Sammy and I have been talking about learning a language together for a while now, but we have finally started. We previously talked about potentially learning one of three different languages: Arabic to be more in touch with Sammy’s Lebanese roots, ASL to continue the work I have previously done to learn the language, or Spanish since it’s so commonly spoken in America, particularly where we live. However, we always leaned more towards Arabic and it has become our final decision.
We have taken a few classes now, and it’s a little overwhelming. I mean I have to learn a completely new alphabet in sound, shape, and rules. I’m not the best at pronouncing all of the new sounds at the moment, but I do really enjoy writing the letters out. They tend to be more artistic than Latin characters which makes them that much more fun to write for me. Sammy is of course top of the class, but I’m picking it up quicker than expected as well. We even labelled all the words we could at home!
All of this should help to prepare us for a trip to Lebanon around October. I’m very excited to go there and see his family home, meet his relatives, and explore a new country. We may even try to make a stop in London along the way to see old friends. It’s all very exciting and of course, I will blog about it as it happens :)