My story with Arabic is windy and wonderous and woeful, however the ethical of the story is that this:
You are just one or two concepts away from an entire transformation of your life (and by extension, your Arabic language studying expertise.)
Only one or two. That is it.
Take it from me. Earlier than I began mastering the self-study methods that I preach on Marhabtain, I nearly give up Arabic utterly. I used to be spent. For years, I would been caught within the purgatory of the “Perpetual Newbie”. Actually, I would turn out to be a “Skilled Newbie.” I would mastered fundamental dialog, however nonetheless couldn’t converse from my coronary heart. And that bothered me.
I am right here to let you know: No, you are not silly. No, Arabic shouldn’t be laborious. No, you are not a unhealthy language learner. You simply won’t know how to be taught the language. Earlier than beginning to use the self-study methods I discuss on this weblog, I didn’t both.
Lately, what bothers me is considering of all the individuals who hand over on Arabic too early just because they didn’t have the instruments they wanted to thrive. So, here is my story of how I discovered the instruments for Arabic fluency, after a few years of Arabic failures.
Hopefully, you may see that if I can bounce again. You may too.
So here is my story with Arabic, instructed in a approach that I’ve by no means fairly instructed it earlier than.
Half 1. In search of Dwelling
Lately, lots of people have been asking me why I really like studying Arabic and have continued all these years. For months, I didn’t actually know how one can reply. And that was odd. As a result of I can let you know precisely why I really like yoga, precisely why I really like dance, precisely why I really like journey. But, for the factor I spend every single day doing and desirous about for a lot of hours a day, the factor that has grown from an elective school to a passion to a self-imposed part-time job, I got here up with nothing, ولا شي. After which, like a gust of wind that knocks you off your toes, I remembered. The began Arabic as a result of I wished to main in Close to Japanese Research in school, however I’ve pursued Arabic all these years as a result of I used to be in search of house.
I grew up in two cultures that I didn’t actually really feel that I match into. My dad and mom are from Nigeria and so, in our home, we have been raised to be best Nigerian youngsters. But, I grew up within the small, majority-Black city in South Carolina. So in school, I used to be socialized as a Black American, a Southerner, and an American (in that order).
My story is the standard immigrant story, however I didn’t know that rising up. I didn’t know that not feeling “Nigerian-enough” or “Black American-enough” or “Southern-enough” or “American-enough” is simply the burden we first-gen youngsters should bear. Even when somebody had instructed me what I used to be going via, it would not have modified a lot concerning the loneliness and disconnectedness that I felt. I at all times had nice associates in school, however I might by no means fairly oath one among them. I had a household, a whole bunch of members sturdy that spanned the globe, and but, I couldn’t be one among them both.
I bear in mind in third grade, a trainer requested us: If you happen to might select one other identify, what wouldn’t it be? I mentioned, Kiesha. It did not even sound correct popping out of my mouth. Just a few years later in Nigeria with cousins, they jokingly referred to as, me “Onyeocha” or “white man”. I grew up feeling like I existed in a liminal area between Keisha and Onyeocha.
So when Arabic got here alongside throughout my sophomore yr in school, I used to be in search of house. I wished someplace to name my very own, the place I might embed within the tradition, and simply be nameless. My mother or father’s by no means taught me my very own native language, and our house life was so fraught that I wasn’t certain I would ever return there to be taught it (I went off to a boarding faculty at round age 15, after which form of simply peaced out for ten years…), so I used to be in search of something to fall into. Enter: Arabic.
I might inform this story in a totally completely different approach. I might speak concerning the noble causes I selected Arabic over different languages. This story, if I instructed it, can be true. I’d let you know that 9/11 formed my childhood and made me perceive the depths of xenophobia in our nation. I’d let you know that I used to be an anti-war child who printed political op-eds in my native city newspaper. I’d let you know that once I was pressured to decide on a significant in school, I used to be confused about most issues in my life, however I did really consider that we would have liked “good People” (enter: me) to be taught Arabic and construct cultural bridges as an alternative of navy bases. I might let you know this complete story, and I would come off seeming noble to you, and even naïve, and it could all be true. But it surely would not be probably the most trustworthy telling.
Honesty, I used to be trying to find house. And I used to be trying to find one distant from my very own. I might have chosen Kazak or Welsh or Telugu or Patois, however my college didn’t supply these languages. With this angle, I have no idea if I discovered Arabic or if Arabic discovered me. However once I met Arabic, I burrowed my heels into it till I used to be caught.
Half 2. The Burrowing Years
By my senior yr of faculty, I used to be exhausted. And I hated Arabic. Or did I simply want a break? I didn’t know.
I name my Sophomore through Senior years of faculty, “The Burrowing Years”, as a result of I actually burrowed into life as an Arabic scholar, by doing the issues I believed college students have been meant to do. In these 3 years of examine, I:
- Spent a whole bunch of hours in Arabic class
- Studied overseas in Morocco and Jordan, traveled in Egypt, researched in Palestine
- Lived with native households and volunteered with Iraqi refugees
- Made pricey associates who I nonetheless know even in the present day, or consider fondly
Regardless of these recollections and tons of images from the brilliant pink digital digital camera I owned on the time, two issues occurred that impacted the best way that I got here to grasp these years. Firstly, my Arabic improved at a snail’s tempo. I discuss this expertise intimately in a submit that has turn out to be very talked-about on this weblog, referred to as: My One Year Update: Why I Broke Up With “Traditional” Ways of Studying Arabic and Why I’ll Never Look Back. However in brief, in any case these years of labor, I felt discouraged. After 3 years, I wasn’t a lot nearer to discovering house than I had been once I began studying Arabic. Secondly, whereas finding out overseas in Jordan, I face an unceasing stream of sexual harassment that left me numb, damaged, and depressed. I discuss that have intimately in my submit: Study Abroad Almost Killed Me and My Love for Arabic. Why I Don’t Recommend You Go… At Least Not Yet. And after that point in Jordan, I didn’t even wish to step foot within the Center East anyway.
As school got here to an in depth, I used to be a wanderer once more. In fact, I believe that I felt scorned on an existential degree. I felt like God had a vendetta towards me, and that this was my lot in life – to wander from locale to locale, language to language, burrow to borrow – in search of a spot to obtain me.
I exiled Arabic from my life and moved to China after school.
Half 3. From the Center Kingdom again to the Center East
In Mandarin, China is definitely pronounced “Zhong-guo”, which interprets to “Center Kingdom”. As a lot as I knew about different components of the world, I knew nothing about China once I arrived in Beijing in 2014. I heard that there was smog, so I introduced my inhaler. That was it. I by no means thought I would find yourself there or that my life wanted to root down into the Center Kingdom, in order that I would discover my approach again to the Center East. However that is precisely what occurred.
I discuss my expertise in China intimately on this post, however to place it merely, I will say this. Typically you simply must get your groove again. I wanted to get my groove again. And the power and group in Beijing allowed for that. It’s important to perceive. After school, I used to be drained. And never simply due to Arabic. I went to a really demanding college and to be trustworthy, most individuals round me appeared extra exhausted than energized. If we have been energized about something, it was that we felt desperate to graduate. For me, that exhaustion hit my shallowness laborious. Typically, I felt like a failure, different instances I simply felt numb. And to be trustworthy, if that is the power you are carrying round with you in your life, you are not prone to get a lot completed anyway, not to mention be taught a language.
With that in thoughts, Beijing was the proper place for me. There’s one thing concerning the spirit of China. I’ve by no means been to a rustic so decided to construct and develop and work collectively. That power was electrical boogie woogie woogie. I obtained concerned within the arts, ran fundraisers, curated galleries, helped run companies, and realized to talk Chinese language to a conversational degree utilizing a lite model of the methods I discuss on Marhabtain.
Healed and energized, I returned to America questioning what was subsequent for me. What I did know for certain was that I would labored via a variety of my anger and unhappiness concerning my first experiences with Arabic. And that I used to be prepared to begin re-learning alone phrases.
However when?
I set a New 12 months’s Decision for 2020, after which the pandemic hit.
Half 4. You are just one or two concepts away from an entire transformation of your life.
Regardless of a number of COVID-19 scares in my household and associates, I remained wholesome all through the pandemic. This was coupled with the truth that as a highschool trainer, our faculty went digital, and so I didn’t have to depart my house aside from grocery buying.
So I sat. I stared. The partitions stared again at me. I organized my furnishings. And when nothing labored to alleviate my boredom, I made a decision it is likely to be time to re-arrange my life round Arabic.
Earlier than quarantine started, I would began to immerse in Arabic via music, largely, whereas I used to be in my workplace and didn’t produce other work. Now that I used to be in my residence alone, I made a decision to check out a full-on immerse expertise, utilizing the methods I define on this website.
Immersion was the one thought that really reworked my Arabic expertise. Arabic grew to become my greatest good friend – and so I spent hours a day along with her in music, films, television reveals, and radio packages. I started to grasp that I didn’t must go to the Center East to be taught Arabic and I didn’t must go to class. As an alternative, I might carry the Center East to me, and immersion grew to become my education.
Once I absolutely grasped this idea, every part modified. Most significantly, in a single yr alone, my Arabic skills went from – not with the ability to maintain easy conversations to with the ability to watch full TV collection’ with out subtitles. In all of my years of college and of touring within the Center East, that is one thing I would dreamed of doing however had written off as inconceivable. Now, I pop on a present, lay again, and calm down. As a matter of truth, I am going to do this as quickly as I end this submit.
So why is that this weblog referred to as Marhabtain, anyway? Properly, Levantine Colloquial has many enjoyable methods of claiming hi there, and a technique is thru call-and-response. So one particular person says Howdy (hi there) and the particular person responding says Marhabtain (two hellos)! I really like that heat welcome that the phrase “Marhabtain” gives. It is that very same heat, welcoming feeling that has drawn me again into Arabic in any case of my highs and lows. And it is the identical heat and welcoming feeling that I hope you encounter as you learn this weblog.
The place am I with the “seek for house”? Properly, I am undecided the sensation will ever go away per se, however I’ve accepted it. I consider that the obstacles that we face in our lives join us to our function. And that our function helps us uplift others. With out my childhood experiences, I’d have by no means discovered Arabic. With out Arabic, there can be no Marhabtain. With out Marhabtian, you would not be right here. So, you see? The playing cards of life are stacked within the favor of destiny.
Maybe it is the trainer in me, however as of late, a foremost motive I don’t wish to cease studying Arabic is in order that I can assist you maintain going. I are not looking for you to waste the years that I wasted. I need you to really feel inspired and energized, and in return assist another person.
Marhabtain is not only a weblog the place I share the methods I take advantage of to be taught Arabic. At its greatest, I hope this weblog is a approach for me (and ultimately, you!) To pay it ahead.
I am so glad you are right here. Howdy.
