Arab Academy

I think it’s time for another Arabic Study Materials post. I’ll probably try and do a few more after this as I don’t think I’ll be doing any while in Yemen.

I hadn’t studied Arabic since I left the Defense Language Institute in December 1989. Last spring my wife suggested I take an Arabic class at the Washington Academy of Language.

Their Arabic I class was based on the Alif Baa book, which I think is a good book for somebody that has no knowledge of Arabic but that wasn’t my case. Even worse, I was told by the instructor that the Arabic II class was also supposed to use the Alif Baa book. Doing some fuzzy math, the cost for taking both classes would have been almost $800 for learning the Arabic alphabet and a few words. That’s 10 weeks: two classes a week, five class hours per week – and that’s sad.

At least that’s an option available to somebody in Seattle wanting to study Arabic but in other cities, people don’t even have that option. And those are the people for whom this post pertains; although, I think that anybody interested in learning Arabic will find this an interesting post.

This post is about the Arab Academy. Arab Academy is probably the best way to study Arabic short of studying at a university or going to the Middle East. I’ve had this site listed in my links section since I started posting but never commented on it. I’m not sure why as I use it myself and I wholly recommend it.

The Arab Academy is actually that, an academy. It has a physical presence in Cairo and it is designed to take you from having no knowledge of Arabic to advanced levels of Arabic. It does have some drawbacks but its benefits far outweigh any negatives. Speaking classes are also offered as well as Quranic Arabic and Stories of the Prophet for those that are interested in Arabic from an Islamic perspective.

The Arab Academy begins with Arabic 100 continues with Arabic 101-103, 201-203, 301-303, 401-403 and ends with Arabic 501. Arab Academy has also recently added speaking courses. It is a self-study course that is well structured and easy to follow. Although it lacks the benefit of face to face contact with an instructor, you can easily post questions via a message board system and have your questions quickly answered.

There have been some recent changes to the class structure, but each class is broken up into four units with seven lessons in each unit. Each unit revolves around a theme and there are literally hundreds of online exercises designed to reinforce what you are learning in each unit. Even if complete all the exercises you can just do them again. It is so much better than anything I’ve encountered.

I’m not the only one banging the Arab Academy drum. Their online program is being utilized by both high schools and universities in the U.S. It provides a level of interaction that takes it beyond learning from a book or even a place like the Washington Academy of Languages. This is something that even students studying Arabic at the college level can use to provide a more complete learning experience.

Honestly the only problem I have with Arab Academy is that there is no emphasis on writing Arabic. This is because being a computer based program; its input is all done via keyboard. You learn how to spell the words but typing the word isn’t the same as writing. I don’t feel that this is too big of a problem but enough of one to warrant mention.

The prices charged for their courses are very reasonable. Although after your period of study is complete (it’s a very generous amount of time), you lose access to that particular class, Arab Academy allows you to download each unit’s material in PDF format for future study.

As sycophantic as this post may sound, it really doesn’t do Arab Academy justice.Whether you’re a beginner looking to get started learning Arabic, or somebody looking to improve on what you’ve are learning/learned, or to supplement a college based course, or an advanced student of the language looking for speaking practice, you’ll find what you’re looking for at Arabic Academy.

Here is a link to a review of the Arab Academy, provided by the National Foreign Language Center which does a more professional evaluation.

Where have you been? - a semantic change in progress?

Just a random observation...

Good sentences: I've been to Finland, I'll have been to Finland five times, he's never been to Finland...

Terrible sentences: *I am to Finland, *I will be to Finland, *I was to Finland, **he never is to Finland...

It seems that "been", in some cases, can act as an alternative past participle for "go", replacing "gone". A linking environment is provided by sentences with a bare locative adverb: I've been there / I am there / I will be there are all fine. Presumably, since "I've been there" normally implies "I've gone there" (unless you've been locked up there since birth or something), the "been" was reinterpreted as an even more irregular past participle of "go".

"I'll be there" equally implies "I'll go there", so it's odd that this wasn't extended similarly to allow "*I'll be to Finland" - or so I thought, before checking Google. Google does reveal a couple of instances: "I'll be to bed in a minute", "I'll be to work way early, and perhaps most strikingly, "I've been to more than half of the counties, and in the next six weeks, I'll be to the other half of the counties". So it seems we have a change in progress. Does this depend on the region? Will it culminate in a complete merger of "go" and "be"? Are there any parallels to this outside English? What do you think?

Yay For Me!

Last night I was checking my email and what did I see? Yep, CALES came through for me with a visa! They sent a copy for me via email and I’m assuming that the gentleman that is meeting me at the airport will have the original.

Sure, sure, my last name is spelled يولن on the visa instead of بولن but I’m just going to pretend that it won’t matter. My middle name is also misspelled come to think of it...

So now I’ve ten days and a wakeup until I leave for Yemen. My wife bought me a most excellent espresso maker for Christmas and wants me to take it with me to Yemen. You probably think that sounds silly, but being from Seattle, coffee is pretty important to me. I probably average four, double espressos a day. That’s $7.20 at Starbucks.

Actually, I don’t really want to take the espresso maker with me, even though it comes with its own carrying case and is only six pounds, mostly because I’m not sure if I can find a transformer for it. That and the fact that it uses a pod system (don’t ask), and I don’t want to have to keep track of it as carry-on luggage for the 2+ days I’ll be in transit to Sana’a. But then I imagine myself hanging out late in the evening with a doppio espresso and well, six pounds doesn’t seem that bad. Sometimes I even imagine US Embassy employees or high ranking Yemeni officials visiting me just for the chance of being offered an espresso. And make no mistake, it is good espresso and hey, twelve months is twelve months :)

Damascus University and Brigham Young University

My Alma Mater and Damascus University sign an accord for more student exchanges. Sounds like a great opportunity for both establishments. Click on the title of this post if you are interested in reading about it. Oops - the link no longer works. I am trying to find it on SANA.org.

Jeremy

In Languages We Live

Just watched an interesting new film last night, called In Languages We Live/In Sproget Jeg Er (I don't vouch for the second title's accuracy.) It's a film about linguistic diversity, essentially, with cameos from a number of communities including Mla'bri, Totonaco, and Pitjantjatjara, as well as larger languages, such as a rather fun Arabic Hamlet (with Claudius as an Arab dictator, of course), a newscaster who speaks a dialect of Mandarin (Xiang, I think) natively but wants to bring up her kids only speaking Standard Mandarin, and "sheng", the Swahili-English-other street slang of Nairobi teenagers - not to mention, of course, the English and Danish of the narrators. It also had a brief meeting with the last(?) native speaker of Livonian - who apparently has more people to talk to than you might think, what with the steady stream of Finnicists beating a path to his door! But the most memorable bit was the brief narration, in the original language (Arrernte? I'd have to rewatch the film), of the Australian government's 1950's policy of forcibly separating Aboriginal kids from their parents, as witnessed by one of the parents: parents trying to physically hold on to their kids as the police tore them away; parents running with their kids to hide in local ravines, and being tracked down by the police; children crying as they were driven away... It would be hard to believe that such a policy was being practiced just fifty years ago, if the twentieth century weren't already full of such cases.

No News is Good News

Like the title says, no news is good news but unfortunately, I’ve got news.

Now, I’m less than two weeks from leaving for Yemen and I learn from the news that at least 13 al Qaeda militants tunneled their way out of jail in Sana’a and are on the loose. Come on Yemen, you’re killing me. I mean serioulsy, who digs a tunnel out of prison nowadays?!?

How am I supposed to spin this to my wife when I’m supposed to be in Yemen very soon for an entire year? Luckily, she doesn’t watch much news, but I’m sure one of her coworkers will let this bomb drop.

In an unrelated story but still depressing, STA Travel called to let me know that one of my previously scheduled flights was cancelled. They sent me a new itinerary that now includes four segments to my trip instead of the original three. It’s not al Qaeda, but technically it does increase my chances of dying in a fiery crash by 25%! Even if I arrive safe and sound, the change in my itinerary increases my travel time by a good 8-10 hours :(

Some Syrian Linkage

Great news for all you Syria fans out there (and you know who you are)! Ladies and Gentlemen, I give to you – SyriaLive.net!

SyriaLive is the best Syrian navigational guide/portal I’ve come across (not that I’ve come across many). Simply put, it’s pretty neat and deserves a look.