2018 language log - Arabic and Spanish

[auntie mildred]

So, after lurking for the past few months I've bitten the bullet and created an account and a log (first post!), mainly because I wanted to join the Super Challenge but also to try and get something approaching consistency with my language learning.

Arabic
I have been learning Arabic on and (very) off for over 10 years after falling into it at uni. I spent 6 months in Yemen in 2004 doing an intensive course which probably got me up to upper-intermediate level in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), but then did almost nothing until 2016 when I started taking classes again. I've supplemented this with some ANKI vocab work and a lot of iTalki conversation classes in both MSA (not the most useful, I know...) and Levantine dialect over the last couple of years, but its been pretty scattershot and there's still massive gaps in my knowledge.
This year I've decided to pull my finger out and actually try and focus on it properly, which for the time being means limiting things to MSA only - I got horribly confused trying to do MSA and a dialect at the same time, so Levantine's being parked til next year. My strategy is to learn a little bit at a time really well rather than try and cram a whole lot of stuff at once (which I also tried to do last year), because unlike Spanish I find it much harder to retain Arabic because of how different the vocab and structures are to English.

Spanish
I only started learning Spanish at the start of last year during a trip to South America and I love it - its already way better than my Arabic, which I feel vaguely guilty about. I've mainly been focusing on conversation without delving too much into grammar and, but I'm getting to the point where I really need to work on all four skills (particularly listening, which is horrendous). I have a loose goal of getting to B2-C1 (stretch) level by the end of the year, but would be happy with being able to hang out and watch a movie or read a book without too much effort.

The plan
As a starting point my goal for both languages is to just establish and maintain some basic "language habits" and build up from there.

For Arabic:
Current focus is writing, because I haven't done it in ages and I need to bed down structures etc.
- Writing - ~100 words a day. Right now I'm just trying to get words out but plan to post a couple of times a week at iTalki for corrections
- Reading - Read the headlines on BBC Arabic every day
I'll try and chuck in some grammar when I have time, as well as ANKI vocab review on my work commute.

For Spanish:
Working on all four skills - I'm basically pretending I'm doing the Super Challenge for listening and reading, and will sign up for the Output challenge for speaking and writing.
- Writing - 20 mins per day
- Read before bed every night - currently on Como agua para chocolate
- Listening - One movie per week with Spanish subtitles, and an episode of Destinos while I'm making dinner/doing stretches.
- Speaking - 2 iTalki conversation classes/week before work.

I am sure things will evolve from here - I've made a commitment to myself to do weekly updates, so stay tuned!

[jeff_lindqvist]

Welcome to the forum and good luck with your challenges!

[Maiwenn]

Welcome to the forum! I am studying Arabic as well and am looking forward to reading your updates! How was it studying and living in Yemen?

I only started learning Spanish at the start of last year during a trip to South America and I love it - its already way better than my Arabic, which I feel vaguely guilty about.

I relate to this so much. Aside from two years of Spanish when I was 12/13, I have not studied Spanish. Even so, I can muddle my way through Spanish texts far better than Arabic ones. I know, however, that this just means I need more practice and exposure so I guess that's just what I'll do!

[auntie mildred]

First update!

Arabic
Wrote 690 words in my little journal this week, which is pretty much on target for the 100 words a day I set myself. I also managed to read BBC Arabic every day and translate the headlines on the front page (usually 3-4 stories), as well as learn 20 new words a day on Anki.

This doesn't sound like much, but I have noticed I'm already needing to use the dictionary less as I'm recognising and retaining more vocab - some of this is probably refreshing stuff I learned the first time round, but some of its definitely new and I'm even starting to be able to predict meanings (or at least have a general idea) based on the underlying roots. In particular I'm finding that writing every day, even if most of the time its a stream of consciousness about how I don't want to go back to my desk (I usually write at lunchtime) and I'm not paying attention to the grammar, is really useful not just to bed things down but also force me to actually interact with the language. Its motivating!

Spanish
Writing - 1400 words (~200 per day)
Reading - 93 pages, which is a bit less than I was aiming for. I'm re-reading Como Agua Para Chocolate, which I originally read a couple of months ago and had to use the dictionary like, every 5th word. This time I can almost get by without it, except for all the exotic food and Mexico-specific vocab. Progress!
Listening - 2.5 hours, all of which were episodes of Destinos (a telenovela for language learners). I'm in the middle of the series where they're about to leave Puerto Rico for Mexico and, as anyone who has watched it will confirm, the pace has dropped somewhat dramatically. Still, I find watching it unreasonably satisfying as I have no problem understanding it!
Speaking - 30 minutes. I started up my iTalki conversation classes back up this week, and I wasn't as bad as I thought I'd be given I took a 2 month break. I have 3x1 hour classes scheduled per week, which I'm counting as 30 minutes of speaking per class for the Output challenge.

So basically this is all going well and I've actually been able to be relatively consistent, probably because I'm integrating things into my 'dead time', eg watching Destinos when I'm doing stretches after going for a run; reading straight before bed; conversation classes before work, etc. I particularly like the daily writing - because my Spanish is so much better than my Arabic I can write more freely and its turning into a bit of a journal so I'm getting both language learning and 'headspace' benefits! Not putting anything up for corrections yet is also turning out to be quite helpful, as I'm not spending ages procrastinating or trying to make things perfect - there's no pressure, so I just do it.

This coming week I'll probably just keep doing more of the same, although now that I'm reading a bit faster in Arabic I'd like to start going through some of the kids books I brought back from Yemen and have sat unread for the last 11 years. I really want some of those cool progress bars on the bottom of my profile too.....

Also, Maiwenn - so good to meet other people learning Arabic! I'm so impressed you're studying Moroccan Darija; I tried that once and it was an absolute disaster because I couldn't get my head (or tongue) around the consonant clusters. I had the same issue with Egyptian dialect. It's definitely weird (and a bit demotivating) doing Spanish and Arabic together - Spanish I only have to see a word twice and I remember it, but Arabic just seems to fall out of my head. You're right, input is the key!

I see that there's a Middle East group on the study group board - I'm going to start looking for more culturally based native materials soon so if I find anything I'll post it over there. Whilst the news is probably the most accessible MSA source for general language exposure, there's a limit to how many times I can read about demonstrations and protests....

[Bex]

For Spanish:
Working on all four skills - I'm basically pretending I'm doing the Super Challenge for listening and reading, and will sign up for the Output challenge for speaking and writing.
- Writing - 20 mins per day
- Read before bed every night - currently on Como agua para chocolate
- Listening - One movie per week with Spanish subtitles, and an episode of Destinos while I'm making dinner/doing stretches.
- Speaking - 2 iTalki conversation classes/week before work.

I am sure things will evolve from here - I've made a commitment to myself to do weekly updates, so stay tuned!

I am learning Spanish too and my weekly plan looks almost identical to yours! Good luck with your Spanish learning, I will be following your log with much interest.

[Ogrim]

It's definitely weird (and a bit demotivating) doing Spanish and Arabic together - Spanish I only have to see a word twice and I remember it, but Arabic just seems to fall out of my head. You're right, input is the key!

I see that there's a Middle East group on the study group board - I'm going to start looking for more culturally based native materials soon so if I find anything I'll post it over there. Whilst the news is probably the most accessible MSA source for general language exposure, there's a limit to how many times I can read about demonstrations and protests....

Welcome to the forum. I also study Arabic, but I am very much a beginner. I also have the problem with words falling out of my head so I spend a lot of my study time repeting vocabulary and listening to my course audio over and over again. The only consolation is that Russian, the other language I am actively studying, suddenly seems much easier .

I am very interested if you have any tips regarding Arabic music or other cultural stuff a beginner can enjoy. I've already posted some videos myself, based on random searches on internet and youtube.

I will follow your log with interest, it is nice and motivating to see more Arabic learners here.

[Maiwenn]

Also, Maiwenn - so good to meet other people learning Arabic! I'm so impressed you're studying Moroccan Darija; I tried that once and it was an absolute disaster because I couldn't get my head (or tongue) around the consonant clusters. I had the same issue with Egyptian dialect.

It was definitely odd at first, but now I'm having to go back and relearn a lot of words in MSA. This direction feels a lot trickier (so many vowels to remember!). Having an actual need (well need-ish) to learn Moroccan Darija is a good motivator. After the initial push, things feel fairly straightforward.

I see that there's a Middle East group on the study group board - I'm going to start looking for more culturally based native materials soon so if I find anything I'll post it over there. Whilst the news is probably the most accessible MSA source for general language exposure, there's a limit to how many times I can read about demonstrations and protests....

Yay! Please do! The group is in need of activity.

Re: news. Clicking over to the society/culture/arts/sports sections helps when you need a break from demonstrations and protests. :) The France24 عربي culture section currently has articles on the Cranberries singer and Edith Piaf (and also a few on movie-related protests, whoops, I'm not helping my cause). BBC has this article about Stephen Fry retiring from the BAFTA awards.

[auntie mildred]

Thank you so much for the French24 link, that is gold! Although it did take me half an hour to read one paragraph of a film review last night so it'll be heavy going....

I'm (slowly) getting a list of resources together for Arabic which I'll put up on the Arabic team board when I get time; most of its actually Levantine Arabic but maybe some of it will be useful

[auntie mildred]

It's definitely weird (and a bit demotivating) doing Spanish and Arabic together - Spanish I only have to see a word twice and I remember it, but Arabic just seems to fall out of my head. You're right, input is the key!

I see that there's a Middle East group on the study group board - I'm going to start looking for more culturally based native materials soon so if I find anything I'll post it over there. Whilst the news is probably the most accessible MSA source for general language exposure, there's a limit to how many times I can read about demonstrations and protests....

Welcome to the forum. I also study Arabic, but I am very much a beginner. I also have the problem with words falling out of my head so I spend a lot of my study time repeting vocabulary and listening to my course audio over and over again. The only consolation is that Russian, the other language I am actively studying, suddenly seems much easier .

I am very interested if you have any tips regarding Arabic music or other cultural stuff a beginner can enjoy. I've already posted some videos myself, based on random searches on internet and youtube.

I will follow your log with interest, it is nice and motivating to see more Arabic learners here.

Thank you! I actually found this board when looking for more Arabic resources so there's definitely more of us out there. I feel you on your second language feeling easier - I'm sure there's some people for whom Arabic just comes naturally but for me it was (still is) an absolute slog at the lower levels. Its a bit like running - really rewarding and awesome once you've got the fitness up and can enjoy it, but its a grind getting there.

I do actually like Arabic, honestly!

[auntie mildred]

Week 2 update

So last week's update was kind of epic, so I'll keep this one shortis and sweet

Spanish
Listening - 250 mins (4:10), most of which was binge watching Destinos. In my defence, its starting to get good - there's a love triangle and a financial scandal! Also I don't find it hard to follow so it was my "easy" language option this week
Reading - 110 pages of Como agua para chocolate. Not as confident about my non-dictionary ability on this book this week, however I definitely can follow it. Also, anyone who's read this - is Pedro (hot love protagonist) really whiny and unappealing, or is it just me?
Writing - 760 words, 560 of which were a description of my bedroom
Speaking - 90 minutes (3 x 1 hour iTalki conversation classes)
Also 20 new vocab words (Anki) almost every day as well as a grammar review deck I slowly add things to from the Practice Makes Perfect verb text book

So, all in all a fairly successful week just in terms of consistency. No idea if I'm improving but I have noticed I'm using new tenses in conversation classes so the grammar review on my commute is at least paying off!

Arabic
Writing - 300 words. Most of which were me complaining about a report I didn't want to write
Reading - A failed attempt at translating one (that's right, one) page of a childrens' book

Some Anki? At some point?

So yeah...Arabic not so much. My excuse is that work was busy and I was sick, however the actual reason was a) Arabic is harder and b) Spanish is being prioritised over Arabic as a result because I get to watch unfashionable 90s educational telenovelas. This is the exact opposite of how you're supposed to balance out learning two languages, but at least keeping this log means there's nowhere to hide in terms of results.

All that in mind, this weeks plan is to rejig the schedule to cut back on the Spanish a bit and schedule Arabic first in the day. I probably need to add a bit more structure by going back to a textbook. Controversially, this will probably be al-Kitab (yeah, I know....) because I already own it. I've also taken Maiwenn's advice and started reading the Culture section of France24's Arabic page, in a very slow and painstaking manner, as well as a lower intermediate parallel text I forgot I had called "Arabic Stories for Language Learners"

Will I fit this all in? Tune in next week to find out!