Hitting the books

Our first week of classes is over, leaving us a bit exhausted and with pages of vocabulary needing to be memorized. We’ve begun to carry around 3x4 inch spiral notebooks in which to write new vocabulary as we encounter it; I currently have 168 words. (We purchased these notebooks here… on the front of mine is the admonition, “Existing is not enough, one should be effective!” Maybe that will spur me to learn my vocabulary!)

We have thoroughly enjoyed studying at the University of Damascus so far. Our teacher, Ieeman, is excellent. She’s Syrian and only speaks a handful of English words, which means that our classes are almost entirely in Arabic. As intimidating as it seems, it works. She is great about repeating words so we understand, and gives us the translation in English when we can’t figure it out in Arabic. And even though we’re still at the point of reciting in unison, “Hello… How are you?… My name is… I live in…” (which must be amusing for people walking in the hall), we are able to understand enough to learn new grammar rules every day.

For those of you who haven’t studied Arabic, here’s a little background. Arabic is a Semitic language, which means that it comes from the same family as Hebrew, Aramaic and Syriac. There are 28 letters in the alphabet, which are all considered consonants. In addition to this, there are (as far as I know) 13 “vowels.” The vowels are not actually letters, but are diacritical marks added around the letters marking the correct pronunciation. They are only written in the Koran (for linguistic precision) and in children’s textbooks up to fourth grade. Supposedly when you learn more grammar, you will know how to pronounce words without the vowels. Arabic is written from right to left (except for numbers, which are written from left to right – resulting in numerous head wags) and each letter looks different depending if it’s at the beginning, the middle, or the end of a word. The nice part is that each letter only has one sound, so even as beginners we can theoretically figure out how to pronounce a word. When we do try to do this, however, we often get blank stares from our Syrian counterparts!

Our classmates are from all over the world – England, Norway, Hungary, Bangladesh, Australia/Italy, Germany, Spain, and Switzerland. We are the only Americans in our class, although there are some in the other levels. Our ages range from 22 to 63, both male and female. Some people are staying for just a month, and others are hoping to stay for 3 years. We feel very comfortable with this group, and hope to soon start up a study group on Saturday nights. Class runs Sundays to Thursdays from 9-1, since Friday is a holy day for Muslims. One more day to learn that vocabulary!