Question for Arabic and Farsi speakers

[spyguy]

I'm just curious of anyone has experience or extensive knowledge on arabic and farsi. I've completed my first year of Arabic language at my University and am pursuing an overseas gig for the summer at a language school but if that doesn't happen I'm planning on Applying to the Monterey Institute for Language, where they have beginning farsi. My goal was always go get to Farsi after arabic but i'm curious as to if arabic and farsi are close enough to take at the same time and not get mixed up. Most would say just get though arabic first but. if i don't jump ahead in arabic i can start up next semester with my same class for 200 level. Thanks in advance to anyone.

SG

[el borracho]

I'm just curious of anyone has experience or extensive knowledge on arabic and farsi. I've completed my first year of Arabic language at my University and am pursuing an overseas gig for the summer at a language school but if that doesn't happen I'm planning on Applying to the Monterey Institute for Language, where they have beginning farsi. My goal was always go get to Farsi after arabic but i'm curious as to if arabic and farsi are close enough to take at the same time and not get mixed up. Most would say just get though arabic first but. if i don't jump ahead in arabic i can start up next semester with my same class for 200 level. Thanks in advance to anyone.

SG

Heck yeah, I am a linguist in the USAF. I attended the basic arabic course at dli monterey and got a 3, 3, 2 on the DLPT (if you're familiar with the system of scoring). The course there is equivalent to at least 4 years of college in the language, its crammed into 8 hours a day for a year and 3 months. it's pretty intense, but its also incredible to think that only a year and a half ago I knew no words in arabic, and now am considered fluent.

As for the two being close...yes and no. Technically arabic is a semetic language while persian-farsi is indo-european. therefore the two are not related, i.e. from the same root language. however farsi has a ton of arabic loan words (due to the spread of islam), but they have been adapted to fit farsi ****unciation and grammar. arabic has a few farsi words and they are usually very easy to spot because they dont fit in with the 3-letter root system of arabic, or they have sounds not found in the arabic language. So, its not like say, spanish and italian, where if you know one, then the other is pretty easy to pick up. According to DLI standards Arabic is a more difficult language to learn than Farsi (due to grammar and complexity), therefore I would recommend taking Arabic first, then Farsi should be easier.

A funny example is while at DLI I had a farsi-speaking roommate who was struggling over some homework. He goes "hey man, how the hell do you make an Arabic word plural? They just don't make sense!" I just laughed at him. Anyway...

Huth sa'eed leka fi darasaataka bilarabiya. (i cant type with arabic script, but sound it out and you'll understand).

[spyguy]

Na'am, alaan laa'rf katheran fi alarabiya, laaken uhib katheran lugaa alarabiya. probably not perfect but you should get the idea. ( if you were asking me if i'm happy with my studdy of arabic)

Yah i'm not familiar with Huth, so i wasn't sure if you were asking a question or making a statement.


I can't imagine how intensive a program would have to be to get you that proficient in that little time. If i don't go overseas I guess it would be better to just stick to their summer arabic program and pursue farsi later.
I'm actually surprised how slow my college course is, hence why i'm looking for summer study programs. I've taken two semesters and we stopped right before we got into past tense. Do you mind telling me the kinds of things the AF has you doing as a linguist?
And, if you have any tips on ways that helped you memorize vocab please i'm open to any suggestions. I use flashcards now which seems like a decent idea, but because i look at the english side and then think of the arabic word I end up learning how to pair what the english word looks like with what it looks like in arabic then reading that picture in my head. long story short it makes it impossible for me to listen to people talk. so it's not the best way of doing what i'm doing but it helps me with written translation both ways. Thanks EB

SG

[el borracho]

Na'am, alaan laa'rf katheran fi alarabiya, laaken uhib katheran lugaa alarabiya. probably not perfect but you should get the idea. ( if you were asking me if i'm happy with my studdy of arabic)

Yah i'm not familiar with Huth, so i wasn't sure if you were asking a question or making a statement.


I can't imagine how intensive a program would have to be to get you that proficient in that little time. If i don't go overseas I guess it would be better to just stick to their summer arabic program and pursue farsi later.
I'm actually surprised how slow my college course is, hence why i'm looking for summer study programs. I've taken two semesters and we stopped right before we got into past tense. Do you mind telling me the kinds of things the AF has you doing as a linguist?
And, if you have any tips on ways that helped you memorize vocab please i'm open to any suggestions. I use flashcards now which seems like a decent idea, but because i look at the english side and then think of the arabic word I end up learning how to pair what the english word looks like with what it looks like in arabic then reading that picture in my head. long story short it makes it impossible for me to listen to people talk. so it's not the best way of doing what i'm doing but it helps me with written translation both ways. Thanks EB

SG

Yeah, the program was "all arabic, all the time" it was so much that you actually get sick of it...but it becomes like second nature after awhile. After a few months I dreamt in arabic...and sometimes the english word escapes your mind because of all of the arabic vocab.

In class, we were shown some college equivalent final exam questions after one year of study, two years, and so on. They did seem simple, but I can't imagine trying to learn a language like that at a college class pace.

As for tips, flashcards were always frowned upon by instructors and students because all you see is the one word, but it's not in context. So you don't see how the word is used, so how to make it fit gramatically. Most of what we did was translation, translation, and more translation. Like priniting articles from BBC Arabic, or Al-Jazeera and doing the best that we could with it. We just kept our Hans-Wehr close by while we worked. Yeah, we had to look up 90% (at least) of the vocab but it seemed to help. We reached a point where we could go on and on in arabic about politics and social issues but we didnt know simple vocab for things like furniture or articles of clothing. I don't know what level you would be at, and it's discouraging to have to work with material that is too complicated...I guess that if you can find children's books or simpler texts and work up from there.

For listening, thats a tough one. Try reading out loud any texts that you can find, regardless if you understand all of it. If you have anyone to speak to, try that too. It was the same for most of us too, we could read and translate anything that you threw at us, but if it was recorded from TV or radio, we missed some of the details.

In the AF, most jobs are listening related. Like putting on headphones and listening to radio traffic and whatnot. Since these jobs are kinda tedious, the new guys start out there usually. Others translate written documents to gain intel from them. There are a lot of others (most of which are classified) that do various other things. You don't get trained in one area, everyone gets the same training then based on your skills, and where personnel are needed, you work in that position, then usually change into another spot after a few months. As for officers, they can do more "interesting" jobs like liason work in embassies, or personal translators for VIPs and whatnot.

If you are thinking of joining I would have to discourage that based on the military will put you where they need you, regardless if you have other experience. i.e. if you join solely to learn arabic, you might end up learning a different language. That happend to a lot of people that I knew. They took four years of Spanish...or they knew some Russian, or whatever, but they ended up in a totally different language and ended up hating their career. As for me, my "choices" were Russian, Spanish, and Greek (or something like that) and you know where I ended up. In the end, I am very pleased with how things turned out. I didn't want arabic at first, but when they said "thats what you're going to learn" I warmed up to the idea after awhile, I guess that i just figured "what the hell?"

Just remember to have fun with it, and it will go easier after that. Oh BTW "huth" is the closest that I could type. It means "luck," so "huth sa'eed"= good luck (literally "happy luck"). Ma salaama.