Teaching yourself Modern Standard Arabic?

[Postbib Yeshuist]

I want to separate this topic out a bit from my other post, as much to keep the information "handy" for future reference as anything.

I am considering trying to make the case to my PhD program that I would be best-served to learn "Modern Standard Arabic" as my second research language. Irrespective of whether this an "appropriate" language to study (vs Classical Arabic, for example), is it realistic to teach oneself to read it on a reasonably competent level in two years if there are no classes that can be attended (for whatever reasons)? I don't want to make this proposal to the program only to discover that I've undertaken a nearly impossible task.

Thanks!

Edited April 2, 2010 by Postbib Yeshuist

[Russophile]

You may want to consider reposting this to languages section. There are some Arabic specialists floating around the boards and they might have better insight.

I would say if can set aside no less than 15 hours a week aside, teaching yourself to read Arabic over the course of two years would be doable, especially if you started off with one of those intensive summer courses offered by the Critical Language Institute or a number of other institutions around the country. Unfortunately this might not fit into your life as I seem to remember you have a wife and a child. Being that Modern Standard Arabic has been deemed a "critical language" by the government, there are resources out there for teaching yourself; however, I am certain there is someone on this board far more qualified than I am to talk about them. Best of luck!

[Postbib Yeshuist]

Wow. OK. And yes, I'll post this in the Languages forum (didn't notice it before).

[11Q13]

I live in Palestine and think the answer would depend on what you mean by self study. If you mean getting a book and trying to learn it by yourself, no I don't think it's possible. Assuming you're a native English speaker, the Arabic language has about 5 letters/sounds that will be completely foreign for your mouth to make, making getting going practically impossible without assistance, and probably another 10 that will confuse you. If you mean self study as in hiring a private tutor, I think that would be the ideal way to do it. You won't be getting Modern Standard since that really isn't a language, but imo that's the simplest and easiest way to go. You could also do a combination of the two, hire a private tutor until you learn the basics of the Arabic language and then go with books on Modern Standard from there.

[Postbib Yeshuist]

Hmmmm. In all actuality, I will be studying only to read, so I wonder if pronunciation will be critical to success? And yes, I was talking about "without a tutor" since I won't have the money to hire one. So will it be basically impossible to pick it up solo? Alas.

[11Q13]

double post

Edited April 6, 2010 by 11Q13

[11Q13]

All the people I know who have studied/learned it haven't done so just to read so I can't comment with certainty on that. I just can't imagine how somebody could get beyond page one of an Arabic learning book without assistance. Perhaps you could find some free tutorials online somewhere to get you started. Like I said, once you have a basic grasp, self study would be possible. It's probably also worth mentioning since when you say you want to learn it to read I assume you want to read modern Arabic material, the diversity of vocabulary from Modern Standard Arabic to the various dialects you would be reading could be as much as 60%. But yeah, see what the language board people have to say, I haven't studied Arabic as an academic language.