Learning Arabic

The Embassy and the greater American expat community all seem to know at least some Egyptian Arabic.  Since it is not at all a necessity here, it is a bit surprising that a group of Americans is at least somewhat multilingual.  Certainly, the sort of person willing to move overseas is also likely to be interested in learning another language.  But the strongest reason for this group of Americans' language facility, I believe, is that the Egyptians themselves are so eager to teach us.

I had only been here a few days when the security guards and janitors in our compound decided that I needed to start learning Arabic.  They began by greeting me in English, but then would immediately tell me how to say the same thing in Arabic.  Every time I walked past two guards in particular, and one janitor, they would quiz me on the proper greetings.  After I had mastered 'Good Day', 'Good Afternoon/Evening', and 'How are you?', the guards began to teach me numbers.  I was expected to know numbers 1-10 after only a couple of days.  Then they started in on weather expressions. All of this was taught with careful attention to pronunciation and gender agreement.  If I got anything wrong I was strongly encouraged to repeat it until I got it right.  Their delighted smiles at my attempts were all the motivation I needed to keep working.

My good friends the shuttle drivers also take every opportunity to teach and to expound upon language learning.  Ahmed laid down the law as to the best way to learn a language without taking a class: "Listen carefully, and watch the eyes and the mouth.  You will be able to figure out what people are saying as long as you keep a close eye and ear on them."  Ayman was of the opinion that radio listening and TV watching were sufficient to learn a foreign language.  I find it hard to imagine that this was all he ever used to learn English, but I didn't feel that it was polite to question his system.

Now I have been in an Arabic classes for three weeks.  When the teacher found out that I already knew the little I had been taught she was pretty excited.  So in addition to learning the set curriculum, which is only listening and speaking, I am also learning to read and write Egyptian Arabic.  She even volunteered to meet for an additional lesson to practice writing with me. (This is extremely difficult by the way- 28 letters, each of which can take up to eight different shapes, and five vowel markers for letters that aren't included in the written words.)

It is only right that we expats try to learn what we can as we are surrounded by Egyptians that have worked hard to learn English.  Even the least motivated, however, can't help but pick up on the Egyptians' great enthusiasm to teach us their language!