Arabic: Why is it so popular or IS it?
My city's library seems to have a lot of titles in Arabic, but very little in some of the languages needed by refugees and immigrants (i.e. Bosnian and Somali)...One of the librarians asked me, "Why don't you learn Arabic?" The question kind of caught me off-guard. "Because I don't have any way to use or practice it," I told her.
I've been tempted to learn Arabic before (since I used to live in a city where it was taught for FREE in a local mosque), but I'm not a muslim, and I'm not sure that I want to learn that way, plus I don't know what I'd do with it.
I imagine some people have fear related to 9/11, but let's not get into that here.
If you are learning Arabic, I wonder if you'd share why you are learning it and if you have any plans to use it. Of course, if you plan to work in North Africa, I understand, but...
I'd love to learn Arabic because it's one of the most melodic language I've ever heard and furthermore I'm really interested in its grammar, I have never learnt a semitic language...The problem is that I can't find an Arabic course in my small town
I don't like Arabic because they speak with their throat all the time. Also the script seems to be very difficult and unpractical.
I think I'd struggle with the sounds of Arabic, but Hebrew doesn't seem as difficult to me somehow. Does Arabic have more "throaty" sounds? How close is Arabic to Hebrew? I listened to Arabic and picked out some words I recognized when I played with a Rosetta Stone program. One word I recognized as Semitic or Hebrew and one or more words from Spanish (probably originally Arabic, of course).
I know speakers of Arabic LOVE music (where allowed) and that song about "Aisha" (I think) is a good tune, but why does it seem "melodic" to you, Olaszinho? Any songs you'd suggest?
Italian seems VERY musical to me so I'm interested in why you'd say that about Arabic.
I would only learn Arabic if I needed it for a specific purpose (If I lived in Morocco, for example.), I admit that I am interested in languages, but I won't learn languages just to impress other people.
I guess that's why I'm interested in knowing about the people who DO choose Arabic and why.
Oh, forget it! Just Delete this topic, Josh...
I don't like English and I learnt it. How? Well, nowadays you are supposed to know it if you want to get a decent (even not that decent) job.
"I chose Arabic because I want to work in diplomacy after university. Since there's 20-some countries that speak it, I figured there would be more jobs for Arabic speakers. I also like the language of course; I don't how you could learn a language you don't like."-Josh
Actually, that's a very good reason.
Yes, it's possible to learn a language one doesn't really like. There are many motivations for learning a language and love is not always one of them. Here are some reasons a language teacher told me several years ago.
a. necessity (host country)
b. economic gain
c. consider targent language and culture to be superior or equal to one's culture.
I would add that some people may learn for humanitarian purposes (i.e Peace Corps)
I know *I* could never learn a language I don't like unless I were forced to, though. I always struggled severely in learning Spanish, that allegedly easy foreign language ("easiest", perhaps, but not easy!), until I began to explore it on my own and began to actually like it.
- Kef
I thought about Arabic before, but I really have no desire to work, live or spend any extended period of time in any Arab country. I'd like to go to Egypt and UAE on vacation, but that's about it. Also, the majority or Arabs I've met (outside of their country), from Morocco to Jordan, speak English.
Another thing that scared me were the dialects. Some friends from various Arab countries told me they have difficulty understanding each other and that they don't prefer speaking in MSA for some reason.
Josh, are you studying MSA? Do you ever converse with native speakers? If so, then how is it?
"would only learn Arabic if I needed it for a specific purpose (If I lived in Morocco, for example.), I admit that I am interested in languages, but I won't learn languages just to impress other people"
Languages are a passion and a sort of hobby for me. I'm particularly interested in their grammar, syntax and phonetics. I like making a comparison amongs the languages I know. After that I adore reading papers, magazines, books, short essays in various languages. I have to admit that if you learn a language and you don't have the opportunity to practise it you'll probably forget it. This could be considered a waste of time. After all I'd say that my interest in languages is merely linguistic and cultural more than practical.
<< MSA？What does it mean？>>
Modern Standard Arabic.
- Kef
Arabic is a challenging language. It challenges your intuition and makes you nutty at times with pronunciation similarity (i.e. -S, Sh, s & Ta, Tha, ta- etc.) and not to mention the accentuation marks which mutates the meaning at times. Another factor is the caligraphy which is medium-difficulty if you study it ad nauseam; it's sort of a cursive language but with 2 more ways of writing it. Also one has to know and distinguish sounds / letters with a dot on bottom or top - which is taskful.
For example:
http://catarina.ai.uiuc.edu/L408/lecture2_figures/arabic.gif
And lastly some letters / sounds don't exist in Arabic, so one has to use the next closest sound to it to make up the many foreign words or names. Reading Arabic is somewhat of a task, because a dot on top dictates the letter along with the style.
Overall it's a difficult tongue. Don't get me started on grammar!! I'd suppose it's popular to learn the basic greetings and what have you, other then that it's just out there.....