First, having an outgoing personality helps. I am not the most outgoing person, well at least I don't think I was when I first started learning Arabic. I just didn't know how to start a conversation with someone or maybe I just was never interested, or I was just too shy. But here, it has become my goal to start conversations with people. In general Egyptians make it very easy for me, I have already made a lot of friends on my street or around the university such as the shawarma guy and "Abu Sham" or the pizza guy from "Pizza Roma" or the dessert guy from the dessert place down the street. I have noticed that since learning Arabic I have become more outgoing, more so in Egypt than in the US but also I have noticed a difference in the US.
Secondly, paying attention to detail is so helpful when learning Arabic. I had to learn this the hard way. I am more of a big picture person. I don't give a lot of details in conversations or ever. But now I am realizing this has to change and I am really excited for the change. Being meticulous was never something I ever had to focus on. I always gave enough details to make my argument or enough description for people to know what I am talking about. But now I have to be constantly thinking about the details. Its the verb conjugations which are the killers. But once I can conjugate a verb without thinking about it, I know I would have achieved something.
Thirdly a person who is not bothered by criticism would thrive in this sort of environment. This is where language learning becomes humbling. So I didn't grow up speaking Arabic. I don't remember my mother speaking too much while I was growing up. She would say a few phrases but nothing that would really make learning this language any easier. Maybe hearing random conversations between my mother and my grandmother helped in some way. At least the sounds weren't completely unfamiliar to me. So anyway when I started learning Arabic I didn't speak. I was too scared. I mean it is literally learning how to speak all over again. I would say you are going through the same learning process as a child but that isn't true. Children are expected to make mistakes, they are also absorbing so much more of the language at once. Anyway I won't go into the details as to why it is easier for children. But for me its not just starting over, it is learning how to speak when people are constantly giving you criticism, positive and negative. Its also hard when I come across people who think Arabic is easy to learn. But being able to hear that criticism and take the steps needed to correct your mistakes is the type of attitude needed in the language learning process.
From my experience, the people who have been most successful in learning a language have been those who are constantly going out of their comfort zone. So my plan for now is to talk more, pay more attention to detail, and welcome any criticism and look at it as a private Arabic lesson :)
Other news:
I will be leaving for Luxor and Aswan on Sunday! It is eid al adha (I really don't know how to spell that) which is a Muslim holiday. From what I understood it is based around the story of Abraham when he was suppose to sacrifice his son at the top of the mountain but then an angel stopped him and instead they sacrificed a lamb. So there are a lot of animals around getting ready for the feast :) I am not sure on the details of the holiday so if anyone knows feel free to correct me.
That's all. I'll leave you all with this picture of me on top of the Sofitel Hotel where I ate a delicious dinner with everyone from the program. My roommate Nada and our friend Fatima are pictured with me. If you can't tell I am having an awesome time in Egypt :)
