so, not too long ago, i broke down and decided to try an alternative treatment that i had been avoiding for a while.  well, it worked fantastically.  the reason?  lithium was leaving me in a fog all day and making it incredibly difficult to learn arabic.  as well as the lithium/verap combo was working for me, this was a problem i had a hard time getting around.  i would rather not say what i am taking on an open forum, but suffice it to say that it is working quite well! 

anyway, arabic is finally starting to make sense to me.  i was listening to a talk show in arabic recently and realized that i wasnt translating everything in my head, i heard it in arabic and knew exactly what they were saying, in arabic.   
that has led to a new found enthusiasm for the language.  i have been listening to arabic much more than i used to, and now i actually enjoy it.  i finally got past the stage where i was trudging along struggling with every sentence i heard, trying to translate it into english and missing every other word.  i cant put into words how exciting that is.  now, instead of not understanding the whole thing when i listen to a passage, the words that i dont know stand out, which i can usually get from context.  this completely opens up a new world to me.  im learning much faster than i was before, since new words actually have meaning.

in other news, i finally got around to setting up a breeding project for my native fish.  it seems that there is a big demand for north american native fish out here in california.  a lot of hobbiests want the fish i have, but there are no breeders anywhere in the area.  i walked into a local fish store and offered them a sampler bag of some of the fish i have bred and was offered 40 dollars on the spot.  thats a lot of money for fish that i couldnt have even given away back on the east coast.

so far so good, got my fingers crossed that things continue to go well

Quote:


On a good day, I'd find it difficult.  lol

May I ask what prompted you to want to learn this language?

Linda_Howell wrote on Feb 19^th, 2013 at 12:11pm:



i actually joined the army to learn arabic.  eventually i want to go to the middle east and do some conservation work.  instead of aproaching the topic as we do in the US, i intend to find ways to improve water quality that the locals will actually want to do.  i basically want to teach them practices that will enable them to profit in some way while at the same time helping to improve lotic and lentic water quality, which will improve overall health while possibly raising their standard of living.  in the US, such a project would be more hassle than it is worth, but in a third world country it could have a large impact.  its just the kind of ground roots projects that i excel at.

  so, with that goal in mind, i joined the army under a contract that would allow me to go through the special forces test, and if i passed, they would teach me arabic.  if i failed, i would end up as an infantryman.  well, i passed and then withdrew from the course to take care of my wife and never made it back.  when it was time to re-enlist, i picked the one job i knew would get me sent to the defense language institute.

right now, im training to be a cryptologic linguist.  learning arabic is actually a requirement for me.  if i fail they will kick me out of the army.  they used to allow NCOs who failed the course to just pick another job, but with the drawdown and budget cuts, they are kicking them out.

either way, i knew it would take me a long time to get to my dream job when i cooked up this plan 7 years ago.   i tried learning arabic on my own but it was just too much for my head to wrap around.  i figured the best way to do it is to put myself in a position where i have no choice.  it will probably be another 7 or so years before i get back to the middle east.  by then i should be speaking arabic quite well.

Thank you for the explanation AB  You've certainly chosen a commendable path.