Seminar II: Session 1

About the Arabic seminar. This one was much much better than the last. It was about the same temperature inside the masjid, 85-90F, as the last one. But it was much more enjoyable. (Perhaps now I'm more adjusted to it?) It took me a little bit of time but I think I finally started catching up. And I'm doing ok, you know? Catching on, albeit slowly. I have a lot of reviewing today.

Although, for anyone who is thinking about studying Arabic language, my advice is merely this: start yesterday.

What I learned even in the first day was invaluable, and what I know now is just amazing. Subhanallah, I learned 5 ayaat in the Qur'an a few weeks back, knowing the meaning of every single word. Now I can understand even better than I did then and to be able to listen in salaah and comprehend even a handful of words is something really special. To understand a phrase is wonderful, entire sentences, amazing. This is an experience that non-Arabs long for in their prayer really... and it adds another dimension. So to anyone--study Arabic.

And the teacher seemed much better today than before. Perhaps his nerves were frazzled the last time anyway. (He had good reason; he'd missed his flight the first day and most of the class wasn't too happy with him.)

Mostly we covered verbs, and I just realize I have a ton of things to review, loads to memorize. Charts to make. He said something interesting. To learn these rules, to make it habit of knowing the harakat basically for the grammar, had to learn by pen, by our ears, and by our tongue. So by writing it over and over, listening over and over, and speaking over and over. And generally that's the natural way I suppose, repetition. So he suggested we make recordings of ourselves saying these things, then play them all the time. At home, in the car, at work, in the bathroom. He said we should be speaking, living, breathing Arabic. All the time.

I must say, that doesn't seem like a bad idea.