MY EXPERIENCE IN LEARNING ARABIC

I still remember vividly the day my mom told me that she would like to get me enrolled
in a religious secondary school. Initially I resisted the idea, since most of my friends were
going to another school. If I were to go to that religious school, I have to start making
new friends, studying in a totally new environment, adapting myself in a place whose
people I barely know- a prospect which a 13 year old would not favour at all.
Nevertheless, like most mothers, they usually have a way in persuading their children,
plus there was the fact that two of my second cousins would also be studying there.
Finally I relented, albeit with a heavy heart.

Being a religious school, Arabic language was compulsory. The teacher who taught me
and my friends was Ustaz Mohamed. He had a goatee, which later on made him being
given nicknames by nasty seniors, Ustaz Mohamed “kambing”. Anyhow, he taught me
Arabic, a language that I later knew is not that easy to master. My nightmare with this
language actually had just started. Despite memorizing words, and making up
compositions as shown in our text book, it seems that the language itself was quite
elusive. When I said elusive, it was in a sense that even though you tried your best to
acquire it, I found it quite hard for me. That was reflected in my Form One examination
results for that subject, which was not that good- I got C. We shall look here why
learning Arabic is relatively difficult for beginners.

It seems that Arabic is harder than other languages ( Malay or English by comparison) in
several ways. Firstly, it is an inflected language. In the realm of linguistics, this means
that words in Arabic can change its endings in different situations. It is not limited to
nouns, Arabic verbs also have inflections (of which we will deal with it later). For
example, the word „the book‟ in Arabic is „al-kitaab‟. It can be read many ways in
different situations. It is „al-kitaabu‟ if the book is the subject of a sentence; „al-kitaabi‟
if the word is preceded by prepositions like „in /on the book‟; and „al-kitaaba‟ in
sentences like „I bought the book‟. Definitely when using this language you have to be
very careful in getting all these correct.

Secondly, forming plurals in Arabic is no easy task. Unlike Malay or English whose
general rule in forming plurals are either you just repeat the word, or adding the letter „s‟,
Arabic has its own way in forming plurals. There are three different forms of plurals in
Arabic. The first two plurals are easy because you just add two Arabic letters- „wau‟ and
„nun‟ or „alif‟ and „ta‟ respectively. These are called Jama’ Muzakkar Saalim and Jama’
Muannath Saalim. It is the third plural type called Jama’ Taksiir which can drive you
into despair since it is to be learnt by heart. For instance, „city‟ in Arabic is madiinah,
plural form : mudun; a well in Arabic is bi’run, plural form : aabaar; mosque is masjid,
plural form : masaajid; book is kitaab, plural form : kutub; night is lail, plural form :
layaali; lesson is dars, plural form: duruus. These are only examples which can
sometimes be a great obstacle to many beginners.
Thirdly, similar to English, Arabic is a language that has Tenses, only to the dismay of
beginners, forming verbs can be a quite complicated affair. As a comparison, English has
three different tenses i.e past, present and future tense, but the inflections that happen in
English is not that numerous like Arabic does. In contrast, Arabic also has three different
tenses i.e past, present and another form of verb called the imperative tense. A beginner‟s
heart will sink the moment he or she discovers that Arabic verbs (of each tense) can be
conjugated into fourteen different forms! As an illustration the verb „to write‟ is „kataba‟.
It can be conjugated into these forms e.g kataba, katabuu, katabta, katabti, katabtuma,
katabtunna, katabtu and so on. Each word means „to write‟ but is used for a specific
number of people, as well as denoting the relevant tenses in its proper usage. Therefore, it
is no wonder that those who learn Arabic especially in the early stage are really „tense‟ in
comprehending all these.

Well, I believe at this juncture many of you who would like to learn Arabic would have
thought twice before doing so owing to the above illustrations. Believe me, it is not my
slightest intention here to discourage people learning this beautiful language. Just think of
the advantages that people gain if they learn Arabic. For muslims, learning Arabic will
make them understand their religion better, since the Holy Al-Quran was revealed in
Arabic, the recitations in the prayers are all in Arabic, and great works of Muslim
scholars in its golden era have been written in Arabic. Learning it would open to its
learners unlimited access to the corpus of knowledge stored in this great language. It is
also an official language of the United Nations, African Union and the Arab League, as
well as a language spoken by nearly 300 million people, spanning from the shores of
Atlantic to the waters of the Indian Ocean (in other words, from Morocco to Oman which
means roughly 6500 kilometres as the crow flies).

There are three basic pillars in learning languages, whatever language, be they Arabic,
Japanese, Hindi, Russian et cetera. The first pillar is interest in that particular language
that one learns. Secondly, the learner should listen carefully on how the native speakers
pronounce the words in that language. Imitating your teacher‟s pronunciation is a very
essential tool in learning languages. Thirdly, another important pillar in language learning
is that the learner needs to practise using the language he learns in his daily conversation.
Sadly, in Malaysia we have many students of former religious schools that had basis of
Arabic, but due to lack of usage one will find them hardly can speak Arabic once they left
school. Well, I am grateful that I happen not to be in the abovementioned category since I
keep learning it in my university days. Indeed, learning a new language is something that
is to be enjoyed.

You guys might still wonder how did I overcome those difficulties mentioned above?
Well, my mother enrolled me for extra Arabic class which I went once a week, and
thanks to Ustaz Daud, who happened to be a former teacher of SMA Saniah Pasir Puteh,
Kelantan, my Arabic grades greatly improved after that.

These ramblings are dedicated to all my former teachers of Arabic- “Jazaakumullaahu

khair al-jazaa” – May Allah reward all of you with His best rewards!
By Ustaz Nizamuddin Alias,

Ijazah Sarjana Undang-undang - Universiti Malaya(2005)

Ijazah Sarjana Muda Undang-undang (Shariah) Universiti Islam Antarabangsa
Malaysia(2001)
Ijazah Sarjana Muda Undang-Undang ( - ) Universiti Islam Antarabangsa
Malaysia(2000)

Lecturer,
Fakulti Sains Sosial & Kemanusiaan - Jabatan Pengajian Malaysia
Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI)