Topic: Arabic

Beyond being useful for the defense, foreign policy, and international business fields, the Arabic language is immensely useful in a variety of academic disciplines, such as world history, the history of science, philosophy, astronomy, chemistry, and ethnography, among others. I've found Arabic to be an invaluable skill for my own professional, academic, and personal interests.

I started studying Arabic in 2005, shortly after completing my undergraduate studies. My initial instruction utilized the Ahlan wa Sahlan textbook and audio lessons by Mahdi Alosh. I completed an initial, condensed, first-year Arabic program during the Summer of 2005, and continued a sporadic regimen of independent study. In 2009, I got a bit more serious with the independent study program as a result of a friend's urging to join him in doing ten thousand repetitions of something in 2009; he did knife draws, and I did Arabic flash cards. I don't think I made it to ten thousand flash cards viewed, but I was pretty solid for the first six or seven months of 2009, and I've tried to continue regular study since then. Over the years, I've either used or amassed a massive stockpile of stuff to use in my studies.

First and foremost, there are the reading resources. For example, Google Translate isn't perfect, but it's pretty valuable. Then, there are the Desert Sky Arabic vocabulary lists, and a discussion of Arabic in Frank Herbert's "Dune". It's interesting how the unfolding events of history can impact everyday life, because several years ago, my list of links included this defunct link to a list of Libyan proverbs by way of Moammar Qaddhafi's propaganda organization, the Libyan Jamahiriya Broadcasting Corporation. Fortunately, I had the foresight to save both the Arabic phrases, and the poorly written Libyan receipes, both of which will probably be posted here at one point or another. As likely as this is to get a "Boo! Hiss!" reaction from the spectators out there, Wikipedia's another great text resource, with its Glossary of Islam, glossary of Christian terms in Arabic, guide to Algerian Arabic, and list of Arabic star names.

Listening exercises are also helpful - in fact, quite important. Sources of listening material are a bit more scarce, but they're out there if you look hard enough. The best one I've found is the BBC's Xtra podcasts, which are just shy of half an hour in duration, discuss current events, and are broadcast in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), as opposed to one of about a dozen regional dialects. The BBC also runs a live stream, though it's mostly just the Xtra shows plus a five minute news bulletin every half hour. The U.S. Department of State also runs Radio Sawa, though it's mostly music, which isn't terribly helpful for study. After my 2012 trip to Muscat, I discovered that the Sultanate of Oman's Ministry of Information runs a live stream that's not only fairly reliable, but has a variety of programs for both adults and children, the latter being somewhat useful for students of Arabic. Finally, QuranEnglish.com offers podcasts of the entire Quran; although it's classical Arabic, that tends to be at least similar to MSA. (In all honesty, if you're going to be studying Arabic and the Middle East in any substantive way, you're eventually going to have to familiarize yourself with the Quran and Quranic Arabic.) The really valuable stuff - and let me tell you, it's pretty rare - are the materials which combine audio and text. There are two fantastic examples of this: ArabicPod.net, and the Defense Language Institute's (DLI) Language Survival Kits (LSK). Not surprisingly, ArabicPod tends to be a bit colloquial, and the DLI tends to be fairly narrow in its scope, but they're both valuable in their own ways. The combination is outstanding, particularly when you take the dialects available from the DLI LSKs and combine them with the colloquial vocabulary and grammar instruction from ArabicPod.

My efforts to learn Arabic, and my use thereof, are a big part of my life. Expect to read more about both.