New country, new language – learning Arabic in Kuwait

By Claire McCarthy, on Saturday, May 28, 2011

Arabic newspaper: picking up a new language can be more difficult than you think

This week, I have finally managed to squeeze a few sentences of Arabic out of my mouth! Up to now I have relied on sounding clever with the odd “Marhaba” (hi) or “Shukran” (thank you), but seeing as I have been here for over eight months this wasn’t really that impressive anymore.

One of the main reasons for coming to the Middle East was to continue my studies of Arabic which had begun eight years ago at an evening class back in the UK. I felt at the time that I would need to spend some time in an Arabic speaking country but never got the opportunity and although I did another online course, I really never got past the “hello” and “thank you” stage, which I was at when I arrived!

Seeing as I have a degree in languages and it is also one of my hobbies, I had thought that coming to Kuwait I would be able to do some courses and would be chatting away in the language in no time! This was not to be the case.

For a start although the official language of the country is Arabic, the Kuwaitis are quite lucky, due to their country being on top of huge oil reserves, to have the luxury of not having to waste much of their time working. This means that in my day-to-day life, that is shopping, taking taxis and at the gym, I come into contact with lots of other nationalities and the lingua franca tends to be (very badly spoken) English.

Once I realised I had more chance of speaking Hindi by the end of the year, I went about finding a suitable Arabic course. There are a few courses on offer in Kuwait and they are of a similar price and style. As I don’t have a car and have to rely on taxis I didn’t want to be travelling too far, I chose a course nearer to me. As luck would have it my colleague also wanted to refresh her Arabic skills so we went along together.

The other people on the course were there for a variety of reasons. Some had been sent by their employer and others were married to Arabic speakers.

The first lesson did not start well. The book they gave us was full of grammatical and spelling errors in English and Arabic and the teacher had prepared nothing, spending two hours asking us about ourselves and teaching us how to say hello. I came away in the same situation – I could still only say hello!

The second lesson was exactly the same and we decided to say something to the manager! He asked us straight off if he should fire her. I really wasn’t sure how to reply but he went off and sacked her anyway! They then put us in a different class with a group of Asian engineers. They were really friendly and a good laugh. The teacher was not proficient in English and neither were they so we all struggled to translate words and discover their meaning. The teachers continual suggestions to “go naked” seemed rather inappropriate until I realised he meant “go next” and attempting to translate, left us with descriptions such as a “chicken’s wife”.

We eventually managed to complete the course and were able to read the printed alphabet – though the random selection of words have been of little use – I am not sure how often I will discuss seedlings here!

Feeling fed up and dejected the next day at work, my Syrian colleague asked what was wrong and I explained my lack of progress in Arabic. He suggested we just did a little reading in Arabic everyday and see how I got on. This was the best thing I could have done. I have forced myself to do it everyday and now can read it and have even started stringing sentences together! It is just such a shame I am leaving in four weeks!

(image: Arabic newspaper Some rights reserved by divya_)