Tuesday, February 26, 2008

arabic galore!

Well, I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to "immerse" myself in Arabic. I mean, I am able to study with native speakers and that is great- but sometimes you get to do that even in the States. What you don't get in an English environment is the opportunity to spend a day speaking only Arabic. In attempts to make this more a reality for me, I decided that I needed to get back in the classroom. So, I was able to volunteer at a local school and amazingly I have spent 15 hours in the last 2 days in an "all Arabic environment"- so all I have to say is - if my arabic is not stinking good by then end of the next few months I will be highly disappointed!!! I am trying to throw myself into this language learning thing with everything I have- but it seems that the more Arabic I know the more I realize I don't know.
It is one thing to sit around with my teacher and chat- it is a totally different thing to sit and listen to a "transportation" chat with 4 1/2 year olds all around me and realize that I learned 5 new vocabulary words (all of which the 4 year olds all ready knew!) It is a bit overwhelming!
But, my arabic is improving by the day which is always a good if not exhausting idea!
I have been doing a lot of homework and trying not to freak out about what is next...another year of taming the bear (aka learning Arabic) or something else...and if so, what? I have felt a bit overwhelmed with my lack of ability to make such decisions- and my lack of trust.

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