Arabic alphabet: chucked in the deep end
1626
I'm really enjoying the arabic course so far! My favourite aspect has been the way it taught the alphabet... in the first few lessons. I'm now in Alphabet 4 and Descriptions 1, and new letters are being added every session but I can't work them out. I think the course would be improved if new letters were introduced one by one, and either with an exercise that is just that letter, then that letter in it's different forms. ***Even better - please add this to the Tips and Notes pages!!!! (as they were in the first few lessons) Much needed!!
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Another thing that has helped me is to deconstruct the words in to individual letters in my notes. That is giving me a feel for how the initial, medial, and end play out.
I write the word. Alphabet and then deconstruct a-l-p-h-a-b-e-t
So an Arabic example would be
جَمال which deconstructs to جَ-م-ا-ل
the initial jeem in beauty/جَمال threw me for a loop but now with the use of deconstruction I have begun to recognize some of the characters within words.
edit: a couple more deconstructed words
دُكتور Doctor. (دُ ك ت و ر)
. سام دُكتور Sam is a doctor. (س ا م دُ ك ت و ر)
. سَعيد Happy. (سَ ع ي د)
I could not find a good typing tutor online so I made my own training method.
In excel I made a spreadsheet 4 columns wide with 34 rows
I set font to Arial with 25.5 pt
column a is blank and very wide. it is set to unlocked and is where I type.
columns b c and d are locked cells so I don't accidentally overwrite them.
row one is (A-BLANK TO TYPE IN)(B-ا)C-ا)(̛D-ālif)
row two is (A-BLANK TO TYPE IN)(B-ب)(C-ب)(̛D-bā̛)
row three is (A-BLANK TO TYPE IN)(B-ت)(C-ت)(̛D-tā̛)
row four is (A-BLANK TO TYPE IN)(B-ث)(C-ث)(̛D-thā̛)
row five is (A-BLANK TO TYPE IN)(B-ج)(C-ج)(̛D-jim)
etc, etc until all letters are in place.
Now, i practice by starting in row 1. look to the right and see the alef. then start typing in column a.
once alef is down, i added row 2 and practiced typing ب
then i type row one and two.
add the third row and continue.
it took me about an hour to set up and within 15 minutes of training i have learned to type the first 9 letters
I find the romanization of the arabic alphabet quite difficult to us. I'd rather not use the romanization at all and just use the audio. Arabic looks so different when it is all joined up, is there not a better way to learn.
