I've been taking Arabic* classes for the last few months, with limited success - I can read tolerably well, especially once I already know a word, but I can't pronounce worth shit and I need more vocabulary. I occasionally check out news at Al-Masry Al-Youm (Egypt Daily), not because I can actually read it, but because it's kinda exciting to realise that I can now easily read English words like "Condoleezza Rice" and "Washington" as well as common Arabic words (from, in, and - hotel, long, old).
If you scroll down on this blog, there's an interesting post on the use of words like "alhamdulillah" and "insha'allah". Suffice to say, the author likens them to the invocation of God in everyday English.
*Modern Standard - my teacher is Egyptian (the New Zealanders of the Middle East), which I assume will have interesting effects on my accent.
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it's kinda exciting to realise that I can now easily read English words like "Condoleezza Rice" and "Washington"
awhhh, that was EXACTLY what i did when i started learning arabic a couple of years ago. i especially remember the word "washington", that was probably the first word i ever managed to read in an arabic newspaper.
i actually used to buy al-Sharq al-Awsat (a saudi/international newspaper) just for that, even though i couldn't read a thing. and to spot the dictators' names, of course. that's even more fun, i recommend it. b-sh-r a-l-a-s-d, hm?
it's all coming back to me now :-D
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