Unfortunately, it looks like I'll have a lot of unintended downtime over the next week. Not having a job and not having control over my thesis progress is making me stressed out and antsy. I want to complete something. I want to have some feeling of moving forward in life and of my life having some value.

I'd like to be able to have a few potentially marketable skills, and I don't mean marketable in the theoretical sense; I want to be able to do something tangible. I already know a little about repairing small electronics but I'd like to learn enough to get paid for repairs. I'd also like to learn another area of repairs - maybe small motors or automotive A/C.

I'm also still working on languages, but I've put Arabic on hold in favor of reviewing the languages I already have some knowledge of: Spanish, Irish, Russian, and ASL. I'm surprised at both how much Spanish I actually at one point knew and how much I've forgotten.

I haven't had much interest in reading lately since stress has been making it difficult to focus on any books, but maybe I'll once again start my independent study of film and music of the 60s and 70s, which I stopped formally doing six years ago.

Ughhhhhhh. I just need to do something to keep myself busy.

Learning Arabic

This post should probably be about the new social sciences podcast I've been working on, since that's probably the coolest and most interesting news I have, but I'll leave that to a later date. Right now, I am super excited to start learning Arabic so I want to get all this off my chest.

As of yesterday, I decided I would start learning Arabic. I don't have a specific reason for choosing the language other than I like the way it sounds and it seems like it might be one of the more useful languages to know. Previously, I've tried to learn Spanish, which was a seven year battle throughout high school and college that left me knowing a ton of vocabulary and verb conjugations but not having the confidence to hold even basic conversations. I also have used Rosetta Stone to learn Russian and, while I really liked the program, purchasing additional levels was way too expensive for me and, though I had mastered many phrases, I felt impossibly far from being fluent from the levels I had completed.

So then, yesterday, I decided I'd try to learn Mandarin. For free. Because with the internet, anything is possible, RIGHT? After listening to some lessons on an app I downloaded, however, I wasn't having it. It just sounded too...foreign, for lack of a better word. I want to learn Chinese someday, but while I'm trying my free internet approach, I decided I'd go with Arabic. If I'm going to be listening to podcasts I can't understand, I want them to at least be melodic. And Arabic is nothing if not melodic.

So here's my strategy: Each day I will listen to Arabic podcasts, like BBC Xtra, just to get myself used to hearing Arabic. I've read that one theory of language learning posits we should first spend time just listening to a new language before we try to speak it. I'm also looking for free online resources to eventually help me build my vocabulary and learn to read. Here's what I've found so far:

Madinah Arabic - I'm so impressed by the amount and quality of free resources available on this website. Right now I'm just focusing on learning the alphabet, but I've looked ahead to the vocabulary lessons and they resemble the Rosetta Stone method of pairing words (both written and spoken) with images (instead of just the English translations). So again, I'm really impressed that everything is free. Whoever runs the site is doing a great service to a lot of people.

ArabicPod101.com - The site name is a little spammy and frankly the site itself is a little spammy too. You have to give your email to access the material and there are lots of ads begging you to upgrade to a premium account. Once you get past that stuff though, the free lessons are fantastic. They cover not only useful conversational phrases, but also aspects of Middle Eastern culture and social customs. Plus, the lessons are available for download so I can listen to them in my car. I don't know what comes with the premium subscription, but so far, I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything by not having it.

Learn Arabic with Maha - So far I've only watched Maha's Beginner Lessons. They're short and simple, focusing on just a few phrases per video. I'm led to believe her lessons get pretty advanced, though, so I'm happy I'll be able to stick with the same "teacher" throughout most of my learning journey. And Maha's charismatic and fun, so it's easy to pay attention to her lessons.

Learn Arabic App from AppVerx Limited - There aren't a lot of good, free mobile language learning apps out there but this is one of the best I've seen. The company only makes two language apps and I was lucky one was Arabic. There's a lot of information available and good audio samples so this app will keep me busy for a while.

If I discover more free resources, I'll post them later. I don't expect to become fluent using only the internet, but I'd like to have some intermediate conversational skills so I could eventually Skype with native speakers. If you have any suggestions or resources, I'd love to hear them!

Lastly, I'm going to see how far I can get in three months. This guy claims I can become fluent in that time and while I'm not too sure about that, I would like this to be a more rapid and successful journey than learning Spanish was.