Welcome to My Journey Through Arabic
Who I Am: I am a full-time student of the Arabic language at the Defense Language Institute (DLI). I began classes in early summer of 2008, so I am still new to the language. Prior to that my only experience with the language was learning the alphabet and a small amount of vocabulary and grammar using commercial products. In addition to my full-time studies of MSA, I meet with a tutor twice a week to work on the Levantine dialect (the dialect of Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine). In the spring I will move to Jordan, where I will spend 27 months living and studying.
What this Blog is About: Learning Arabic is hard. The attrition rate for Arabic programs is high, and of those who stick with it, it seems that few ever really learn the language well. Unfortunately, good Arabic resources are hard to come by online, and the persistence of defunct educational philosophies and shoddy learning materials set many students up for failure. I believe it is possible to better equip students to learn Arabic. I also believe in the power of Web 2.0 technologies that allow people to take a collaborative, bottom-up approach to tackling complex problems, so I decided to start this blog to share my own journey through Arabic, my lessons learned, and maybe even some advice here and there for other Arabic students. Eventually I would love to build a true community website where Arabic students could bring their combined experience together, but for now, the blog will have to suffice.
Who this Blog is For: I hope other Arabic students will benefit from reading about my own experiences. I hope Arabic teachers will gain some insights into what works and what doesn't in the classroom. I hope "users" of Arabic speakers (for example, leaders in NGOs, business, or the military) will gain some insights into the challenges their language-learners face, and gain some ideas about how to train them.
What this Blog is About: Learning Arabic is hard. The attrition rate for Arabic programs is high, and of those who stick with it, it seems that few ever really learn the language well. Unfortunately, good Arabic resources are hard to come by online, and the persistence of defunct educational philosophies and shoddy learning materials set many students up for failure. I believe it is possible to better equip students to learn Arabic. I also believe in the power of Web 2.0 technologies that allow people to take a collaborative, bottom-up approach to tackling complex problems, so I decided to start this blog to share my own journey through Arabic, my lessons learned, and maybe even some advice here and there for other Arabic students. Eventually I would love to build a true community website where Arabic students could bring their combined experience together, but for now, the blog will have to suffice.
Who this Blog is For: I hope other Arabic students will benefit from reading about my own experiences. I hope Arabic teachers will gain some insights into what works and what doesn't in the classroom. I hope "users" of Arabic speakers (for example, leaders in NGOs, business, or the military) will gain some insights into the challenges their language-learners face, and gain some ideas about how to train them.
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