Arabic, Why Do You Hate Me?

Okay..Y'all probably are used to me writing happy entries about the things I've learned, what I'm excited about, and all things that are on the brighter side of the rainbow.

This is NOT going to be one of those entries..

I'm really frustrated with Arabic, and it's not my fault, and it's not the language's fault. It's simply the sheer lack of a good resource for it. Arabic has a ton of altered and Americanized ways of pronouncing a word without actually giving consideration as to what the Arabic letters actually say the word sounds like. We all remember how many ways people spelled Moammar Ghadafi, don't we?

There are really expensive dictionaries, that generally are only Arabic-English..Those just happen to be the better ones, but I'll be damned if I spend more than 50 bucks for a resource that's only one way.

Why am I so pressed to have a SOLID resource to help me with writing? Plain and simple: a language is more than just speaking it. If and when I visit the Middle East, I'm not going to expect things to be written in English. I HAVE to be able to understand the script.

It's just aggravating to already have two Arabic dictionaries and know that they CAN'T help me with the phrases I know. I have pages of stuff that needs to be completed with the script, and those two books only helped me with about 5 of the sentences.

My choices are these: Find an Arabic person who is willing to sit down and teach me how to write the words, become so good at the alphabet that I can create the words just by listening, or find the perfect dictionary. All three choices are going to be tough.

Wanting to be good at the language also presents its own frustration. This is the ONLY language that gives me fits. Even Mandarin Chinese seems easy to me. Why can't this work out just as well?

I hope you've enjoyed my rant, and if you have ANY ideas as far as finding resources to aid with writing, I would LOVE to know. And if you are interested in helping me write what I already have in Arabic, that would be fantastic.

Ma'a salaamah,

Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira