“Algebra” is from Arabic “al jebr”, “putting together of broken parts”; in the 9th century, the book Kitab al-jabr w’al-muqabala, “book of reunion and reduction”, appeared. It was a doubly significant event: It introduced Arabic numerals to the West, and laid the foundation for modern algebra. The name of the author was ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi. The last element of his name has given us the word “algorithm”, earlier “algorism”, a procedure basic to computer programming. The words “cipher” and “zero” cannot be ignored when one speaks of Arab borrowings into English. Arabic “sifr” means “empty or nothing”, and is seen as a loan-translation of Sanskrit “sunya”, empty. Sifr gave rise to both “cipher” and “zero”, the latter coming in through Italian. The Arabs did not create the concept of zero; the credit for that and for the positional numbering system goes to Indian mathematicians. The system was for long known as the Hindu-Arabic numerals. Evidence from Arabic sources shows that the numerals were known as arqam al hind, “figures from India”.

Should we be studying it???

Yeah, I know… The posts on the subject of Arabic learning got pretty sparse this last semester.  The truth is that there wasn’t a whole lot to say.  Everything settled into a nice little routine.  As a class, we got a good hold on basic grammar and structure, but in early language-learning, one’s vocabulary acquisition is always playing catch-up with one’s command of grammar.  Simply put, you have the potential to say a lot, but simply don’t have the words to put in the relevant slots.  It’s very frustrating, and, to be frank, I’m convinced that this is the stage that has most people walking out on FL classes, convinced that they “can’t learn a language.”  Vocabulary acquisition simply comes down to two factors: time and effort.  Anyone who says otherwise is lying or trying to sell you something…

Anyway, that’s where I am now in my Arabic learning.  Given the vocabulary, I can say a lot, but my vocabulary is still pathetically limited.  In terms of real conversation, I can converse (with great care — and probably a fair amount of error) on a limited range of subject areas.  My reading and writing is vastly superior to my listening/speaking skills, which is just as well in Arabic, considering that oral dialects differ so considerably from the Modern Standard Arabic that I have been learning.  Reading is the area that amazes me the most.  The fact that I look at Arabic text now and see words (whether I understand them or not) instead of insane squiggles is an accomplishment in of itself.  As I believe I’ve mentioned here before, my language learning has always followed a certain pattern wherein I principally will develop written language skills in a classroom context, and I have to develop oral production and receptive skills in the target language environment (i.e., I have to go abroad to learn to speak).  I feel like I have a fairly good base now, and that if I were dropped into an Arabic-speaking country, sure I’d flounder to a certain degree, but I would be able to survive, and, more importantly, I would quickly be able to scaffold off of my learning from the past year to quickly acquire the language that I would need to live (and dare I say thrive?) in my new environment.  Towards that end, I applied for a scholarship to go to the middle east this summer, but unfortunately I did not receive it.  *Sigh.*  There’s always next year…

The big problem/issue that I face now with my Arabic learning is going to be maintenance.  I have been warned-off from taking the next sequence in Arabic learning this coming fall, due to departmental recommendations that students taking the comprehensive exams refrain from taking more than 3 hours of coursework.  That in-of-itself would be ok, but for the fact that I can only take the next course in the sequence in Fall, so I’m out of Arabic potentially until Fall, 2009!  I have to question how much I’m really going to remember by then!  What I’m planning to do is to perhaps apply again for a scholarship for summer ‘09 to take a refresher course in intro-Arabic.  A review of the subject can only do me good as it would also help to solidify what I have now.  The key during the coming year is going to be to keep up with the practice — easier said than done.  The resources exist (Arabic speaking clubs and the like), so it’s just a matter of doing it…

Regardless, I’m thankful for what I’ve learned thus far, and I do hope to keep up with Arabic (even if it’s on-again, off-again) throughout my life.  Work in the Gulf region is not uncommon in my field, so this year’s investment in language study may well pay off dividends later, and beyond all material gain, the language itself is quite interesting.  I’d easily recommend Arabic study to anyone asking!

No, not me, this time… (but a year-in-review article on Arabic learning will be forthcoming soon enough)

Recently, I decided to go for a new linguistic adventure, to try something harder. I am 47 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.

Quite ambitious.  Read with an eye to the learning practices the writer has employed to date.  As it seems the author was pretty-much on his own, as far as learning Arabic went, it’s got some good advice on self-learning techniques.  He sounds some correct notes on searching out material and tapping distant resources.  The problem (which I’m afraid the author will probably encounter soon enough) is that this type of self-directed learning is entirely driven by intrinsic motivation, and thus, is quite easy to give up when it “gets hard.”  My recommendation for Mr. Rix, and for others who similarly find themselves “linguistically stranded” is to try one’s best to manufacture a situation wherein one can enter into free exchange with native speakers of the language.  This can be done via travel, or penpals (email-pals), or finding a nearby community (however small) of native speakers with whom one can interact.  It is this progression of taking the language from a “theoretical construction” to a mode of communication with real benefits that will provide the motivation needed to get past the dry (and difficult) spells in language learning.

It’s been a long while since I’ve blogged anything on my attempts at Arabic.  I’m happy to report that I’m still floundering away err… studying hard…

I had applied to a couple of scholarship programs earlier in the year to go abroad to an Arabic-speaking country to study this summer, and I’m sorry to say that I was rejected by both.  However, as that would have caused a two month split between my wife and myself, that’s probably for the best.  I was honestly starting to get nervous over the prospect of leaving her (and my terrific and much beloved dog, of course) for that long.  I guess I’ll have to shunt that off to the future, but I still hope to do go to the Near East to work on my language abilities sometime.  It seems like a fascinating area, and, to be honest, I’ve always had a peculiar limitation in that I never really get proficient at speaking a language in the classroom — I literally have to go abroad (reading and writing, however, I learn in the classroom just fine).  While nothing in my career at this point hinges on Arabic, I’d still like to improve.  I’m not certain whether I’ll be able to take the next section of Arabic next Fall because I’ll be taking my comprehensive exams (one of the last stages before starting dissertation work), and it’s recommended to minimize coursework.  I’m happily finishing up my final (degree-relevant) courses now, so I may have a completely clean slate this fall.  Still, it does give me some pause to think of taking a break in my Arabic studies from May until next January….  Will I remember anything???

Yeah, I haven’t been very regular in the commentary on learning Arabic of late, but there have been some developments of late that definitely deserve comment. This second semester in the course series is proving to be much more grammar-intensive than was the first semester. I know that this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but to me, this is where languages get truly interesting.

A couple weeks back, our instructor had us memorize a chart of 30 basic verb forms. Apparently, Arabic has 10 basic verb patterns, each of which provides a (somewhat?) reliable guide to the formation of the three major tenses: present, past, and “MasDhaar” which doesn’t seem to have a direct counterpart in English, but seems to function alternately like a gerund (”-ing” verb) or an infinitive. The pattern of the verb can also provide information on meaning and usage (i.e., passive, transitive, etc.), but I’m still sketchy on all that… You’ve gotta be patient in language learning… This will certainly take some time.

Anyway, this week, the “new” exciting development has been studying the subjunctive. Students of Spanish or French will probably cringe when I say that, as this is one of those “difficult-to-grasp-how-to-use” verb forms for most English speakers. I’ve often heard language students, and even teachers, say that there is no subjunctive form in English. Very untrue…. The subjunctive certainly exists in English; it is merely “invisible” in most verb forms. Click here for an amusing primer, but, in a nutshell, the subjunctive is why one should say “If I were you…” in lieu of “I was you…” Anyway, it seems that Arabic, much like English, has a nearly invisible subjunctive form — mostly showing up as a change in the vowel at the ends of verb — which isn’t typically pronounced anyway. Only in the case of feminine plurals would you hear the difference.

Anyway, that’s the latest!

I haven’t harped upon the fact yet, but I enrolled in Arabic 102 this semester.  Nothing profound to report yet, but I was tremendously pleased at the obvious changes (for the better) that have been implemented to the curriculum.  After a near-mutiny against the program director last semester, she finally relinquished power to the individual instructors, so my teacher has the freedom to teach how he wants.  I’m sure there are limits, but I’m not aware of the exact deal that was struck.  Anyway, the change has been dramatic.  The syllabus looks more pedagogically sound, and the decrease in “busy work” has made me a happy man.  Last semester I was easily pulling at least 20-30 hours of study per week for Arabic alone.  This semester, that work has been cut down to a more reasonable number, and the homework requirements (so far) has been designed with schedules in mind (i.e., homework is weighted according to how much time we have to work on it).

I had my first test in the class today, and once again, a vast improvement.  I noticed that the instructor had implemented some suggestions that I had made (hee hee); namely, that cloze (fill in the blank) activities should be accompanied  with a word bank (there is evidence in language acquisition studies to suggest that you need to have developed a word corpus of upwards of 5000 words before a true cloze test can accurately measure anything).  There was less emphasis on form (i.e. exact spelling — last semester I’d always get tripped up by the diacritics — or vowel markings) and more on vocabulary recognition and knowledge of grammatical concepts.  Quite the change!  This is looking like it’s going to be a great semester!  My hat is off to my teacher for taking our comments and suggestions into practice, and devising a great syllabus.

Also of note: today I threw my hat into the ring for a scholarship competition to go to Egypt this summer to continue my Arabic studies.  It’s a federally funded scholarship distributed through the university.  In the next week or so, I’ll also apply for another federal scholarship for summer study — this one for Jordan.  Cross your fingers for me.  Hopefully, this summer I’ll be doing some live-blogging from the Middle East!

It’s been a heckuva semester learning Arabic!  — That pretty much sums up my feelings;)

———————————————————————————————————————–

Nah, of course there’s more to say. 

First off, I’d be remiss not to mention a little personal conviction of mine: namely, that Foreign language teachers truly needto occasionally take on a new language (even with no plans of eventual mastery).  The opportunity to slip into one’s students shoes as a beginning learner, to tackle unknown vocabulary and grammar from the beginning, to go begin anew learning a language from its very foundations — these are quite valuable to an instructor.  I found it quite refreshing to remind myself of what an incredible delight — and, yes, quite a lot of stress, as well — beginning language instruction is. 

When I look back at what I’ve learned in the past 16 weeks, I’m a little stunned.  While my knowledge of Arabic is still infantile at best, I have noticed that I can now pick out scrolling Arabic text and random words from Arabic speeches on the news.  While my conversational ability is *ahem* severely limited, it still exists — a lot better than last August. 

I find myself walking across campus or working in my apartment randomly mumbling Arabic phrases to myself.  I’ve started speaking to my dog in random Arabic phrases (it’s ok — he already thinks I’m nuts) — and for the record, no, he doesn’t understand (but he does speak Chinese).  In essence, I’m learning to love the sounds and flavor of the language. 

I still hate the irregular plural forms….  I imagine this will hold true for a good while….

I find myself looking forward to having a chance to put my learning into action.  Perhaps if my future holds a trip to the Middle East….  I’m looking into funding opportunities, but it’s early still…

I’ve met some great people in my class.  It’s a good mix of personalities.  As mentioned at the beginning of the year, there’s a fairly large contingent of heritage speakers, as well as a good mix of people who (for various reasons) want to study.  This course was by no means easy.  The class separated the “wheat from the chaffe” pretty early on, and after a few weeks, roughly 1/4 of the class had quit…

Now, the negatives…

There are always bad things about any class.  This one was no different. 

I’ve whinged before about the academic director of the program.  She seems to hold the individual instructors under her thumb, squashing teacher initiative.  I also have a lot of problems with the pedagogical methods she employs.  She’s got this incredible fondness for Audio-Lingual method, which, in most circles, has been disproved to the point of being largely discarded.  While I think the occasional activity is fine, the constant flogging of an out-dated methodology is rather alarming.  Additionally, testing methods were critically flawed: testing content that was not covered in class, testing multiple knowledges in a single task — a low-level no-no, a strange reluctance towards allowing more than one playing of any listening task, etc.  The director herself is a nice person.  I know her in other capacities and like her personally, but she is managing to alienate her entire department against her, and students regularly curse her name…  Not a good way to be…

The work load was just shy of ridiculous.  While 1st year language courses have a well-deserved reputation as a meat-grinder of sorts, and non-Western languages especially so, I was alarmed to be told that this 101 class has consistently held the dubious “honor” of being the most (busy)work intensive 101 foreign language course at my university.  Not good!  If the work was all productive, I would be all for it, but the pure number of hours spent engaged in mindless tedium were maddening. 

————————————————————————————————————————-

Still, when it’s all said and done….  I’m going to do 102 next semester

Yeah, I know I’ve been remiss on this lately, but the class has hit a solid groove, giving me little to report.  Besides, my head has been elsewhere lately as the end-of-the-semester panic.  Tests and papers galore next week….  Yippee!  Gulp!

Anyway, today I happened to have my first “oral assessment” in Arabic.  Ugggggghhh…  It was pretty painful.  While I don’t think I did awfully, it’s painful trying to do any real amount of conversation at such a beginning level.  I always want to say so much more than my limited vocabulary will allow.  Simply put, there was a lot of “ummmm.. ummm….  ah….” on my side of the conversation.

C’est la vie…

Four more weeks until the end of the semester.  As normal, this is “panic time,” where all students start to notice, “hey, I’ve got a kajilion assignments coming due in the next few weeks that I haven’t started on yet!”  Unfortunately, I’m firmly in that category at the moment.  Thus, my overall rigor towards Arabic study has been lowered substantially, as I work on completing tasks for other classes (as well as getting my own students ready for an upcoming essay assignment).  Nonetheless, I feel that this is a good point to reflect a bit on overall impressions of the language, thus far.

The language is difficult, for sure, but not nearly as bad as it’s always made out to be.  I had suspected this before.  It seems that the majority of people opining on the subject, if they have even made any serious efforts at learning foreign languages before, have inevitably only studied Western European languages.  Via a comparison with only (highly related to English) Western languages, Arabic would indeed seem quite daunting.  However, as I have already studied three non-Western (and, quite frankly, much harder) languages (Japanese, Mandarin, and Hokkien), Arabic doesn’t seem that bad.  Before starting, the one person I know who has studied both Chinese and Arabic (although both to a mere beginning level)commented that “Arabic is so much harder than Chinese!”  Sorry, but I gotta disagree.  It depends on what you’re comparing.  Arabic grammar is decidedly more complicated, but not unduly so, and (thus far) a lot more straight-forward than some Western languages.  It is the writing system, however, where Arabic is simply hands-down easier.  5 weeks of Arabic and I was literate vs. years of Chinese study and still so-so…  Advantage, Arabic.  Additionally, how you learn is going to make a difference.  To my knowledge, the above-mentioned friend learned his Chinese while living in China, but tried to pick up the Arabic here in the U.S.  Big difference….

Anyway, what I’ve noticed over the last 12 weeks…

1. I can largely “read” (sound out) Arabic text now…  I just usually don’t know what it means…
2. Conversational ability is slowly improving, but is still frustratingly limited due to extremely limited vocabulary and form knowledge.
3. It’s quite fun making some of the more phlegm-like sounds…