Whose idea was it to.....?

[xcalibur]

RANT

Ive been studying the Arabic language for more than a year now and I've come to part i hate the most of all language studies...



..
Literature... ugh

Ive studies quite a few languages in my life and all of them require you to study that languages literature..
WHY?
I understand and can relate to the "beauty" of poems, proses, sonnets and fiction but i don't get why it has to mandatory to study literature whenever you get to an advanced level?
How is doing a book report on McBath (

) going to improve my English?
Why is reading a poem from a dead poet who thought himself a prophet vitally important to understanding Arabic?
What good is going to come from understanding the position of each word grammatically if it isn't going affect the way is read or said (which is the case in most languages)?

The reason I've done a thread about this now is because of how much Arabic is irritating me right now.
Don't get me wrong, Arabic is a beautiful language and its a wonder how much reading the quran can amaze time and time again just by the structure of the verses. How the way the words are positioned or pronounced can completely change the meaning of a sentence.
How sentences don't make sense unless you know the language.

And this is coming from someone who isn't easily impressed..

Grammatically, Arabic comes second to no language...
Its the literature and "Balaakha" which are pissing me off.

I always looked at poems and such other written art forms as a free medium in which to express yourself in any way you wish.
Arabic is completely different, in more ways imaginable.
For one thing, it tries to put rules on the way you describe things...
then it goes on to a whole other curve unexplainable in english and it wont make sense no matter how good you study the language.

I saluted the sea, and it saluted me back...

WHAT THE HELL?

you know what that means?
i said hi to the (not stingy?) man and he gave me money

WHAT?

this is only the beginning. The more yo study it, the more it turns into a nightmare you cant seem to escape..
Heres another one

Alex is in his home
the lion is in his cave

apparently this means that alex is as brave as a lion...

these previous 2 lines have rules to back them up and they are actively used in arabic poetry
Theres a whole lot more but i just couldnt put them to english no matter how i tried without it resulting in a sentence less readible than a n00bs first post after lurking in forums with REALLY bad writing.
Im only a third through the literature but its steadily getting worse...
These poets were highly respected in their times and were almost like frikking rock stars..
men would have these poets sleep with their wives so they could have a kid who will turn out a poet.
they were so high of themselves too...
You might think "big deal" or "whatever" but i really think its retarded how in every part of the language they try to lay it down with rules..
Its just not right...


/RANT

no need to reply, just needed to get this off my chest

 

[Maktub]

Seriously, I'm no expert in literature (of any kind) but I do study and enjoy it... and those "impure metaphores" you wrote are quite easy to get.
I can undertsand you don't want to study the lit., many people don't... why don't you study translation? At least here you can study just the language.

 

[Law]

I hate literature, actually, I hate English lessons all together (I'm English, I already speak English, I have no interest in poetry, why do I have to do this crap?).

Probably why I'm failing them with D's.

Actually, I'm failing all my language classes with D's, go figure.

 

[Azimuth]

I speak Arabic and I agree it is a hard language, not because of the way its spoken(kh 3a) but the grammar is absolutely horrific.

-every letter has a number of inflections which completely change a words meaning.
-each verb has a dozen forms, look at the forms of the verb to write.
-many other seemingly arbitrary rules.

To complicate things even more, most people choose to learn the hardest type of Arabic(classical) because they wan't to be able to read the Quran, this is a huge mistake in my opinion. Take it slow, read some of the contemporary stuff then move on to the classics.

Btw could you provide the actual verses to the poems you mentioned?

edit: stupid english grammar

 

[xcalibur]

I speak Arabic and I agree it is a hard language, not because of the way its spoken(kh 3a) but the grammar is absolutely horrific.

-every letter has a number of inflections which completely change a words meaning.
-each verb has a dozen forms, look at the forms of the verb to write.
-many other seemingly arbitrary rules.

To complicate things even more, most people choose to learn the hardest type of Arabic(classical) because they wan't to be able to read the Quran, this is a huge mistake in my opinion. Take it slow, read some of the contemporary stuff then move on to the classics.

Btw could you provide the actual verses to the poems you mentioned?

edit: stupid english grammar

its not actual verses from poems, its from my instruction book. They're examples to certain chapters in "??? ??" which ive just started.
Im doing a level based study course and im in level 10 out of 13. I know most of the grammar rules and only have a few left to go. Its considerably less in these last few levels because the last few levels focus mainly on literature.
I am fairly competent in arabic and could read a newspaper fairly easy now and i actually practice reading without "?????" by reading subtitles of english movies i watch on tv.

 

[nexus7412369]

Why do people want you to talk a certain way? People have different ways of expressing themselves.

Like, when are you going to actually going to use poems and sonnets?
It's not like we re going to recite one when we talk. Life would be weird like that.

 

[DarkAura]

Language studies suck, I guess so do learning new languages. Until you start learning Japanese.

 

[Mars]

I speak Arabic and I agree it is a hard language, not because of the way its spoken(kh 3a) but the grammar is absolutely horrific.

-every letter has a number of inflections which completely change a words meaning.
-each verb has a dozen forms, look at the forms of the verb to write.
-many other seemingly arbitrary rules.

To complicate things even more, most people choose to learn the hardest type of Arabic(classical) because they wan't to be able to read the Quran, this is a huge mistake in my opinion. Take it slow, read some of the contemporary stuff then move on to the classics.

Btw could you provide the actual verses to the poems you mentioned?

edit: stupid english grammar

I agree with everything you said. I'm currently taking some Arabic language, it's a very hard language.

 

[Arkansaw]

xcalibur798, are you of Arabic descent? You sound like Arabic is not a distinct part of your culture despite what your location suggests

 

[kellyan95]

Kind of off topic: For Arabic poetry, I love Kahlil Gibran. Great stuff.

 

[xcalibur]

xcalibur798, are you of Arabic descent? You sound like Arabic is not a distinct part of your culture despite what your location suggests

for better or worse... no
i only moved to egypt last year with my family so we could do some islamic studies, memorise koran and learn arabic etc.
the thing is, my parents, although very religious, were very lax about my religious studies and i didnt get much done all my life
now (since im nearing 18) they want to give me the chance to learn all i need about my religion so i wont have to worry about it later in life.

that and a good grade from egypt (one of the best countries for education) would look really good

 

[Arkansaw]

ok, that sounds a bit like fast food mentality with regard to religion, and now you are paying the price for your parents' decision

Could you tell us a little more about your culture, like what other languages do you converse in apart from English?