learning to read.........

Hmmm......... this challenge I have set myself is not so easy to achieve. I guess i really just need to put the hours in! I had decided before this trip home to scotland I would be able to read and write arabic (all my lessons before this month have been speaking only) and I guess i also can't expect miracles within 7 classes..... but I am doing better than I thought I would. I am incrediably slow- thank god my teacher is very patient with me!

However, I do have a problem when it is written without the vowels....

In arabic you put lines and squiggles above and below each letter to change the pronounciation of it- rather than adding vowels in amoungst the constanants- and generally- and in most typed arabic, the 'vowels' are removed. So you have to guess whether the b is pronounced 'be', 'bu', 'ba' or b or even 'bba' or 'bbe'- fine if you have a fairly good grasp on the language so 'know what sounds good or not'... but I feel like I am scrambling blindfolded through the maze that is arabic language!!! determined to get this!!!

An interesting aside about this is that seemingly the Koran was origanally written without any vowels- but as foreigners wanted to become muslim they needed to be able to read it correctly too- so the lines and squiggles method was adopted then (a long time ago! and obviously my own name for the vowel system!!) to help them. This is one reason some people give for some of the different interpretations you get for certain things said in the koran... one word could be written say 'ktb' but could mean katab, kutub, etc etc....

the laugh now is watching me sitting in the back of a taxi- trying to read signs over shops and billboards as we drive past them........... I usually get the first few letters but by the time I have even begun to discipher the rest we have driven past it and I have to look out for the next sign! I do feel like a 5 year old...... and I feel like this experience will make me much more patient if I ever have to teach a child how to read english!!!!