Wednesday 4 July 2007

For the love of languages

It is Thursday and I have an English class to teach. I love teaching this subject and I also teach Bahasa Malaysia and public speaking. I have long ago realised that I love languages including Arabic. When I read the Quran, I very much wanted to know the meaning of the verses. Then I had the chance to learn Arabic when we had classes for my Yana then 11 years old and Aly then was 1o years old. We (5 children and me) did the classes at home .We had Ustazah Naemah who came to the house twice a week, because we were sending Yana and Aly to Sudan. (Yes we did send 11 yo Yana and 10 yo Aly to Sudan) It was interesting learning the language with the children. I still remember Husna (then 6 yo), the youngest would run into the kitchen and brought items for the ustazah say the arabic words for those items. And when it was tea time, the children wold say to the ustazah " turiidusyyai?" Ustazah would answer, "Naam, Ana Uhibbusyyai wa kaksan wa biskaawit" And we all laughed and enjoyed the tea and the arabic conversation. It's not to wonder then, that we had learned arabic very fast in that manner.Nowadays I could grasp the meaning of some familiar words in the Quran and that would make me excited enough to carry on reading. Unfortunately the Arabic classes lasted only for 2 years (1 year before children went to Sudan and 1 year after). After that it was difficult to continue with the classes due to many reasons.
However, all is not lost! Since we have founded our own school, I could always sit in the classes with my students. But I have yet to do that. The actual reason is that I have become 'lazy' because there is no 'classmate' or 'sparring partner' to spurr me on. Nevertheless I will learn Arabic seriously in near future. To do that I will have to call ustazah Naemah again.

3 comments:

  1. I've been wishing for a long time to learn Arabic. Is it an easy language to master? Teringat ada advertisement on TV3 - (dah lama dah) ada class to learn arabic & within 3 mths boleh pandai. Boleh percaya ke??

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  2. It depends on your interest and present level.If you have the basic knowledge of arabic alphebets or jawi you will learn quite fast. Within 3 monts you may be able to converse a littlebut to master the language with the grammar within 3 months is impossible. It is more difficult than english somewhat similar to french grmmarwise so I was told. However I find that arabic is a beautiful language especially language of the Quran has no comparison.

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  3. my mother has the same drives with you mak teh; she and my father registered themselves and got the certificates on arabic language as well as on the tajweed, taranum, etc. I really admire people who do not wasted their golden days to just flip the paper and become an avid tv watcher..my mom use the white board marker and wrote on her kitchen wall (the one with jubin so that later senang nak wipe off) arabic words; so sambil2 masak, she can hafal those words.

    Myself jer tak tahu bila nak meng-available kan diri belajar arabic! no i really envy my brother who had a chance to study in jordan now he's a fluent speaker.

    and to send such a children at such a tender to learn so far away is really remarkable.

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