Posted by Misagh (47.248.0.43) on May 29, 2003 at 22:02:45:

In Reply to: Learning Arabic and Persian posted by Corky on May 29, 2003 at 10:24:38:

Congrats on attempting to learn these languages!

I suggest practice reading the Writings, even though you may not think you know enough. For example, I have a book in type-written Arabic script, of various Tablets, Prayers, Hidden Words, etc. in Arabic and Persian. I find that even though I only took a year of Arabic (first year university course, very rudimentary Arabic...) I was able to pick out certain words, verbs, phrases, sentence structures, etc. I could piece together some of it, and with the help of a knowledgable person in the language you can begin to string phrases together meaningfully. And of course, with Shoghi Effendi's translation handy, it'll help you that much more!! Don't think that because your knowledge of the language isn't on par with a linguist that you can't learn, steadily using what you know, and building your vocabulary.

Of course, you're right, if you want to gain mastery of Arabic, for example, immersing yourself would help. But, which Arabic country do you choose? Although it is one language, Egyptian Arabic differs from Syrian Arabic which differs from Iraqi Arabic which differs from Saudi Arabian Arabic... you get the picture. Subtle (and not so subtle) differences in vocabulary, structure, etc. do exist. But I think, the all-round recognized reference for the language is the Qu'ran.

Just my two cents... best of luck! Ma-a-Salama!

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