Arabische Klasse 2.5

Tonight, R and I started the second part of the second level -- version 2.5 is what we're calling it, even though I'm telling myself mentally that it is the third course so as to keep things in order. R and I were late to the class due to a slight delay with aM. We had thought we were to be the only students in the class (good in that we could now go at a faster pace), but it turns out that there are six people (including us) registered for the course: a middle-aged Pakistani couple, a Russian man, and a spiffy-looking business professional from I don't know where (wasn't sitting on his side of the classroom). I'm actually relieved to have more people in the class than we had anticipated. We'll have more people to converse with, which is good. The Pakistani couple feel a little overwhelmed, but I'm confident that they'll pick things up since Urdo script is so similar to Arabic script.

M is my teacher again. She does a good job of integrating all the skills, which I appreciate now that I've got the script, for the most part, under my belt. I really respect her as a fellow teacher and a beautiful human being. She's on a mission to promote standard Arabic and introduce people to Arabic culture. This Thursday, she will take E, J, and me to Manama to experience a lady's salon and, hopefully, go abaya shopping at the old souq. It will be the first time in four months since I've left the kingdom -- VERY exciting.

In addition to class at ACC, I've been practicing pronunciation and vocabulary with Rosetta Stone Arabic. It's been helpful in catching vocabulary that I haven't picked up in class yet (colors, numbers, some misc. nouns) -- seeing the script over the picture the word(s) pertain to and hearing how it sounds at the same time is really helpful to me.

In learning Arabic, I'm reminded of my greatest desire in life -- to be a full-time student. Perhaps there are 40-year language learning grants and/or scholarships out there that would allow me to become a professional student...

أنام-- متأخراً