Feb 09
6

Ahlan wa Sahlan!

10 Comments

It feels like only yesterday when I was struggling to get myself registered for Arabic language classes but that was more than 5 months ago already. Since then, I’ve finished Arabic level one and just this past week I’ve finished level two.

Level 1 was all speaking and in Level 2 we learned how to read and write in Arabic. And I am proud to say that I received a grade of 100% on my written test – woohoo! I am looking forward to Level III which is where we will learn more grammar and hopefully do more speaking.

In Dubai, no Arabic is needed to get by since English is spoken everywhere and signs are in both English and Arabic. In fact, knowing Tagalog or Hindi will probably get you farther in everyday situations than Arabic.

But I love learning languages and think that wherever I am, it would be a shame not to learn the local language in order to better understand the culture.

All my Arabic friends have been very helpful in helping me learn their language. Especially the UAE nationals at work. They do laugh at me sometimes (in good fun) at how I pronounce things and sometimes I think they get a bit tired of all my questions but everyone has been more than helpful and seem to be delighted when I started speaking simple sentences and when I started being able to write their names in Arabic.

I still struggle a bit with the pronunciations and reading because in class we use the short vowels (fatha, damma, and kasra, etc) but in print, these symbols are not used. All in good time I guess.

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Posted in arabic language by sd-b 10 Comments

10 Responses to "Ahlan wa Sahlan!"

  • Umar in Dubai says:
    February 7, 2009 at 12:17 am

    This is really inspirational… keep up the great work. I am sure you will speak Arabic fluently very soon.

  • Susan Caverta says:
    February 15, 2009 at 1:25 pm

    Congratulations and best wishes from the bottom of my heart. Be happy forever.

  • Olena says:
    February 23, 2009 at 5:29 pm

    Hi! I’m studying Arabic too but obviously with a different scheme. Could u advise what courses u attend? I would like to change mine. Thanks! And NICE SITE :)

  • sd-b says:
    February 23, 2009 at 8:17 pm

    Hi – my classes are conducted by my company. Thanks for visiting my site!

  • mamoun Alquraan says:
    March 7, 2009 at 8:02 am

    learning the language is an essential part to understand others culture but readig about their relligion is more essential.

  • Paula says:
    March 18, 2009 at 1:50 am

    Just stumbled upon your blog and didnt want to leave without a word at all. Your motivation is very inspiring and simply: WELL DONE

  • Lyn says:
    June 15, 2009 at 2:40 pm

    hi… i’ve been planning to take arabic classes for a long time but to no avail. this is really inspiring… thanks for thinking out loud. it sure does inspire a lot of us.

  • Wout says:
    July 15, 2009 at 8:36 pm

    Well done !

    What does this picture (Arabic signs) mean ?

  • sd-b says:
    July 19, 2009 at 9:45 am

    Hi Wout – the picture is the word for “Arabic” (Al ‘Arabeeyah)

  • matt nowotny says:
    October 29, 2009 at 4:26 pm

    Hi there, could you email me a picture of the word ‘forever’ written in Arabic as I cannot find a translator I can trust on the internet. And unfortunately cannot write Arabic myself. Thankyou

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