Learning Arabic

[Guest]

Anybody know the language?  recomend a book to start picking up real basic comunication skills?  Eventually, i'd like to know enough of the lang.  to pick up the gist of conversations, and be able to speak it as well.  may come i handy if sent to the ol' sandbox.

[The Rabbi]

If you know Aramaic it's a lot easier.

[Guest]

Or go right to Assyrian!

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

No.  What you want to do is go to this website.
www.rosettastone.com

And pay $49 or whatever it is for one month's worth of total multimedia online study.  If you find it's working for you, you can EITHER continue the online stuff OR order CD-Roms.

That, and transparentlanguage.com, have the best, most productive and efficient programs in the world on learning a new language.  Highly recommended.

[Balog]

You can get by with a few simple phrases. "Awgaf" for stop, "Endar" for turn around, "...tara airme" for ...or I'll shoot you. The main thing is tone and body language.

An example. We were doing a snap check point when a guy started acting weird. They told me to grab him. I took off after him screaming for him to stop. He may not have been able to exactly understand what I was saying (proper elocution is much more difficult while sprinting in full gear) but he caught the gist from my tone, expression, and the fact that I was pointing a rifle at his chest.

So I wouldn't stress the language part too heavily. Unless you're pretty gifted and have more than a couple months to study it'll be hard to reach even moderate  proficiency. That's why God invented terps.

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

So I wouldn't stress the language part too heavily. Unless you're pretty gifted and have more than a couple months to study it'll be hard to reach even moderate  proficiency. That's why God invented terps.

Or, if you ARE gifted, go for it.  They pay terps (interpreters) some REALLY good money, in the real world.  Balog, correct me if I'm wrong, but that's probably not the case there 'in country'.  Old guys who had nothing better to do and will do it for smokes or a few dinarii or whatever...?

But, I will tell you that the last 3 jobs I've landed have been EXCLUSIVELY because of my bilingual skills.  There are TONS better IT guys than me (I came late to the game, and just sort of 'play one on TV').  How many uber-geeks ALSO can do phone support in a couple of extra languages?

I currently have a standing offer that if I will gain fluency in Japanese, I have a support job guaranteed which will allow me to work from home, but be salaried with full corporate benefits including vacation, holiday, 401k, etc...if it paid more than just a so-so wage, I'd be more pumped-up about it; but I did the Rosetta Stone thing and have gained survival-level Japanese (spoken only-- NOT read/write, which is not necessary to do phone support), and would probably need another 6 months or so to do the phone support.

ANY field you're in can be further enhanced by your knowing additional (in-demand) languages.  
Arabic would be good to have, IMO.

[DrAmazon]

The University where I work is starting an Arabic major. I eat lunch with the professor regularly.  From what he says it's like learning no other language.  The alphabet is different, the language has phonems that we don't have, there's some funnyness with vowels (I don't remember the specifics), the sentence structure is very different-not like spanish where parts of speech are in a different order-it's just completly and different and not in a way that can be described.  He says that after 2 years of taking courses (1 course per semester) that the students will barely be what most would consider proficient.

[Standing Wolf]

A friend of mine studied Arabic in college. Dr. Amazon's description is, if anything, an understatement.

That said", I'm sure the written language is a calligrapher's delight.

[K Frame]

One of the guys I know from my community is a civilian contractor interpreter in Baghdad. He's making well over $150k a year, plus all sorts of bonuses.

[Guest]

I suspect that the best place to learn the language would be one of the militaries intensive language schools. I would imagine that you would have to have a pretty specific type of aptitude to get sent there though. I had a teacher in highschool that became functional in Vietnamese in some absurdly short period of time (i think it was a couple of months at the most).

[Antibubba]

What?  You didn't see Team America?

Just repeat after me:  Durkadurka!  Durka.  Durkadurkadurkadurka!    

[Balog]

Felonious Fig:
Oh, I completely agree. Learning Arabic with an eye towards a job as a civilian interpreter is undoubtedly a wonderful thought. Learning it to advance a career in the intel or CAG parts of the military would also smart. Just on a personal note, if I was learning a language to facilitate a career I'd choose something other than Arabic. It requires working closely with either hajjis in a deployed environment, or dealing with the wealthy elite. I used to work at a company that did a lot of business w/ Saudis, and I hated those arrogant pricks. And forget it if your a woman.

All I meant is that learning it to gain an advantage on the ground in country is a strategy of dubious utility. The original poster said he only wanted a "basic" understanding; he also mentioned hope it would be of value over here. I was trying to address his needs, altho I may have been looking at it more from my own perspective than anything else.