Learning Arabic

As salaam al aikum!

Today I went to my first Arabic lesson. The lessons are being offered for free through the GW Hillel. I can't make it to some of the classes because of a conflict in my schedule, but I'm hoping I'll be able to learn at least some Arabic this semester.

The class was pretty intense - the first hour was completely in Arabic, with the teacher saying hello and asking questions, and people in the class being chosen to answer. It was pretty effective for making you listen to how things sound and being able to say them yourself. Learning the different genders of words or the conjugations of verbs that way was pretty difficult. Most of the words are so different from what I've learned before that it's hard to remember.

The plan is to learn the alphabet in the next few classes, and then all the notes I take are supposed to be in Arabic (says my teacher) - he thinks trans-literation isn't a good way to learn a language. The alphabet should be really helpful, since most Arabic newspapers and other printed materials are in this language.

Classical Arabic, which we're learning, isn't actually that useful for speaking. My teacher said that nobody really speaks classical Arabic, they all speak a dialect. However, he said a lot of people in Arabic countries learn classical Arabic, so some may be able to speak it with you or at least understand you. The dialect in Saudi Arabia, for example, is very similar to classical Arabic. He told us that classical Arabic is to Arabic Dialects as Latin is to Italian.

So, I can now say hello, ask your name, say my name, ask where you're from, tell where I'm from (which city and which state), ask what's up and say I'm doing well. In theory, I can say me, he, her, you (male and female), his, and hers. I know what, how, and where.

Feel free to call me up and have me teach you - I really want to practice a lot, especially since I'll have to work extra hard to catch up to the classes I miss.