Well, I've moved on to another reference for learning to read and speak Arabic. I've actually got the reading part down now (although I don't always know the meaning of the words I can read) but I don't know exactly how the letters sound. I am going to remedy that by using a very inexpensive book called Arabic for Speaking and Reading. It's got an audio CD to go along with the lessons. This is good because it repeats the alphabet, a few of the greetings and a few of the words that I know. I was a little dissappointed that the audio CD is only about 40 minutes long broken up into roughly 38 sections. However, I'm only using it to get a sense of the sounds so I can move on to listening to the news or formal podcasts. It also has a nice listing of the different diacriticals and their sounds. So, it's a good mid-term reference to get started making the sounds correctly once you have a few words under your belt.
I also started listening to the ArabicPod101.com podcast today. I have to say I was much more impressed listening to it than the Arabic Podclass podcast. The people on 101 are conversational, natural and comfortable. They weave in some history and culture and they are very straightforward in explaining things to the listener. They break down the sounds and the grammar as it occurs, not fabricating the lessons in some artificial way. It's a nice balance between following natural language acquisition theories and practical acquisition exercises. My iTunes downloaded the 8th lesson as the most recent one for some reason although I see on their website that there are at least 9 episodes. They also have some tools and programs to use for drills and flashcards. I haven't tried them yet but if they are anything like their podcast, I'll be checking them out soon.
Showing posts with label language acquisition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label language acquisition. Show all posts
2008-07-07
2008-07-01
MY First 100 Words
So, my list for the first 100 words makes a lot of sense when you think about how you use language everyday. It's a healthy mix of the right pieces of language that get you moving quickly and also introduce you to some simple concepts and the way those concepts are executed. On this list, when learning a verb, the verbs should be learnt in the present and simple past tenses first. I'll explain at the end. There is no particular order to these. So, without further ado, my list of the most important words to learn first.
- I
- You (informal)
- He
- She
- It
- We
- You (formal)
- They (informal)
- They (formal)
- Be
- Have
- Go
- Walk
- Ride (whatever form is for going by vehicle as opposed to walking)
- Come
- Think
- See
- Write
- Read
- Hear
- Learn
- Find
- Want
- Need
- Can
- Will (sometimes not a separate verb)
- Yes
- No
- Not
- Maybe
- Today
- Tomorrow
- Yesterday
- Pen
- Paper
- Who
- What
- When
- Where
- Why
- Him
- Her
- Them
- Us
- Mine
- Yours
- Hers
- His
- Ours
- Buy
- Pay
- Become
- Send
- Get/Receive
- Take
- Give
- Friend
- Brother
- Sister
- Mother
- Father
- Family
- Numbers 1 - 20
- With
- Without
- Because (of)
- From
- To (as in direction)
- Until
- Against
- Through
- Over
- Under
- Beside
- Between
- Behind
- In front of
- Before
- After
- Left
- Right
- Except
- However/But/Rather
- For
- Around
- In
- Out
- Up
- Down
- House
- Car
- Work (place)
- Work (verb)
- Book
- Website
- Thing
- This
- That
- Those
- These
With these 100 words, you can start learning much faster once you have them down pat. And adding nouns is easy when you have them in context of an event. What makes it easier to learn is that you have an experience in which you put pieces together to come up with a memory that is unique to you. This is why learning by immersion is the best method; it's a string of memories associated with language acquisition that you can recall and use to get better.
So, why learn the present and simple past first? Something like 70% of all daily language usage falls into these two tenses. This is especially true if you are talking to someone for the first time. You will very often tell a story, whether that story is about what happened to you today or what you once did when you went to Beirut. Learning the past tense also gives you some idea of what the verb conjugation rules are. When you factor in that Be and Have are usually irregular verbs for most languages, you get introduced to at least one form of irregular verbs. So, you're picking up grammar without really realizing it. At least this is how I learn.
I'd be very keen to get feedback on the list. What words would you put on your first 100 list? Which ones do you think I got completely wrong?
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