Learning Arabic: A Student's View
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I thought it would be good to learn a new language, and I was interested in it because of the language itself and what is going on in the world.
The most difficult part is the vocabulary and the depth of the language. A lot of words have different meanings, from changing just one letter or just a slightly different pronunciation, and that is the most difficult part for me.
I think the easiest part was learning the letters. They are not that hard once you learn what each one is. I don't find the masculine and feminine differences of words hard to learn. As for [formal] language and slang, [the teacher] tells us a different way of saying it, like if they are talking formally they would speak it one way, and if they were talking slang to their friends they would say it in another way.
To become fluent, what is going to be difficult is the pronunciation, because there are a lot of different ways to say words. A sound like "ka" has many meanings, depending on the deepness of your voice and how you pronounce it. I know the sound "meh" and the sound "meh" seem alike, but I have learned two different meanings, and I still don't know which is which. It is how you hold on to the sound "eh" at the end that makes the word different.
-- Justin Aldana, senior and first-year Arabic student at Gaithersburg High School
