Lost in Translation: Learning the Basics of the Arabic Language

Learning to say different greetings in a foreign language for a 3-day out-of-the-country trip might come easy. Staying in a new place for more than that period is a different story.

Moving from the PH to KW did not only involve adjustments in the weather and way of living. It also entailed a MAJOR challenge in communication. If we have moved to the UAE, I think language would not be that of a big problem.

Kuwait is a little more “provincial” compared to the UAE when it comes to its daily transactions. There are still a lot of businesses, particularly the small ones, which use Arabic in their documentations. Simply put, if you plan to work in a corporate setting in Kuwait, having an Arabic background is a major plus.

When I first visited Kuwait in December 2016, one of my tasks was to help a company close its books for the past 10 years.

Guess what?

Its audited financial statements, accounting system and 90% of its documentations were in Arabic! 😱😰

Que Horror! #Lost #TheStruggleIsReal #NganongNiEnter

#TabangMgaLangit #Unsaon #Fight

All thanks to Google translate and some photo translator phone apps for helping me ease the struggle a little.

So right then and there, I told myself that I must gradually learn the language.

When studying way back in college, I usually like to write major points about the topic. This helps me retain the lessons better. Reviewing becomes easy, too!

So, the first order of business – research and write about the Arabic Language.

Here are a few interesting things that I learned about it.

Yallah (Let’s get going)!

Difficult but Widely Spoken

Arabic is the lingua franca of the Arab world. With over 422 million speakers, it is the fifth most spoken language in the world after Mandarin, Spanish, English and Hindi.

Although English derived some of its words from Arabic, such as alchemy, alcohol, amber, candy, coffee and cotton, it is still considered as one of the most difficult languages to learn for English speakers.

Good luck to me! 😁

Variety, Baby!

Just like Filipino, Arabic has different varieties. A major distinction should be noted between the colloquial Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic. There are different ways to speak it depending on the gender, region, level of education and authority.

Regionally, it can be subdivided to the Maghrebi, Sudanese, Egyptian, Arabian Peninsula, Mesopotamia, Levantine and Andalusian Groups.

Quite a lot, eh?

Learning a New Language

One of the best from the many tips that I’ve read about learning a new language is to GET REAL. It means one should acknowledge the difficulty of the language, but decide on a simple and attainable way to begin.

According to one article that I’ve read from StepFeed, one needs an average of 1.69 years to learn Arabic. So, let me begin my 1.69 years by getting familiar with a few words and phrases that I usually hear and, I think, are helpful in the usual daily transactions. Grammar and structure will just come next. 😀

P.S. I used Gulf Arabic as my reference. 😄

What’s your favorite Arabic word so far?

Mine is Shukran! 💗