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Goddamn this shit is hard. But you made it!! Here's to March!

Hey folks,

I just found this subreddit today. Don't know if it is still active. I've been learning Arabic for a year now using mostly Rosetta Stone. Here's what I've been up to the past couple weeks.

I was introduced to adjectives such as fast; slow; heavy; light, as well as nouns such as metal; wood; paper; and plastic (بلاستيك). I've been using these words to describe nouns that I've been taught in previous lessons. These include: chair; animal; mattress; table (مائدة).

To give you an example of how I'm taught these words and their grammatical structure's in a sentence, I present these two examples:

Sentence 1: ُهذِهِ المَائِدَة

Sentence 2: ٌهذِهِ المَائِدَةُ بلاسْتِيكِيَّة

I've also been learning the grammatical structures of and how to answer such questions of the relative pronoun, Which.

Question: أَيَّةَ مائِدَةٍ مَصْنوعَةٌ مِنْ البلاسْتِك

Response: هذِهِ المَائِدَةُ مِصْنوعَةٌ مِن البلاستيك

Over the next couple of weeks I hope to perfect my fluency in the asking and answering of these types of questions, substituting the various nouns and adjectives I've been taught thus far.

You fucking rock.

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Salam 3laykum!

Former Experience/Status

Pretty much none, I did about 3 lessons of Pimsleur Arabic a while ago but that's pretty much it. I've learned some Farsi before, so I'm fairly acquainted with the alphabet though.

Goal for the next six months

Get to the point where I can hold a decent conversation in Arabic without much stuttering or pauses.

Plan for next six months

I'm going through the Teach Yourself book for Arabic, and I will be enrolled in an Arabic 1 course at my high school before the challenge is over. I also plan on watching Al-Jazeera, Arabic videos, etc. to hear native speakers and I will be using Skype to talk to native speakers over the internet.

Long term goal for the year

To be at least a B1 in Arabic, hopefully a B2 or even C1.

Ma'a as-salaama!

mar7aba! I figure we should all get to know our teammates from the beginning, so post in this thread to let us know that you're here!

So far I can see a couple people posting comments but there are obviously more members than this. You can be as descriptive or as terse as you wish, but please let your voice be heard!

Hello! I am a native Arabic speaker (Egyptian).

Throughout your learning experience, if there are any words that you can't pronounce and can't find on Forvo, add it to Forvo and send me a PM with the link, and I'll try my best to help.

I can pronounce words in Egyptian Arabic, and standard Arabic, so please specify which dialect you'd like to hear the words in.

Even though many Arabic letters connect and have three different forms (beginning, middle, and end,) learning the letters can be intimidating. But it's actually really easy. It took me about a week to learn how to learn how to read anything in Arabic (and I'm a slow learner.) The trick is do not learn the alphabet first! Use the letters as you learn them.

For example, look up how to write simple nouns like "dog" or "table," and then learn the letters needed for those words. In order to learn the letters you can copy and paste the Arabic words onto a document and put a space between each letter. Like this:كلب can be separated into ك ل ب

This way you can see how each letter looks in its original form, and how it interacts with the rest of the word depending on where it's connected.

Once you understand which letters are in the word, practice them by hand over and over again saying each letter's sound so you really understand how the letters are working to create the word. If you don't know how to say the word, there's always forvo.

• Arabic course on reddit I haven't done it myself but it looks pretty good.

• Memrise You probably already know about Memrise. If you don't check it out! A couple of the lessons for MSA are particularly good.

• More Arabic lessons If you don't understand how the letters work, this is a good guide.

• [This woman's youtube channel is awesome!] (http://www.youtube.com/user/LearnArabicwithMaha) Especially when it comes to pronunciation.

• Another good resource when it comes to pronouciation. It's like a dictionary, but for pronunciation.

• Verbling I haven't used Verbling yet but I've only heard good things about it!

• Last but not least: Fluent in 3 months I mostly use this site for Learning with Texts (video) but watching Benny progress with whatever target language he is learning is inspiring during the inevitable slumps you go through when learning a language. I also recommend using Benny's site for Learning with Texts. Learning with Texts has been my most valuable resource when I was learning French. I'm sure it will be with Arabic as well. Setting up LWT can be tricky, especially because you have to tell it how to read Arabic. But it's totally worth it! If you can't figure out how to set up LWT let me know and I'll probably be able to get it working for you.

Edit: Adding more:

• A great resource for grammar and vocab: http://arabic.desert-sky.net/

• Really good Arabic lessons: http://www.madinaharabic.com/start_learning.html

Arab is not as hard as it seems and these links should make it way easier!

Finally finished with the mid-sem period so I managed to get beyond my regular 4 hours of Arabic classes a week. My Arabic midsem and mid-oral exam went pretty well and it was right back to grammar afterwards.

This last fortnight was focusing on adjective agreements with nouns as well as showing ownership/ relationships between nouns. I think I'll leave this here because I need to get some sleep!

I have definitely reached to limits of how much I can do with the time I have. As the last real days of this semester turn into finals, there is just no time for anything else besides the occasional night off with my girlfriend or friends. I've still been doing random Arabic, French, and Turkish things but to really get into it again, I'm going to have to wait until this semester is over. I'll still be checking in but most of the weeks of May will probably say something similar.

Here's my new favorite Arabic (Lebanese?) song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZe_n8bLB8A

Turkish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09Wgs4H6xCA

And an old favorite French song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHB9epBQxlI

I can't believe it's only been a quarter of a year since we started! I also can't believe I added a new language to my language-learning challenge. How ridiculous.

Thoughts:

• Since January, systems have come and gone but I have found one that works by streamlining all three languages. I'll be using this system for the rest of the year and beyond شاء الله

• There is no way to effectively learn three languages while taking 19 units. I would be at it for years if I kept it up like this. Fortunately the semester ends in late May and I can get into this head-on. For now I'm basically weathering the storm. I've gotten this far and will not pull out. The three days off I had during spring break showed that I will definitely learn these languages given I'm not taking 19 units for the rest of my life.

• Lastly, I'm really glad to see others sticking to challenge. Needless to say, it keeps me going. Stick to it and you're not alone!

Goals for next week

My post-springbreak school load is hitting me like a blizzard these days, so my goals are going to be pitiful this week. But I will do something in each language... Fifteen minutes for each language on the days I have time. (Like Tuesday and... two other days.) If I can do more, that would be good. Congratulations again to those who have stayed in it!

هذه الاسبوة المشكيل لاني مريدة

First week of classes. I was sick. Went to the Monday and Friday session of the class I'm supposed to sit in on and decided it'd be more useful for me to use those hours to study on my own.

I started a compilation of all the resources I've amassed over the years for Arabic study and will throw it here when I've finished it.

Next week I hope to go through my old notes and organize them to figure out what I need to review before I can move on. I'd also like to work on my vocabulary. I haven't had much luck with memrise so far. The time it takes to type in Arabic is more than the quizzes will allow. Any suggestions for good vocabulary Memrise courses?

Accomplished Last Week

• Found Shankaboot and watched 33 episodes. Yes 33 episodes. It's that fucking good.

• Translated the first episode using youtube subtitles and Learning with Texts. Made a Memrise course of the words I didn't know but I have yet to complete it. There's a lot of talking in the first episode!

• Connected with many people using italki. My Arabic is still poor so it takes a long time to write a decent email to someone. But it helps if the person you're talking to is cute or interesting! I don't plan on breaking up with my girlfriend and moving to Morocco, but it's more of an intensive to write well and frequently if you care about the person on the other end.

Evaluation: This week was hard but I know I'm on the right track. I didn't come close to last week's plan but that's fine, I'm still figuring things out. I got bored of children's books quickly and found Shankaboot to translate instead. I didn't translate any news stories either but starting writing to real people with italki. Writing real emails to real people is scary and hard but it's worth it. Once I get more comfortable with italki I'm going to move on to Skype -but not yet!

Next Week's Plan

• Finish Shankaboot and start translating/memrising more episodes.

• italki it up at least 5 times.

• Write to people by hand 3 times.

• inch'allah.

Week 1

Week 0

Salam alaykom!

Former Experience / Status

• Just got out of a semester of Arabic 1.

• I can read Arabic script almost as well as Latin letters (easier than it sounds.) Everyone around these parts seems to be able to assess their language level with letters and numbers i.e. B2, C1. I have no idea what that's all about but I'd say I'm just below "drowsy toddler" level.

Goals for the next 6 months

• Get to the point where I can be translating Harry Potter in Arabic without looking up every other word.

• Get my Arabic from slightly below drowsy toddler level, up to senile old man level.

Plan for first 6 months

• Start translating children's books and use memrise and Anki to remember the translated words. This will help improve my basic vocabulary, grammar, spelling, and typing.

• Use Skype and/or friends to improve my talking. Talking is both the easiest and hardest way to learn a language. It's intimidating and there's no doubt I'll make a fool of myself but I'll learn much quicker if I start talking to real people.

Long term goals for the end of the year

• To learn enough Arabic to understand Al Jazeera. (The website and the TV station.) inchallah!

Here's to Arabic in 2013!

ma'a as-salaama,

-GuitarBrotherBrother

مرحبا بكم! أنا متأخرة ولكن أريد أن ألحق بهذا الفريق للسنة. أريد أن أتكلم مع أكثر ناس. درست اللغة العربية منذ حوالي أربعة سناوات.

memrise و aljazeera for learning Arabic و livemocha أستخدم

فرصة سعيدة في درستكم!

I think it's safe to say that all those involved in the Arabic and French portions of the Total Language Challenge have either moved on or dropped out. It was great to have this sub in the beginning. I think for a lot of us it was a good way to get started and keep at it.

Here's my final update:

Since about a month ago I've spending an average of couple hours each day learning French and Turkish. This week I finally got to a point in which I can read Harry Potter in French. Arabic on the other hand has been suspended so I can focus more on the other two languages.

I'd like to thank everyone who posted here, especially limeskittles for being a part of this. I don't know why it was so inspiring to see a bunch of other people struggling just as I was to learn Arabic, but it was. Now probably like a lot of you I know that learning another language (or 3) is possible. It's just a matter of time and work.

And more work.

And more time.

I've been gone way to long! But this upcoming week I'm going to get right back into it. I've decided to make a blog to make things a little more interesting. It's pretty basic right now but you're welcome to check it out: http://indianmannequins.wordpress.com/

Okay, so after a 5 week steady slope during the semester in Arabic, the last few weeks have suddenly shot up a little bit. These last few weeks, we've covered:

• Stems I, II and V verb conjugations

• iDaafa structures

• Using case markers in writing

• Sound and broken plurals

• A crap load of vocabulary

I guess it's good to write all that down since my Arabic Written and Oral finals are coming up next month and it's nice to see what I have to cover before then. For the mean time, my other finals are taking up most of my time so I will get down to Arabic as soon as I feel comfortable with my core subjects.

In terms of revision, that Flashcard app thing on my phone helps me heaps with learning vocab. It's also really good for learning the broken plurals of things and gives me something to do during 15min waits at the station and such. I've also been writing small sentences about myself to piece together during the final exams and regularly keeping up to date with my grammar work in Al Kitaab.

Lots to do but I'm pretty happy with how much I've done in one semester of Arabic.

• Taco out.