Arabic for English Speakers in the incubator!

KnoxiennePlus

2678

Yay!!! Excited

Laconcha432

Knoxienne: I see an entire row of languages, 13 of them. where you have achieved level "25" at, and the entire next row with yet another 12 languages with levels above 10! Next to admiring you and finding your accomplishment quite extraordinary, I am wondering how do you really handle the influx of information, and if you do, how do you memorize them in practice? I would be much obliged if you answered!

KnoxiennePlus

2678

I started studying German in junior high, French in high school, and Spanish, Italian, and Japanese in college. That led to an interest in other Romance and Germanic languages. Many of the languages here are those which Duolingo offered and I never thought I'd study at all. I simply enjoy languages!

jimnicholson

See earlier post: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/25132158

LeonardoN.M

Very cool, very cool.

I'm glad that you're back! I've missed your presence. ^ ^

I don't plan on learning Arabic, but I've always loved how it looked. It just looks so fancy, beautiful and intricate, sort of like Japanese kanji. Though, seeing how I'm from a Christian family, I would be heavily judged if I was caught learning the Arabic language. Though, I'm so glad Duolingo has been adding great languages recently!

Edit: I apologize if I turned this topic into a religious one. That was not my intent and was just a small part of my comment. Still, looking at Arabic on a paper, it looks like one of the most beautiful languages I've encountered. I envy (shamefully) those who have free will in learning it and it will be a wonderful day for those people when it truly comes out here!

Amgad

Mod

Plus

Hi!

I'm saddened to read about your struggle :( While I understand that some people have properly studied the Arabic culture and disagreed with it, I do feel saddened that sometimes we never give ourselves the chance to talk, and more importantly listen.

Rumi once said: "Out beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing, there is a field. I will meet you there". So,I'm a Muslim, but here're some beautiful Arabic calligraphy quoting the bible. You can meet your family there :)

هُوَذَا عَلَى كَفَّيَّ نَقَشْتُكِ. أَسْوَارُكِ أَمَامِي دَائِمًا

لأَنَّهُ هكَذَا أَحَبَّ اللهُ الْعَالَمَ حَتَّى بَذَلَ ابْنَهُ الْوَحِيدَ، لِكَيْ لاَ يَهْلِكَ كُلُّ مَنْ يُؤْمِنُ بِهِ

فِي الْبَدْءِ كَانَ الْكَلِمَةُ، وَالْكَلِمَةُ كَانَ عِنْدَ اللهِ، وَكَانَ الْكَلِمَةُ اللهَ.

I really hope we see you in the Arabic forum when we release the course!

Design Credit: Bishoy William

Peace,

November 10, 2017

OmegaGmaster

Can confirm learning Arabic or any language from the Middle East within a Christian family will cause tension. I'm still thinking about how I should tell my family I want to learn Farsi and Tajik...

Deyan161

1711

Mmmm. Not sure what to say, within Duo guidelines. It sounds as though your family belong to the kind of Evangelical church I was once briefly mixed up with. Stick to what you want to do, though, and if they object to Farsi, ask them if they know about the persecution of the Persian Christian Church (google it). That was a long time ago, but more recently, ISIS hasn't been exactly kind to Middle Eastern Christians (along with a whole bunch of other believers).

Yep... But, what can you do? I don't mind admiring the language from afar, so I guess it's fine.

Also, I've never heard of Tajik. Is that a Middle Eastern language?

OmegaGmaster

It's the dialect of Persian spoken in Tajikistan and other neighboring areas. It's written in Cyrillic, which I find fascinating, and I find it easier to read than Perso-Arabic script. It's technically not Middle Eastern, but my parents would probably use the fact that it's a Persian dialect to criticize me learning it.

Thanks! I am still a bit bitter that your parents don't like you learning the languages that you're learning. I just want to have a LONG conversation with them. >_<

Deyan161

1711

@MasterZsword Spoken in Tajikistan, Central Asia.

.Multilinguality

Yes, but more for Tajikistan, former USSR.

Michael.Lubetsky

There are millions of Christian Arabs; Lebanon is about one-third Maronite Christian, and Egypt about one-tenth Coptic Christian. Iraq and Syria both have large Christian communities of various denominations. And, of course, many Christian holy sites (including Bethlehem) are located in Arabic-speaking areas.

I don’t think that anyone — Christian or otherwise — should judge you for learning a major world language — especially one with so much history and cultural heritage as Arabic.

Deyan161

1711

Don't confuse religion and language. The Syrian, Palestinian and Iraqi Christians speak Arabic, so do the Coptic Christians from Egypt.

I'm not making the confusion. It's my family that has certain "feelings" towards Arabian culture.

markit8dude

You could alway dabble in Arabic in duolingo & with other online learning materials without sharing that part of your life with your family.

November 10, 2017

piguy3

A Catholic priest from very near me (in the U.S.) is currently on a three-year mission in Iraq (Kurdistan), serving the Christians (mostly Catholics I suppose, being that there's a need for priests he could help fill) who fled from ISIS. I bet he'd be happy for any little extra bit of Arabic!

November 12, 2017

jimnicholson

Excellent news!!!

Blue rings? So the three contributors are staff I guess - but bios don't indicate this.

OmegaGmaster

The blue rings means moderators within the incubator, not necessarily staff or forum moderators. (I think they become forum moderators for their language's forum, though)

jimnicholson

Yes, that makes more sense. I noticed the M's but didn't realise it is a different colouring system. Seems a bit silly really - blue M ring in the Incubator, but the same contributor will have a green shield ring in the relevant (future) forum.

Thanks for the info.