Wednesday 24 February 2010

Seven years in saudi Arabia, still learning arabic!

I moved to saudi Arabia with my hb in the month of february, 2003, exactly 7 years ago. I had such high hopes and aspirations about my life here, my religion, better living condition as I was coming from a third world country and most of all, how I would soon start to speak arabic and read books written in arabic that I had always wished to read.

Shortly after I got here, I started getting sick and was told by everyone including the doctor that it was just the flu due to a change of environment. I was given some medication and injection which did very little to make me get better and I had to go back to the clinic to see another doctor who is a gynea. I told her the symptoms I was having and she told me I was pregnant, before even having me take a pregnancy test. That was how I started my journey into motherhood with my beloved son who is now 6 years old, maasha Allah, and all praise belongs to Allah.

Well, from that period till now, I've been either pregnant or breastfeeding or combining both, alhamdulillah, and I now have 4 children, maa sha Allah, and may Allah protect them and all muslim children, aamin. In short, before I knew it, my plans and wishes to attend a school in which i can learn arabic language was put in the back burner for a long time. I started going for classes for the first time only 2 years ago, when my 3rd baby was around 6 months old, but i had to stop a year a later because i was almost due to have my 4th, maa sha Allah. The result of all these is that, after 7 years in saudi arabia, I still cannot hold a conversation in arabic, it is a sad realization for me that I'm still struggling with the language despite being surrounded by Arabs. I joined a tahfeez school for women and children 3 months ago, with the hope of learning arabic by listening in the tajweed classes and probably by interaction with other sisters as most people there could not speak english, so hopefully, I would be forced to speak after some time.
I also decided to be more serious about my self study sessions by reading books in print and online. Fortunately, there are a lot of sites in which one can learn arabic for free from the
comfort and privacy of the home, so all I need is a strong determination to be consistent and dedicated to achieving my goal, insha Allah. My new goal now is to be fluent in speaking arabic in a year from now, I don't want to look back then and ask myself why I still cant speak arabic after 8 years in saudi Arabia. I have decided to put links to the madina arabic books on this post and to update with any other links of good sites I discover, so as to motivate me and any other sister who has goals similar to mine, insha Allah. I pray Allah makes it easy and possible for me to see my dream come true and to be able to benefit others with it.

http://www.lqtoronto.com/audio.html

http://www.lqtoronto.com/madinasolutions.html