Learning Languages

2009-09-15

I’m currently learning Arabic.

I’m very excited about it because for the first time I’m learning a language with no relation to the other languages that I’ve studied so far.

My method is different somewhat revolutionary. I have read through the grammar books to get an idea of the grammar and now I’m listening to the BBC Arab service. I also watch Al Jazeera TV Channel and any DVD’s in Arabic.

I started doing this when I first arrived in Saudi Arabia in 2004. At first, everything was just sound, noise and then finally, I was able to separate the sounds from one another. I began to hear words clearly. I looked up the words in a dictionary. Gradually, I was able to distinguish whole sentences which contained the familiar words.

I started reading Arabic newspapers and recognized the words through their sounds which I had picked up from watching TV. I definitely think that this is how one should learn a language. I’m now able to put sentences together myself.

Learning a language this way makes it possible to learn about the culture at the same time. Try it with English, or any other language you may want to learn.

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