I decided to start taking colloquial Arabic lesson in Irbid with a friend of mine. I have class for about an hour, 5 days a week which is costing me 100JD. Although I studied Modern Standard Arabic at my university in the states - for one semester, a year ago, I might add - it has proven to less helpful than I expected. Mainly because the difference in the Jordanian dialect and the amount of "slang" used here.
Yes I can write and read - well at least sound out words without knowing their meaning, ha. I can count and tell people my name, where I am from, where I work, etc. I know tons of objects (like window, door, car, coffee, sugar, etc. - the useless stuff)...but simple day-to-day activities are challenging without knowing the Jordanian spoken language.
If I was living permanently in Amman, I could get by just fine. The average taxi driver, shop owner, and young person in the capital city speaks English - at least little, but in Irbid it is much less common to come across someone who understands English, outside of the local AIESEC chapter. Also, learning Arabic, or at the least improving on my Arabic knowledge, is just a personal goal of mine while here in Jordan.
Insha'allah this class will help me push myself into putting in the time and effort to learn the language.
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