Arabic, flukes, and whims
I came across, in my aimless online meanderings, a snippet pointing out that:
With their controversial new Google Print initiative, scanning in long out-of-print books, Google is creating digital records of things no one would ever have access to on a global scale otherwise. What does that mean? Well for starters, you can google your name for matches in “many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore.”
This seemed slightly less lame than googling my name in the wider sty of online writing that is The Web, so I gave it a try, and lo, the third entry is:
Processing Arabic v. 7 Computer Assisted Language Learning
edited by Nelleke Oostdijk, Keith Cameron, Everhard Ditters - 1995 - 96 pages
Page - … £14.95 Contributors ORDERS TO: intellect 108-110 London Road BOO KS Headington,
Oxford 0X3 9AW Gunnlaugur Se Briem, Fernand Baudin, …
Sure, not very remarkable, but on the table in front of me, encumbering my keyboard use, is the book I purchased on a whim yesterday: “mastering arabic” by “jane wightwick & mahmoud gaafar” (published in the last millenium, when all-lower-case lettering was still considered hip).
I enjoy coincidences like this.
I obviously also enjoy:
- language books
- language audio CDs
- language trivia
- foreign language writing systems
- and kidding myself that I am going to learn each new language that I buy a book about.
I have shelved language-learning book-and-audio combos and dictionaries for languages such as Turkish, Hindi, Russian, Japanese, and now Arabic, plus more mundane stuff like French and Portuguese and Spanish. In each of those languages I am about as proficient as a native-speaking one-year-old with a learning disability, and similarly literate.
When I started this, at fifteen, by buying the Japanese books, I honestly believed that I was going to devote enough time to it to become conversational. I am more realistic these days; each time I indulge this occasional whim, I smirk at my own silliness. It still doesn’t stop me. And however little time I may spend “mastering” Arabic using this book-and-CD set, I know I will enjoy it.
December 2nd, 2005 at 2:01 am
I’d say processing Arabic is a lot less daunting than mastering it.
December 9th, 2005 at 9:49 am
Be careful - when you actually do indulge yourself in one of those one day, it might become an addiction;)
Greetings from Prague!
H.
January 5th, 2006 at 10:22 pm
Petrol: I’d agree. But processing Arabic is a lot more daunting than buying a book on mastering Arabic and placing it in your bookshelf. :)
Henrik: does this mean you have become addicted to studying Czech?
Both: sorry it took you over a month to get through my very enthusiastic spam filter!
January 6th, 2006 at 3:07 am
Yes, one might say that. And it really did initially happen because of a book (borrowed though, not purchased). After that I’ve been through a language summer school on site and numerous other adventures. Couldn’t say I regret any of it. If you recall my contacting you, it was actually something I was planning to do with Icelandic some… uh.. probably a few years ago now. Life has it’s tricks in store for us. In the meantime the same thing has also happened to me in Germany, although there it was partly out of necessity. Good luck with your Arabic!:)