How I learned Arabic 1.

10 October, 2009

Intermediate exercise 1

In this exercise you will listen to someone talking about how he learned Arabic. Before you listen think about the questions below.

Have you ever tried to learn a new alphabet?

What did you do to remember each letter?

How do you learn new vocabulary?

Do you use lists? Post it notes? Do you keep a vocabulary book?

Now listen to the recording and answer the true or false questions.

• True or False
• Answers
• script

1.Arabic people learn the alphabet by looking at pictures.

-TrueFalse

2.Trying to see the word in your head helps to learn it.

-TrueFalse

3.Seeing things is the only way for a visual learner to remember things.

-TrueFalse

4.He tried to learn five words for kitchen every day.

-TrueFalse

5.He used post it notes to remember words.

-TrueFalse

6.It was not easy to find reasons to say unusual words.

-TrueFalse

7.His friends thought he was strange when he said unusual words.

-TrueFalse

8.His vocabulary improved quickly.

-TrueFalse

1. Arabic people learn the alphabet by looking at pictures. True. Well, that is what he thinks. Of course everyone is different and learns in different ways. how about you?
2. Trying to see the word in your head helps to learn it. True. this technique works for learning anything!
3. Seeing things is the only way for a visual learner to remember things. False. Visual learners prefer to see things but they can learn in other ways too.
4. He tried to learn five words for kitchen every day. False. there is only one word for kitchen! isn't there ?
5. He used post it notes to remember words. True. he put them around the house so he would see them often.
6. It was not easy to find reasons to say unusual words. True.
7. His friends thought he was strange when he said unusual words. True.
8. His vocabulary improved quickly. False he said it imporved 'over time.' Which means it was not so quick.

How did I learn Arabic?

Well I suppose I started by learning the alphabet. I learned it just the same way that the Arabs do. I think of it in terms of pictures. You know each letter is a picture. So, I just see a letter and write it and repeat it and repeat it across the page. That’s how I learned it

I was told by someone that to learn an Arabic word the thing to do was to think of the word and try to see it in you head. I mean see the letters written across the inside of your forehead. That way you get an idea of what the word looks like. And it will automatically come to you.

It is not the only way to remember things of course but I’m a visual learner. I suppose for some people they like to hear or to touch things and that’s how they learn but for me I just need to see it.

Of course I do need to hear things, but I find that having a visual idea of what the words physically look like means I learn much better.

The next thing I did was to try to learn five words every day. Well that’s not quite true, what I’d do is go into a room , say the kitchen and find the words for 5 things in the kitchen and then try to learn them.

I’d write the word on a post it note and put it up there to remind me in the future and then I would try to use the words during the day. It wasn’t always so easy to do. I mean there are not many chances in normal conversation to say something like dishwasher, or potato peeler. and my friends did look at me strangely when I said odd things just to practice using the word

Over time I developed a good vocabulary this way. The trouble was my grammar was still terrible!