Struggling With The Arabic Language

My first exposure to the Arabic language came when I met my future husband back in 1977. We were college students and I had never really been around Arabs before. Adnan and his other Arab friends would hang out, socialize, and share meals together, and of course, speak in Arabic. I used to sit back and listen to these men conversing in this alien language, with its strange guttural sounds. One surprising thing that I eventually got used to was hearing the use of the “F” word sprinkled amidst the Arabic words. The inappropriate English word actually forms the ending sound for many normal Arabic words. I would wonder how this fascinating language could often sound so harsh, crude and abrasive, yet always appear so beautifully artistic when written out in script.

I began asking Adnan how to say easy phrases in Arabic, which I wrote down in a notebook. Fawzy, a friend of Adnan’s, also took it upon himself to try to teach me some Arabic as well. He even taught me to sing a beautiful love song in Arabic, which I still remember to this day. One of the lines from the song, loosely translated, says something like “whenever I try to speak, the only sound that comes out is your name… Your name is written on my voice.” I remember being requested to sing it a few times at some gatherings the Arabs had, and boy, did that make an impression on those in attendance. Here was this young blonde American girl singing a love song in Arabic – they loved it!

Years later, when our son Adam was born, my husband began speaking to him only in Arabic. So Adam has a much better understanding of Arabic than I do. And he is learning to read and write it in school, which I am thrilled about. It is not easy to learn any language when you are in your mid-50s, and certainly not a language as difficult as Arabic. I have two books to help me learn the language and lots of human helpers as well! Everyone tries to help me with new words and phrases. I try to speak it as much as I can and I ask questions about how to say things in Arabic, but it isn’t happening as quickly as I would like. If I could get to where I would understand much of what is being said around me and be able to carry on little conversations, I would be happy.

But to make matters worse, conversational Arabic is different from classical Arabic, which is used in the Koran and by newscasters and others on TV here. All native Arabic speakers of every dialect can understand what is being said on TV and in the Koran, but it is not the way people on the street speak. I remember years ago when I went to Egypt and tried out the Arabic I had learned from Adnan and Fawzy, I thought it was funny that Egyptians would tell me that I spoke with a Saudi accent. I thought Arabic was Arabic – silly me!

Many English words are actually rooted in the Arabic language. For example, many words in the areas of food and drink come from Arabic, like alcohol, coffee, lemon, orange, sesame, spinach, and sugar. Arabic also has contributed words to the English language in other fields as well, such as geography, architecture, navigation, music, plants, sciences, sports, commerce, textiles, chemicals, colors, and minerals, to name a few.

Some sounds used in speaking Arabic are non-existent in English, and vice versa. Arabic does not use the sounds of “P” or “V,” thereby making it very difficult for Arab native speakers to pronounce these letters when speaking English. Some Arabic letters represent sounds in English that are made up of two letters like “th” and “sh.” Other sounds used in Arabic are so difficult to describe, I won’t even try. But trust me, these sounds are very difficult for English speakers to enunciate correctly.

Trying to learn how to read and write the Arabic language may be well beyond my abilities. The Arabic alphabet has 28 letters which are consonants and three vowels which can be sounded short or long. Arabic letters look nothing like the letters in the English alphabet. Many Arabic letters are squiggly, curvy and curly, some with dots above and some with dots below, some with one dot, some with two. Depending on whether the letter comes at the beginning, middle, or end of the word, its written appearance can change. This makes it all the more difficult and confusing.

Arabic is written and read from right to left, the opposite of English. Something I find fascinating is that Arabic books which were written 1,500 years ago can be read and understood by any Arabic speaking person today. English didn’t even exist back then, and other languages that were in existence like Persian, Chinese and Greek have changed so much over time that older texts in those languages can only be read by scholars. Written Arabic is so beautiful it stands on its own as lovely artwork. Many Arabian homes display gorgeous artwork consisting of Arabic calligraphy made out of a variety of mediums such as metal or paint.

Arabic numbers are written from left to right, like in English. So when there is written Arabic text with numbers inserted into the text, the words read from right to left, but the numbers read the opposite way! Help!!! Plus some of the Arabic numbers are similar looking to English numbers, but some of those are totally different numbers. Interestingly enough, true Arabic numbers are what is used in the US. In Arabia, the numbers actually come from Hindu/Indian!

I have read on several other people’s blogs about how they were unable to achieve proficiency in becoming fluent in Arabic, despite having lived in the country for twelve, fifteen or even twenty years. This was discouraging for me to read since I had high hopes of somewhat mastering Arabic in maybe a year or two…or three! I think now that maybe that was unrealistic on my part. But I will continue to strive and I will not give up.