How did you learn Arabic?

[Crossed_fingers 128]

hahahaha....I remember springing that phrase "yalla, habibi!" on my husband one evening as we were getting ready to go out...I thought he would die laughing as it was completely unexpected...although have learned a lot of my Arabic from him, most of it I learned on my own or from his family or my coworkers over there...he just can't keep from cracking up on my pronunciations when he tries to teach me...of course it doesn't help when my occasional southern accent pops out

I bought one of those CD-ROM sets a couple years ago but it was classical Arabic so not much use in Egypt...the best way I found was through total immersion..i learned a lot during my time living there, I would say still only a small fraction of the language but I can successfully get around on my own and do things for myself there as well as carry a short light conversation

If you are serious about looking for a job there, here are some suggestions:

I worked one semester as an Adult Continuing Education teacher- teaching English Conversation- no degree or Arabic required just native English speaker.

Last year I worked in an American school there as a teaching assistant and I was offered several other teaching and teaching assistant positions just on the basis of being a native English speaker.

These are also great ways to learn Arabic because your students will be more than happy to teach you as much as they can, same with their families. Actually I have found pretty much anyone I met in Egypt would try to teach me something in exchange for learning the English equivalent.

One last funny story about this.....I learned much more than either of us realized just by being there and paying attention to what people were saying, case in point-

my husband is a bit of a goofball and we have things as most couples do that we tease each other about, one of the things for him is my extreme clumsiness-literally I am an accident looking for a place to happen...anyway, we were out with a friend of his one night walking along the corniche and I NEARLY tripped over a uneven spot in the sidewalk..i forget now exactly what he said, but he said basically in Arabic " my graceful wife" with a smile...I knew exactly what he said and looked at him like ...he was like u understood me?? he was like a lil kid getting in trouble...it was quite funny, we all had a good laugh about it...now I get to tease him that he should be careful bc he doesn't know exactly how much I know

That is a great story!

[amysaid 9]

I learned a lot from afternoons cooking with my SIL. Now I end up learning from listening to my husband talk in Arabic to our daughter. He speaks to her in Arabic only, so I have picked things up. I'm sure as she gets older and they begin to have their own language it will be much more important ffor me to learn it. I have learned enough Arabic for prayers, greetings, etc. But not nearly enough.