Sabaah al-khayr (good morning)
Posted by tomfromthepost on December 6, 2007
Well another day, another day of news. Yesterday I was covering the latest Birmingham City financial results and talking to parents outside William Cowper primary school in Aston, where all the English SAT results were annulled over claims the school were fiddling the results. (unfortunately no link to the extensive Birmingham Post coverage yet, see todays paper).
On a lighter note, it’s a Thursday, and I’ve got the evening free, which means I can finally get back to my Arabic classes at the Brasshouse which I’ve had to miss for the last couple of weeks. I’m going to have to do a lot of swotting up today to catch up, and I can tell you, Arabic is not a kind language if you’ve got a sore throat like I have at the moment.
But I’m really pleased, because it’s something I really like doing. Haven’t got the language skills to express quite why it’s so wonderful, but learning a new language (especially one as radically different to English as Arabic) really is an insight into the different ways people think, I think.
Languages, like music lessons and homework, are one of the things people wish they’d done more of when they were kids, as it’s only later that the benefits become obvious. Oh well, youth really is wasted on the young.
Ma’asalaam (byeeee)
