The Key Turned (Arabic)

IF I TYPE IN ALL CAPS LIKE THIS, YOU STILL WOULDN'T EVEN BE ABLE TO IMAGINE HOW HAPPY I AM!

It's no secret that Arabic is tough for me. Hard as hell. Gorgeous, but vicious.

Anyway, I was in Barnes & Noble with my girlfriend this past Saturday. I only go to the language portion of the store, and I saw a book called Arabic in Ten Minutes a Day. I picked it up and started thumbing through it, and then I had a polyglottal orgasm. That book was everything that I dreamed of. I was able to learn words, how to spell them (in Arabic and English), as well as the context for using them.

The book is about 140 pages with flash cards, sticky notes that you can put on your mirror to practice while walking around your home, as well as a CD-Rom full of information. I knew that before I even made my way to the checkout line that I was going to get. it. in.

Then, I saw something even MORE awesome. They had the same book for Hebrew, so I scooped that one up too because they were the last copies of Arabic and Hebrew, and I would have been damned if someone got them before I did, you know? Hebrew isn't as hard for me as Arabic, but it would definitely help since Hebrew is also written from right to left. There were similar books on other languages, but I didn't feel the need to get them because I was confident enough already.

Both books were 26 dollars each. I was poor, and I did not CARE. I brought them home, and I immediately went outside on the balcony and got to work on the Arabic. It took my some time to get the ball rolling, but once I got through the in-depth description of the alphabet, I was then able to learn basic words, which is what I had been looking for forever. That Kindle book I have just didn't cut it, because with this new book, it gives you sentences in English while intermittently placing Arabic words with script combined with the English pronunciation. I was in love.

It's Tuesday now, and I'm already starting to write a LOT more in Arabic. I'm tweeting in Arabic, and I'm able to read it also (very slowly, mind you). The key is turning, and once that door is open, I'm moving all my shit in and stretching out on the couch.

I've been banging at this door for far too long, and now I'm getting results. I'm only a few pages in, and I can't imagine how far I will have progressed by the end.

,السلم عليكم

Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira