How could you say that, I wasn't even thinking about the calligraphy but now I have to keep talking myself down from buying an Arabic calligraphy set!Neurotip wrote:Deinonysus wrote:And then I realized, oh no! This language is really cool and I like it a lot!
Exactly the same happened to me earlier this year. I had no idea how much fun learning Arabic script would be and now I'm so hooked that I may have to take up calligraphy solely in order to be able to write Arabic as beautifully as it deserves.
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It's really crazy how Arabic writing was just a bunch of intimidating squiggles a week or two ago, but now it's familiar and I am able to pick out some words here or there when I run into Arabic in my Reddit feed (mostly proper nouns).
Studies are going well. Earlier I thought that Assimil would be secondary to my textbook but I actually prefer it and I've been doing a lesson a night. I usually review each lesson after a week when I go through an Assimil course, but the lessons at the beginning of this book are so short that I've been listening to the audio for all the previous lessons before starting each new one. I finished lesson 4 last night so the review only took around a minute. Once I get close to the end of L'arabe I think I'll need to invest in a copy of Perfectionnement arabe.
So far my level of French has not posed a problem. I would estimate my reading level at around B2, with my other skills maybe a bit lower.
My textbook work is going a bit slower than my other resources. I think I forgot to review my Anki vocab yesterday. I also want to review the audio from the course website more often. I remember things better when I can hear them in my head.
Duolingo is continuing to go quickly. I've finished almost 1/6 of the course in just eight days. At this rate it shouldn't take me more than a month or two to finish the whole course. Rather than replacing the Duolingo timeslot with something comparable from another language, I'm thinking of using that timeslot for my textbook so it doesn't compete with Assimil in the evening.
I'm anxious to finish FSI Levantine Arabic Phonology and get around to Pimsleur so I can practice real words and phrases, but I think the FSI course is very valuable in training my ear to hear distinctions that don't come naturally to me, and anyway it isn't that long and I should have it finished in a few weeks.
After I finish Pimsleur MSA I'm a bit torn about whether to start Pimsleur Levantine Arabic or stick to al-fusḥa exclusively for a while and do FSI Written Arabic or DLI Arabic Basic Course. But I have plenty of time to decide since again, I still haven't even started Pimsleur MSA yet and for all I know I could get distracted and switch to Sumerian in a month.
Progress-O-Meter™
العربية
: FSI Levantine Arabic Phonology
: Duolingo Arabic
: Assimil L'arabe
: Ahlan wa Sahlan Workbook