Arabic 101

Whew, I'm kind of having a hard time finding as much time as I'd like to go about my blogging. After all, it's great mental therapy. But this Arabic thing is taking up much of my time previously spent blogging.

I find myself staring into this computer screen for a couple hours every day and only about 15 minutes of that is spent not on Arabic. My eyes are even starting to burn because I'm so focused on what I'm trying to learn that an hour will go by in what seems like a few minutes and then I realize I haven't taken my eyes off this screen. It's starting to come easier for me now and the writing doesn't look like a bunch of squiggly lines anymore either. I never thought that day would come! I can't read all the letters yet but I'm sure I'll get there.

Yesterday I moved on to the next level. So far I can have small discussions regarding the following: People (men, women, kids, adults, babies, elderly, groups of people), animals (dog, cat, elephant, bull, horse), and various people either standing next to or riding various animals. I also know shapes, colors, household items, cars, boats, people and/or animals either sitting, standing, walking, running, lying down, talking, and about a few hundred other things I can't recall at this moment in time. Lots of information and sentences but nothing conversational yet. I don't know when that unit comes up because it's hard to converse with anything I've learned yet. Sometimes I'll dream in Arabic and wake up with all sorts of phrases going through my head.

My husband likes to tease me about it. He says to be sure I don't start thinking like a terrorist. Funny! But it will be nice to be able to understand one in case one ever crosses my path.