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I'm thinking of trying to learn Arabic and was wondering if anyone had tried it and how easy they thought it was to pick up (perhaps compared to french/german/spanish).  I'm already pretty sure I'll never be able to write it - basic reading and most importantly verbal understanding and attempting to speak it would be the aim.

As with any language it is easier to pick up if you have people around you that speak it. it is/should be more difficult than French as English and French are very similar. It is a completely different language so you'll be starting from scratch, I picked up a few "choice" words during a spell abroad..but never studied it properly..regret that now...it's a language well worth studying.

My mum was required to do Arabic lessons before going to Cairo to work for the Foreign office. She found it incredibly hard, as it is a totally different language compared to english. Also there are different forms of arabic which are all quite different.

Maybe you could start with scouse. Move on to Glaswegian and then Dutch. If I were going to learn a new languae outside of the European area I think chinese might be of use

Longy raises a good point. Morrocan Arabic is very different from Iraqi Arabic, which in turn differs from Saudi...These are all just dialects really so you can't worry about that. But you should be studying Modern Standard. This is what is spoken Al Jazeera and most books are written in this...it is also the language spoken between "educated" Arabs from different countries.


Loads more info online about it

As geordie without the accent I'm pretty comfortable with all the regional englsih accents - other than the far South West! I'm looking at standard Arabic, though I know there are loads of variants.

Madarin  or Chinese would be other good ones but I'm looking at my career taking to Dubai for a couple of years and I think both getting the job and enjoying being out there would be more likely with the language behind me.

I'm not sure if I will be able to do it - I was a decent student at school but could only get a C in French. We'll see how the book and Cd's go that I've just ordered!

if you've got a flair for languages genrally you should be ok.  My ex learned Arabic whilst he was in the army - think he studied it for one or two years, and became pretty much fluent in that time.

I studied Arabic amongst other things at uni. writing the language is very easy despite looking very difficult, shouldn't take too long to pick up. reading is slightly more complicated because most writers omit the vowels but you soon get used to it.

compared with other languages I've learnt/studied it's more difficult than spanish on about a par with french and easier than polish, ukranian or russian

shu-kran - thankyou
af-wan - your welcome

GL

I used to learn it when i was younger, its easier if u speak Urdu or Middles Eastern/sub continent languages. It would be hard for someone who predominantly speaks english or a western language. Some of the words are very hard to say, my housemates struggle but that is a small sample! If you try hard enough m8 im sure u can do it. It will take a lot of graft tho. Good luck with it m8.

Cheers mate. We'll see how it goes. If its hard graft it probably won't happen though! Might do some classes into the new year though if I can get hold of some of it.

Rooky9 either wants to join MI5 or Al Qaeda.

wahad
ithnein
thalatha
araba
khamsa
sita
saba
thamanya
tissa
ashra

probably spelt wrong in english but one of the first things i learned as a five year old living in Saudi Arabia is how to count to ten (can still write numbers as well but not letters)

Two most important phrases needed while over there:

"jeldi, jeldi" = quickly, quickly (usually used when trying to get the arabs to actually do some work)

and

"bukhr inshallah" = tomorrow god willing (usually the response given to "when are you going to do the work?") :D

(apologies for the poor english spelling though of the arabic words!)

lol, yeah, inshallah is the single most important word in arabic. it allows you to agree to do something without actually having to commit to anything. you can get out of anything if you had the foresight to use the word in the original agreement

seemed to work when we had the eggs of 1,500,000 chickens to round up and they were all sat around puffing away on their hookahs and drinking tea with 12812 teaspoons of sugar :D

Thinks Matt should start a diary

Or the company who who would have lots of comps to watch arsenal!

Arabic speakers in Dubai are in the minority

why subject yaself to such pain ??

But its the official language so surely the one used in formal/business setting, hopefully along with English!! I guess the others are Urdu and Hindi are used by a lot of the people who are living there at the moment.

I'm not saying I want any comps to go - apart from maybe one (or 3 if recent form is anything to go  by!) games a season.

It is hardly a neccesity to speak Arabic in Dubai (English will most often be used, most people in Dubai speak excellent English ...or atleast the ones you will be dealing ith in business), but it will look very good if you can speak Arabic as it shows you have made an effort. It will be greatly appreciated.

if as expected(although everyone has been saying this for years now) China become the next economic supernation- surely Mandarin would be a better language to learn