Checking In
It's been months since I've updated this blog... honestly, I usually don't even remember that it exists. I stopped maintaining it when I left DLI. Every month or two, though, I get an e-mail from somebody who found and appreciates the site. Despite not being updated in months, it still gets 20+ visits a day. A lot of people find my blog through Google, by searching for Arabic learning resources. All this evidence suggests that people are hungry for quality information on learning Arabic, which we all know are hard to come by.
I can't make any promises, but I will try to write some new posts in the near future. I've learned a tremendous amount of Arabic since moving to Jordan, and I've picked up new strategies and study techniques. I have some things to share. However, I also have two kids, am working on a master's degree, am working on my own Arabic, and am maintaining my Building Peace blog, so life is busy. But I will try.
In the meantime, here is an update on where I'm at with my Arabic.
My 50-week DLI Arabic program was scheduled to graduate in June, but I wanted to move to Jordan as soon as possible so I could get to work on the Jordanian dialect. Learning to understand and speak the dialect was far more important to me than watching Al Jazeera or acing the DLPT. So I arranged for an administrative disenrollment from DLI in mid-April and PCS'd to Jordan, well before my graduation date. Nonetheless, before leaving at the 42-week point, I managed to pass the DLPT with a 2+ in reading, a 2 in listening, and a 2 in OPI. I say that only to illustrate that learning this language is doable, although it is hard and takes a lot of work.
Once in Jordan, I focused almost entirely on dialect. I tried three different language schools before finding one I really liked. One school was mediocre, and one school was so bad that I quit after 2 days--even though they refused to give me my money back. The third school was fantastic, so I spent all fall studying there 4 hours a day. The lesson here is to take control of your learning and shop around, if at all possible. If your school or teacher uses bad teaching methodology, you'll expend a tremendous amount of time and energy with very little return (unfortunately, in my experience, much of DLI's program falls into this category). I also found a great private tutor. We meet every week and focus on speaking. My dialect has improved substantially; I can speak dialect much better than I can speak MSA now.
I am continuing to work on my MSA. My single favorite strategy for reading comprehension is to read BBC or Al-Jazeera online, with the assistance of both WordChamp and a FireFox plugin called Babelfish. I read as much as I can, and when I see a word I don't know, I just double-click it and Babelfish gives me an instant translation using Google's translation engine. If I want to see the short voweling or hear it pronounced, I use Wordchamp. In my view, this is so much more beneficial than what I call the "dictionary drill" style of homework. When I was at DLI, we consistently had reading homework that was way above our level. I spent most of my study time leafing through the dictionary looking up words I didn't know, rather than cementing the words I did know. I got zero benefit from these hours of painful work. When I read online and use the electronic tools, I can spend 90% of my time in the text and only 10% of my time in the dictionary. I can also copy-paste new words right into an Excel spreadsheet, which I can then import into either RapidRote or my custom SimpleFlash program. I started using this technique around the end of Semester I at DLI, and I've never stopped. My comprehension of news surged. By the time I took the DLPT, I think my understanding of the news was well above that of my classmates. Now I can read political and economic news stories almost fluently, and am trying to gradually branch out into other topics.
I've found that my listening comprehension has improved substantially because of my reading ability. I've learned a simple lesson: if I can't understand it when I read it, there isn't any chance that I'll understand it when I hear it. The corollary is that if I can read it well, and I know all the words, I will probably understand it when I hear it. My listening right now is like a picture coming in and out of focus... listening is still hard for me, but I have long stretches (at least on some subjects) of almost 100% comprehension.
In other news, I have continued working on some software applications to help with Arabic. I wrote a flashcard program for the Android operating system, and have ported all the DLI vocabulary over. I can now carry audio flashcards for all my vocab on my mobile phone. The program isn't ready for general release yet, but if I can ever find the time to put the finishing touches on it, I'll release it here. I'm also still working on a conjugation drilling program for the PC.
That's all for now. I'll try to write more soon.
I can't make any promises, but I will try to write some new posts in the near future. I've learned a tremendous amount of Arabic since moving to Jordan, and I've picked up new strategies and study techniques. I have some things to share. However, I also have two kids, am working on a master's degree, am working on my own Arabic, and am maintaining my Building Peace blog, so life is busy. But I will try.
In the meantime, here is an update on where I'm at with my Arabic.
My 50-week DLI Arabic program was scheduled to graduate in June, but I wanted to move to Jordan as soon as possible so I could get to work on the Jordanian dialect. Learning to understand and speak the dialect was far more important to me than watching Al Jazeera or acing the DLPT. So I arranged for an administrative disenrollment from DLI in mid-April and PCS'd to Jordan, well before my graduation date. Nonetheless, before leaving at the 42-week point, I managed to pass the DLPT with a 2+ in reading, a 2 in listening, and a 2 in OPI. I say that only to illustrate that learning this language is doable, although it is hard and takes a lot of work.
Once in Jordan, I focused almost entirely on dialect. I tried three different language schools before finding one I really liked. One school was mediocre, and one school was so bad that I quit after 2 days--even though they refused to give me my money back. The third school was fantastic, so I spent all fall studying there 4 hours a day. The lesson here is to take control of your learning and shop around, if at all possible. If your school or teacher uses bad teaching methodology, you'll expend a tremendous amount of time and energy with very little return (unfortunately, in my experience, much of DLI's program falls into this category). I also found a great private tutor. We meet every week and focus on speaking. My dialect has improved substantially; I can speak dialect much better than I can speak MSA now.
I am continuing to work on my MSA. My single favorite strategy for reading comprehension is to read BBC or Al-Jazeera online, with the assistance of both WordChamp and a FireFox plugin called Babelfish. I read as much as I can, and when I see a word I don't know, I just double-click it and Babelfish gives me an instant translation using Google's translation engine. If I want to see the short voweling or hear it pronounced, I use Wordchamp. In my view, this is so much more beneficial than what I call the "dictionary drill" style of homework. When I was at DLI, we consistently had reading homework that was way above our level. I spent most of my study time leafing through the dictionary looking up words I didn't know, rather than cementing the words I did know. I got zero benefit from these hours of painful work. When I read online and use the electronic tools, I can spend 90% of my time in the text and only 10% of my time in the dictionary. I can also copy-paste new words right into an Excel spreadsheet, which I can then import into either RapidRote or my custom SimpleFlash program. I started using this technique around the end of Semester I at DLI, and I've never stopped. My comprehension of news surged. By the time I took the DLPT, I think my understanding of the news was well above that of my classmates. Now I can read political and economic news stories almost fluently, and am trying to gradually branch out into other topics.
I've found that my listening comprehension has improved substantially because of my reading ability. I've learned a simple lesson: if I can't understand it when I read it, there isn't any chance that I'll understand it when I hear it. The corollary is that if I can read it well, and I know all the words, I will probably understand it when I hear it. My listening right now is like a picture coming in and out of focus... listening is still hard for me, but I have long stretches (at least on some subjects) of almost 100% comprehension.
In other news, I have continued working on some software applications to help with Arabic. I wrote a flashcard program for the Android operating system, and have ported all the DLI vocabulary over. I can now carry audio flashcards for all my vocab on my mobile phone. The program isn't ready for general release yet, but if I can ever find the time to put the finishing touches on it, I'll release it here. I'm also still working on a conjugation drilling program for the PC.
That's all for now. I'll try to write more soon.
posted by Reach 364 at
10:05 AM
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