Reflections After Arabic Study for 4 Months
Sept 1, 2021
I needed a generic mountain climbing picture to make the analogy work. I finished my last Arabic class last week, and more than anything I want to celebrate the distance from day 1. I’ve reached a level that would’ve seemed impossible at the beginning of my study. Not because it’s particularly high -I would say it veers from advanced transactional to conversational- but just because any language seems impenetrable at first, Arabic more so than most. I remember standing outside a restaurant my first day in Alexandria, so hungry with no idea how to order, how to read the Arabic numbers, how to push past the people jostling at the counter. I remember being so excited when I correctly said the plural form of sunglasses. I remember having a lizard brain panic fight or flight response whenever anyone said anything to me in the street. When I look up at the mountain, the peak is still a long ways ahead, but when I look behind, I’m a long way off the ground. If I kept my same goals from the beginning or my Arabic study -where I imagined I’d be after 4 months- I’m there! But those goalposts keep moving, and maybe more to the point, I keep moving them.
