<p>I'm considering starting Arabic this year (taking a class at a local college). I know it's a difficult language, but I'd like to hear personal experiences. Did you find it a huge struggle? Is it the kind of language that's very hard for western tongues to ever really get down (like mandarin), or is it manageable? Do you enjoy it?</p>
<p>I'm taking that.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>It's going to be very hard for you.</p>
<p>I want to. But there's none offered.</p>
<p>I suppose it is more difficult then the Romance languages most people are used to like French and Spanish. Just pay attention, use flash cards, and study often and you'll do fine.</p>
<p>I want to take it, but I don't think my high school offer it :(</p>
<p>my school doesn't offer it. (but it's a mandatory subject for those who will apply to local universities)
I can't really answer your question because I've been speaking it for nearly 13 years now. Did you know that it consists of over 2 million words!</p>
<p>The alphabet gets me.</p>
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Did you know that it consists of over 2 million words!
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<p>What...? lol.</p>
<p>i'm arab, and i'm semifluent in arabic (can read/write, not very good at speaking).</p>
<p>bear in mind that your course of study will be contingent on your goals. "classical arabic" and "conversational arabic" can be mutually unintelligible because conversational arabic relies heavily on idiom, slang, and non-standard grammatical construction. that being said, it is definitely quite difficult to be very fluent in arabic, so buckle down for some hard work.</p>
<p>My cousin is an Arabic interpreter and my friend is teaching himself at least how to write it... but as for me, all I know is that Arabic script is beautiful and the government's likely to nab anyone who speaks it. :rolleyes: :p</p>
<p>^ LOL. Um.. let's hope not. I want to transfer to NYU, not Guantanamo. </p>
<p>Arabic is super hard. It's my mother tongue and yeah, I find it difficult. It's just so complex and there are Arabic letters with nothing that sounds like it in English.. the set up is different, the grammar, etc. Extremely hard language to learn.</p>
<p>And yes, there's the whole thing with traditional and conversational Arabic being different and there are soo many different Arabic dialects (differs from every Arab country to the next). </p>
<p>However, it's an extremely valuable language to learn these days. It's a great skill to acquire.</p>
<p>Hey! </p>
<p>I speak arabic at home with my family and arab friends, sorta grew up with it. it's a delightful language! interesting grammar rules that you've never heard of in english, but with a good teacher, definently manageable. The beginning is very easy (i thought, but maybe harder for a complete 1st timer), it's not until the 3rd year or so that it becomes difficult. It may take a while for you to get your pronunciation perfect, but that comes with practice, like many other languages. As people above me said, the dialects are very different from the formal arabic you will learn, which will inhibit your speaking skills. As you will see, native arabic speakers have no problem speaking informal/formal, but sometimes cannot read or write the language. The opposite holds - if you learn it formally, you may find yourself not understanding spoken language. </p>
<p>Example - An indian guy I know (adult male) learned Urdu & Arabic, along with English. While he writes & reads beautifully, he is very slow at talking and cannot understand what my mother and I are saying when we converse back and forth.</p>
<p>It depends on how far you want to go with this language to really determine if you'll learn it well...you'll have to stick with it for several years.</p>
<p>Even as a sort of native speaker, I still have trouble deciphering other countrys' dialects. . . watching arabic soap operas and such help, but most are in Egyptian Arabic, and I need to hear more Iraqi/Qatar/Lebanon dialects. The arabic i speak is egyptian/sudanese/saudi arabian dialect, so talking with my friend's syrian mother makes me have to listen harder. It will take a while to learn how to write the letters, how to pronounce properly, make basic phrases, and such, keep that in mind. If you possibly took spanish, this will help as spanish and arabic share some common words/pronunciations/rules. Keep at it to do well, it's a great challenge to embark and colleges will be impressed. </p>
<p>Good luck! If you need any help, just send a PM.</p>
<p>syrian dialect is just like the Lebanese one. The easiest to learn, after Egyptian of course. and I'm not just saying that bec I'm from there..it really is the easiest to learn and the most widely understood in the arab world (mostly due to the huge popularity of a certain egyptian female singer and egyptian cinema)</p>
<p>I'd learn Lebanese Arabic if I were you though (not Syrian), it's the cutest one and sounds the softest. </p>
<p>I think gulf-region Arabic is nice too, Kuwaiti being the nicest sounding one. ;] </p>
<p>My favorites (really) and not being biased <em>are</em> really Lebanese and Kuwaiti. They're both quite different but I feel like they're the easiest to understand.</p>
<p>lebanese dialect is what you said, I like to listen to it, but I've never actually tried it.
IMO Kuwaiti dialect is the hardest. I sometimes watch Kuwaiti shows, which are as untolerable as egyptian shows in my opinion, and can't understand a word they say. I sat in front of the TV for 30 minutes trying to get a few words in, and all I could understand was "How are you."</p>
<p>Whaa.. Kuwaiti news shows talk in traditional Arabic, whatchu talkin bout?</p>
<p>ohhh.. normal Kuwaiti SHOWS. Yeah, but dude it's not actual Kuwaiti on those shows. Most of them are low-class trash, honestly. And a lot are from Bahrain or the Emirates or Saudi Arabia, so it's not exactly Kuwaiti. And it's also an exaggerated yucky accent, not the soft normal one most Kuwaitis use.</p>
<p>And... I find Egyption extremely hard to understand. When I got back from the states as a kid, I thought some of my egyption teachers were speaking another language becauseI had only been exposed to Kuwaiti. lol. Took me months to make a little sense of what was going on.</p>
<p>not news. shows..as in sitcoms, soap operas..etc
it is incredibly difficult to understand.</p>
<p>it usually takes a while to understand any new dialect. now i can understand whole sentences spoken in the Kuwaiti dialect. but still have a hard time..but maybe it's becasue I hate Arabic shows in general.</p>
<p>Arabic shows are *****.</p>
<p>i don't know what ***** is but I agree. It not that they are *****, they are just booooooring and all the "actors" can't act.</p>