About

From Al-Duroos

I began studying Arabic in April 2007, and have been taking courses at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C. I am interested in learning the language, so I can use it when traveling and better understanding the Middle East region. My background is in geography, and the region's history, religion, cultural, social factors, economics, and the physical environment have all shaped the region differently than other parts of the world. I'm interested in understanding some aspect of how the region is different. Understanding the language is an important part of that.

This summer, I will be spending time in Egypt and other possibly other places in North Africa and the Middle East. (time and money permitting) I am working extremely hard at learning the language, trying to get as far as possible before I arrive in Egypt. I will be in a language immersion program this summer at the American University in Cairo, and hope to get a lot out my time there.

As of May 2007, I am nearly complete with EMSA. In addition to what's required for my courses, I have spent extra time doing other things to help me learn more. For example, I have listened to news broadcasts from the BBC (in Arabic), watched videos (television programs) posted on YouTube by Al-Jazeera, read online news web sites, and worked with supplemental books/material. For traveling, certain words are extremely important to know (e.g. food, so that I can read a menu and order meals), so I have spent time to learn such useful vocabulary. This website will help me, allowing me to go back through what I have learned and now know. I will explain important concepts, review vocabulary, and other key details of the Arabic language.

I hope to meet my goal of being able to speak well, understand others, read and write reasonably well by the summer. Being able to spend time in Egypt (as much as possible) will be an enormous help in furthering my language skills. Through this web site, you can observe my progress in learning the language.

إن شاء اللة (in shaa’ allaah)

Notes about the site

Some notes about the site… as I am mixing English and Arabic, formatting the entries and pages has been difficult for me. Normally, Arabic text (including web sites) will align the text to the right, while English aligns to the left. It’s odd to me to mix the alignments in entries. If the entry is mostly in English, but with some Arabic included, I will align it to the left. If the entry is mostly Arabic, it will align to the right. All Arabic text reads right to left (except numerals).