dropglobalnews

I started learning Arabic this year and it’s truly the most insane language I’ve ever attempted learning. I can speak good Urdu, Turkish, and Persian and my French is fine with practice. I decided to learn Arabic after spending time in Saudi Arabia earlier in the year. I hate not knowing something and being unable to understand was getting on my nerves. I also felt I knew so many semi-adjacent languages so it should be no big problem.

But this is an incredibly challenging language. I decided to learn Levantine dialect which is one of the easier and most elegant ones and it still mind-boggling. Part of the reason is that Arabic is incomprehensibly vast. For a single word there might easily be two dozen different terms. Not just every country but even individual cities and towns have different dialects. On top of that spoken and written Arabic are almost totally different languages!

They say Arabic is the second hardest language after Mandarin. I rate that as likely true; but I’m going to keep going.

Writer, podcaster, and commentator on foreign affairs and politics. Runs /dropglobalnews

Clanker Broadcasting Service /cbs