(The title comes from a Michael Jackson song)
The last three days have been entirely Arabic-centered. I have the luxury of achieving well over fifteen hours of studying in 72 hours because my other classes (besides Spanish) have finished, and although I may have a summer job, I won't know about that for another two or three days.
So for right now, it's all about Arabic.
It occured to me today that I had just done over five hours of work (mainly verb conjugation) without really noticing the time fly by. I was surprised to realize how concentrated I had been, and began wondering where this extreme concentration had come from.
Is it just the love of learning Arabic? Am I THAT into it? If so, should I consider learning Arabic as a major endeavor, possibly taking on greater proportions than it already has? Just how far does my interest in the language go?
And then I remembered that I just bought a French press, as well as some coffee, after over a year of not having any coffee in my house at all.
So that must be it. Caffeine does wonders for your concentration, if taken in responsable doses.
Although, it's Moroccan coffee, so maybe there's a connection there somewhere.
In other Arabic-related news, I am very happy because our professor has decided to take us on for another semester starting next October. Same time, same place, same students, and same book - until we get to the infamous Chapter 15 (we're on Chapter 5 right now).
Our class is Beginning Arabic, and at the Sorbonne's adult education center (where I take the class), the next level after beginner is an advanced conversation class. Now, I might be able to say, "I don't know yet." or "Jamila speaks Chinese." but it takes me seven years to spit out the sentence. I'm pretty sure that means conversation is not a possibility.
Hell, I only know six or seven verbs. In the present tense.
However, my classmates and I (all seven of us) are equal in our freaky obsessiveness with the language. I would say that I am on the bottom end of the study chain, in that I spend somewhere around ten or twelve hours a week (outside of class) studying (this week being an exception, but I'm trying to bust some ass) whereas the average is probably around twenty or maybe even 25 (hence why I need to bust some ass). My professor, who is just a brilliant, brilliant man (oddly attractive, too, in his own 6'5" way) told us that we are advancing very quickly and that he is impressed with the overall group dynamic and cohesion.
Yay, we all thought, and then went in for the kill.
"Would you teach us more next year?"
We discussed it at length and the teacher agreed to it, asking us to complete a few chapters on our own over the summer (yes, I'll be brining my books back to the States with me) and ready to go forward, full speed ahead, come next October.
If we do it successfully, he said, we will be watching (and understanding) newscasts from Al-Jazeera by February/March Two Double 0 Four.
How kick ass would that be?
We all got starry-eyed for a minute, and then went back to work.
And sure, after my brief illusionary daydream, it hit me like a brick when I remembered that each verb has fifteen different possible conjugations in each tense, or that Arabic functions a little bit like Latin in that a noun changes slightly depending on whether it is a direct object, indirect object, etc, but that's ok. We're already learning some crazy-ass grammar rules and I am masochistic enough to want to learn more, more, more of them.
Teacher Man says that the Arabic language puts others to shame because it is so well structured and extremely grammatical. Almost mathematical in its logic, he says, and once you figure out the overall code, the possibilities are infinite. It's a matter of recognizing an intricate sequence of patterns, and recalling them at the correct moments. More so than any other language Teacher Man knows, he says (and he speaks French natively, and knows German and English).
He warns us that the A-ha moment is still a ways off, but that it is looming.
But I love a-ha moments. Even at the mention of an A-ha moment I get all giddy and excited. I have a feeling this'll be a huge one. Worth another year's worth of work, for sure.
Get excited, kids.
Meanwhile, I went to the Picasso Museum and did the entire tour in Spanish. I was happy to realize that I understood about 92% of what that guide was saying. So apparently I understand the language, but I still can't speak it.
Still. Hooray.
It's been a great couple of days.
Sounds like Russian. With all the crazy declension. Except Russian has prepositions like "v". Just "v". No vowel, so it's not "vee" or "vo" or "vu". Just "v".
I want to learn Arabic as my next language. But I also want to learn Dutch and Bulgarian and Japanese as my next language. And I still have quite a ways to go in Spanish. Too many languages! Not enough time!
Srah - that could be my own personal mantra: "Too many languages! Not enough time!" Next up to bat will be Chinese, but I think that will have to wait at least a year, if not two.
Hopefully only one, though. I'm planning on tying up any loose Spanish strings by then.
There are lots of loose Spanish strings, though.
hello