Arabic lesson

[qatarperegrine]

I just had my first official Arabic lesson, since my wonderful friend Lanny arranged to have some held on campus this semester.

It was as I feared that we spent the whole first hour learning stuff I already knew. But I can't jump into a higher-level class, I don't think, since I will have missed some stuff. Le sigh. Can't figure out what to do.

My favorite part of the class was at the end, when the teacher (who is Slovenian) said that our texts were supposed to be ready today but the copy place hadn't come through. We said we knew all about that phenomenon. He said he likes to call it the "IBM" way of doing business: I for inshallah ("If God wills"), B for bookrah ("tomorrow") and M for malish ("sorry!").

I'm feeling very melancholy today; not sure why. Yesterday I was all excitement (mostly after the weekly mail brought my plane tickets and guidebook for our 'Eid trip to Jordan), but today I just feel wistful and forlorn. Weird.

Comments

[seetarkrun.livejournal.com]

My friend convinced me to jump into community college Spanish 2 with him and learn all of Spanish 1 out of a book. Then, I somehow tested into Spanish 3 here, and had to learn everything I missed out of a book again. I wouldn't recommend it, but it is a pretty efficient way to learn a language, and you certainly won't be bored.

Don't know about Arabic though... it's so different from English... not sure what to tell you :-/

[qatar.livejournal.com]

Yeah, once I wrote that sentence about how I would have missed too much to take a second-level course, I realized that it's probably better to have missed a few things than to be bored. I think a slightly-too-hard class is more likely to keep my attention than a slightly-too-easy one.

However, Arabic 1 is all that's being offered on campus, and I'm probably too late to sign up for off-campus courses this semester. :-( Although, actually, one of my colleagues said she'd tutor me in Arabic if I'd tutor her in Spanish, so maybe that's my best bet this year.... Pero no he hablado el español por siete años, so I'm not sure I'd be much help to her.

[materjibrail.livejournal.com]

This has stopped me ever learning Spanish! So go with whichever but do it. Et quant a moi, je n'ai pas parle francais depuis 35 ans, mais je n'ai pas tout a fait oublie.So don't feel useless in trading tutoring.

[qatar.livejournal.com]

You haven't spoken French for 35 years, but you're still a Wobbly? What does your desire to overthrow capitalism have to do with anything? :-)

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