Arabic.
Really? Ambitious much? You couldn't have started this off with something a tiny bit simpler?
The truth is, I don't really have much ambition to learn Arabic, and I've shown fairly little discipline for studying it in the past. I'd SO much rather have the language gods bestow Arabic proficiency on me. Still waiting for that.
In the meantime, I really, really have to do something about this. I'll be starting a new job here this summer-ish/fall, and while it's an English-language workplace (technically, though certainly not entirely), there's no question that every bit of Arabic I can use with colleagues will make a difference - in comprehension, in rapport, etc. That's not to mention the off-site work-related stuff that will involve interaction with people who may or may not speak English. So, it must be done.
I don't have a really good plan for this yet. Since E has been at this for several years, we have a host of Arabic teaching materials in our possession, including a couple of very accessible textbooks for spoken Arabic. At the moment, Salim is not very helpful in facilitating focused book-study time, but I'd like to try to work something out on that front. Otherwise, we have some lessons in iTunes that I can play pretty much anytime; I'm hoping to absorb some of that subliminally even when it doesn't have my full attention. Sigh. This doesn't sound very promising at the moment, does it?
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