Learning Arabic

I think I’m done with Duolingo. For now. I shortly played with the app in 2012 to start learning Spanish for the third time.

During the COVID pseudo lockdown, I decided to try to learn Arabic. Why? Because I have 2 nieces who speak it with their dad, but mostly because I wanted to see how it is to learn a different alphabet. And also because by then Arabic was added to Duolingo.

So for the last 5-ish years, I have been practicing for 5–10 minutes per day. Duolingo with its streak system is gamified in a way that makes you practice daily, which is good I guess.

I decided to quit using the app when I would reach the 1000 days streak. The two main reasons were that, first, their marketing/branding and promotion of their paid tiers recently got so weird and pushy, and second, the app is actually pretty bad to learn Arabic. The lessons do not explain anything about grammar or spelling rules. Nothing. All you’re given are examples upon examples. Over time I could guess some of the rules the Arabic language was built on, while some other details still baffle me.

To help me learn the numbers, I started using a custom face on my Apple Watch and lock screen on my iPhone. I am a bit annoyed that the iPhone does not use the more stylish font the watch is using. Come on, Apple!

Last year, or maybe even the year before, I bought a book that explains the grammar. I will try to pick that up now.