The Benefits of Learning Arabic as a Third Language

posted on: Oct 13, 2020

By: Emily Tain/Arab America Contributing Writer                      As someone who enjoys learning languages, it has become increasingly apparent that the process gets easier as time goes on. Even if the languages are in completely different families, the process of vocabulary retention, conjugation, and memorizing declensions goes smoother the more times you’ve done it. While the second language might be a more arduous process, the third language is a breeze. It is for this reason that Arabic is a great third language to pick up.  

Learning English Again

Learning a second language teaches you more English than you would think. While students in the American school system take English classes every year, few know proper grammatical terminology. This is to be expected; when you grow up speaking a certain language, you have an inherent knowledge of how the language works that isn’t necessarily refined. Learning a new language forces you to tackle concepts you previously did not pay attention to because it came naturally.

This stronger grasp of English makes it easier to understand the grammatical system of other languages. For example, once you can distinguish between the simple past and the pluperfect tense in English, the terminology becomes second nature and easier to apply to another language. By tackling this hurdle during the acquisition of a second language, the third language is that much easier to pick up. This is especially important in Arabic, as the systems sometimes have different names and functions than the English ones.

Immersion and Fluency

Having learned a second language, you can understand the importance and benefits of immersion. Conversation with your classmates and teachers can be helpful, but little matches the experience of speaking with locals or native speakers. Immersion can be especially helpful for students learning Arabic, as the written and spoken forms are different. This, in conjunction with the constant evolution of the spoken language, makes immersion almost imperative for someone that wants to become fluent. In today’s world of necessary social distancing, getting this experience can seem difficult. However, even just making friends with native Arabic speakers on social media or watching Arabic films and shows can help refine your language skills.

Identifying Patterns

By the time you reach a third language, patterns become more and more obvious. This is especially important for native English speakers, as our verb conjugation is quite unique. Rather than having a distinct conjugation for every person and number (i.e. first, second, and third person; singular, dual*, and plural), the verb tends to be the same for every person and number except the third person singular. However, this is not the case with most other commonly-learned languages. Therefore, a second language’s verb system can seem much more intimidating than it needs to be. Once you get into the habit of individual conjugation, it becomes second nature when applied to a third language.

You can also apply this to case endings. English has lost most indicators of case (i.e. subject or direct object) that other languages have retained. Cases can be seen in modern Russian and German as well as Classical Greek and Latin. This is because English has a very heavy emphasis on word order, while languages like Latin allow writers to put the words in any order and add case endings. Though mostly used in very formal and academic contexts, Arabic does have a case ending system. After dealing with the cases in your second language, applying the concept to your third language is easy. The classic saying applies to almost all patterns found in languages: practice makes perfect.

*Not all languages have or use the dual, which you can read about here.

New Alphabets

With Arabic specifically, it might be easier to tackle the challenge of a different alphabet after you’ve mastered a language in the Latin alphabet. Coupling new vocabulary and language patterns with a completely new alphabet can be overwhelming and intimidating. If you begin your Arabic-learning journey already having the discipline required for Latin-alphabet languages, your main focus can be on mastering a new alphabet. This relieves some of the stress related to learning a language so different from English.

While everyone learns differently, some tricks apply across the board. Despite my primary focus in classical languages, I am still able to use the skills I retained from Spanish, Latin, and Greek and apply them to Arabic. If you find yourself wanting to learn the beautiful language, know that the tools gained from learning other languages can be used in your studies, no matter how different the languages may seem.

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