice material for students of all levels.

5) Be curious and respectful of the culture so you do not get in trouble.