Hello folks! I’m Danielle, a language learner living near Asheville NC, USA.
I speak English natively, and my Spanish (heritage language from my mom’s side) is at a level where I can use it competently in my work as a nurse. I was fascinated by Russian in high school and taught myself some, then learned a bit more a few years later while traveling in Russia- though I’m really rusty at it now! My college studies long ago included Ancient Greek and Latin, and at various points I’ve also dabbled in Moroccan Arabic, Tzotzil, and French. Then this summer, wanting a fun language learning experiment, I picked up some Esperanto through the online SES program. My goal for the coming year is to get back into Arabic and hopefully get myself to B1 level. Languages I want to learn someday: Mandarin, (Valencian) Catalan, Ladino, Aymara, Quenya.
My other related interests include language change, conlangs, and the intersections of language with healthcare, herbal/traditional remedies, and social justice work.
I had an awesome time at Langfest in Montreal last summer- which helped reawaken my love for studying linguistics- and also introduced me to more polyglot learning opportunities, so I’m excited now for my first Polyglot Conference!
As a native Arabic speaker, I must say wow! This is amazing that you are learning Moroccan. Moroccan Arabic is one the most difficult dialects to understand let alone master.
What are you studying exactly the Moroccan dialect or Arabic MSA, which is more of a universal formal language than the various dialects themselves?
Hi Zeina! So, Moroccan is what originally got me interested in Arabic, back 20 years ago, when I was traveling in Spain, and I soon learned how different it is from other dialects, and found that really fascinating. But my plan for going forward is to study MSA.
Oh that’s very nice and challenging btw cuz Msa is harder than dialects so if u would some help just shoot me a message and i would be happy to help as i’m a native Arabic Speaker
I believe you are on the right track with your decision to pursue MSA. You are basically covering a portion of Arabic which you can use to communicate with every living Arabic person.
Materials in MSA are also much more abundant for studying, contrary to those pertaining to individual dialects, which can be very scarce online.
Keep up the good work! Let me know if you any help
I live in Charlotte, but spend time in Western NC as well because my family lives there. I was also at LangFest in Montreal last year and it lead me to try the online Polyglot Conference this year.
Where did you travel in Russia? I took Russian in college and then spent a year in Vladimir, a few hours outside of Moscow. It’s such a beautiful country (and vast).
MSA is difficult I agree but it is not more difficult to learn than the dialects.
Dialects vary a LOT, even within one city. Can you imagine how much learning it would take people to understand all the dialects of Arabic and differentiate between similar words that might mean different things from city to city? It will be mission impossible.
With all due respect @Hussien22 but I believe people must begin learning MSA before learning any dialectal variation.
MSA is as simple as having one language derived 90% from one root, the verb. 90% of MSA is based in a root system. I suggest @Danielle you start by learning more about the root system aka verbs, how to conjugate them, and everything after that should become a piece of cake.
Yes, thanks! It sounds like MSA is more regular than the dialects then? In any case, the consonantal root system is definitely one of the things I find super interesting about Arabic, and am excited to learn more about.
Hi neighbor! I spent 3 months in Russia in 2003- about 2 months at a language school in Yaroslavl, and then a few weeks traveling- Rostov, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and a ride on the Transiberian railroad as far as Ulan Ude (where I was excited to learn about language revitalization efforts that were going on in the local Buryat language!)
That’s awesome you spent a year there! It really is beautiful.
Yes it is the official universal form of Arabic used in all written materials, news, books… basically it is one formal system that all Arabs understand and can communicate in should they chose to avoid dialects.
Please beware that many confuse MSA with Classical Arabic. Classical Arabic is not used anymore and is strictly found in the Qur’an only. It is an older version of Arabic. Even Arabs nowadays don’t fully understand it unless this is utterly their specialization.
MSA is much more structured. It follows certain rules. Once you understand the rules, you can write anything. MSA is also easy to read. The rule is that what you see is what you read. We don’t have silent letters like in English. It’s pretty straightforward. To read, learn the vowels which are not too many. Any consonant will be then articulated based on the vowel associated with it.
It’s important to start learning different verbs, gender differences of verbs, dual usages of verbs, pronoun-verb agreement, verb conjugation to understand tense, then the derivation process. Basically, most verbs can be transformed into a subject, object, and adjective depending on what letters you add to the root.
It’s a very logical system. I am sure you will excel at it in no time
Hello, @Molly, I just saw in your profile that you’re a data scientist. That’s very cool, I have studied it a bit, did a few small projects, but decided to focus on web development. I’m finding much more people from tech than I’d thought I would hahah that’s very nice.
Hi @estevao, yeah it’s funny that there seems to be a lot of overlap between tech/programmer types and people who learn languages for fun! I went to LangFest last year, and found there were a lot of software engineers there. Nice to meet you, et bienvenue au monde des polyglottes.
Hi, I grew up very near Asheville. I live in Philadelphia now, but after graduating from NCSU, I moved back to Asheville and took German courses at UNC-A before going on to the Universität Hamburg. I miss the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mtns.
I am Paul from Asheville, NC. I am E1L, currently learning German, and recovering French next on my to-do list. I am retired from career in IT and Market Research.
I have been working on my German off and on for a number of years (more off than on ). I only became aware of the Polyglot/Language Learning world in the past year and am so glad to have found it. The new methods I have discovered are helping to erase the sour taste I got from my language learning experience in elementary and high school. This is my first foray into this new PG world. So glad to be aboard,
My college studies long ago included Ancient Greek and Latin, and at various points I’ve also dabbled in Moroccan Arabic, Tzotzil, and French. Then this summer, wanting a fun language learning experiment, I picked up some Esperanto through the online SES program. My goal for the coming year is to get back into Arabic and hopefully get myself to B1 level. Languages I want to learn someday: Mandarin, (Valencian) Catalan, Ladino, Aymara, Quenya.
I spent 3 months in Russia in 2003- about 2 months at a language school in Yaroslavl, and then a few weeks traveling- Rostov, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and a ride on the Transiberian railroad as far as Ulan Ude (where I was excited to learn about language revitalization efforts that were going on in the local Buryat language!)
