Yeah that guy was pretty prolific
Arabic - Start
Started Arabic study. The future will include more audio and possibly video, but since I can't speak a lot yet this will be a text update.
Materials so far are this:
I used the university library free printing to print out the free curriculum provided on Osaka University's website. I always study a new language using Japanese materials if I can so that I don't neglect it. I typically trust University materials more than stuff by random authors. I also intentionally used a blue pen. I don't know if it actually has any effect, but I try to write whatever languages I am studying in separate colors with the hope that it can help compartmentalize each study in my brain.
So the first thing I do is pronunciation. I don't trust the typical textbook pronunciation guides. They take lots of shortcuts and that will likely lead to bad habits. One reason I prefer University materials is they often include an IPA reference, and the ones I found did as well. I always prefer to practice with the IPA when possible. It is very worth to learn a thing or two about speech sounds and the IPA even if you only intend to study one language. The pay off in the end is just huge. I read the consonants over and over for about 5-10 minutes until I felt good enough to move on. You can't pronounce everything perfectly on day one, but you shouldn't skip sounds that are new to you either. Challenge yourself to make them right away. Sometimes you will get the hang of it quickly, other times you wont. But if you just skip it without trying, you will likely never get over that hill and continue sounding like a dumbass when speaking your target language. Vowels in Arabic seem pretty straight forward so I am just practicing consonants. This is my pronunciation progress so far:
After feeling comfortable enough to move on for the day, I studied the writing system. I have learned quite a few non-roman alphabet writing systems, I have realized that filling out charts or just writing the letters and their sound over and over is wack. Trying to memorize each letter and its sound is too much rote memorization. Instead, I look at whatever it is I will be learning first (in this case, and most cases, this is greetings), and I write them out on a piece of paper by looking at the romanization in the book and checking the chart for each letter as I write. This helps you associate the letters with their position in a word. That is much easier to remember than just where a letter fits into the entire alphabet chart or whatever. And this allows you to jump write into the language without feeling like you have to master the alphabet first. You can see on my notebook where I wrote a few of the greetings, and even just from that I feel fairly comfortable with it.
Next is learning those greetings. I think learning with this with flashcards or whatever is boring and not very effective, so instead I just go right to the internet to find native speakers to use the greetings on. I already sent messages to a few folks, and when/if they reply I will post how it goes.
If only there was a native Arabic speaker on the forum.
2 Likes
if only
at least this way I get to post entertaining chat logs like I did in the old days. thats what I am going for anyway
1 Like
Nma says you're drawing the M letter completely wrong.
Fuck. Word initial M?
Ohhh yeah I hella am. I see it now
End. He says it's supposed to be a closed circle.
fuck really? will keep that in mind
keep watch over me, egyptian
He says "Don't try to copy the computer Arabic font for that letter. It's like trying to draw the "a" letter in the computer way."
1 Like
My materials say that folks learn the computer style first and then the more cursive-esque style later. I am more concerned with reading but I also don't want to look like a noob in front of the ummah ya know
Do people learn to write 'a' in computer style when learning english?
No. Just explaining why I made the mistake is all sheesh.
1 Like
The ض sound is like the D in Homer Simpson's "Doh!"
1 Like
That helped a lot. I think I can feel the difference
I take the F word super seriously. But by most people's standards I guess I am. I am around N2 level. Yes I took classes. I did a whole lot of shit that involved changing my life in some ways. I am speaking from a monolingual anglophone perspective, and that's not you of course, but it takes a really long time. For monolingual anglophones, I would say expect at least 7 years to pass the N1 with a few of those years being in Japan.
None of the arabic speakers are replying to me wtf man
Nvm they are answering now we good