Hello Everyone! I hope you all had a great week. For this week’s blog post I would like to further discuss my plans for practicing the Arabic language. I have decided that this semester I want to push myself even harder to practice my language skills. My roommate who is a native Arabic speaker had agreed to help me practice speaking the language 1-2 times a week for an hour and in return, I am going to help him with his English homework. I am going to come up with a script every week of things that I would like to know how to say and he is going to teach me how to write, say and pronounce them correctly.
I am also pushing myself to only order my food in Arabic when I go to restaurants and local food stands. I have also introduced myself to the owners of my favorite places to eat and told them about my goals to learn the Arabic language. Now every time I come into their stores, they only speak to me and Arabic and teach me new words every time I come in. Additionally, I am looking into finding a permanent language partner for the rest of my time here in Israel. I will also be continuing on with my Modern Standard Arabic Language Classes for the next semester.
A couple of weeks ago I heard back from the Critical Language Scholarship Program which will enable me to study Arabic in Jordan for the summer. I’m very happy to share with you all that I was selected as a semi-finalist and I will find out at the beginning of March if I am going to be a finalist. If I am fortunate enough to be selected as a finalist, I will then take a language test to determine if I will be sent to Jordan or Morocco to study until August. I would love to attend the program in Jordan because the Arabic Dialect that they speak in that area shares many similarities with the Palestinian dialect and will relate more to the dialect I will need to know in my future career. I am excited about my future and I know that if I continue to work hard, I will be able to reach my goal of fluency in the language within the next couple of years through more immersion and formal language instruction. I would like to pursue an M.A. in the Arabic Language after I graduate from the University of Nevada, Reno. I truly love learning the Arabic language and Middle Eastern Culture. It is truly an amazing feeling to be able to successfully communicate with people in another. Doing things as simple as ordering Kebab and asking for all my favorite ingredients in Arabic at the restaurant gives me great feelings of accomplishment.
I would like to thank you all for reading this week!
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