Welcome.

안녕하세요!
مرحبا عليكم!

I study languages.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Bitter & sweet.


This is baklava as it comes in the Arab world. To the left, you can see the edge of my favorite Arab dessert--kanafe (كنافة)!
(Image courtesy of Google ImageSearch)

One of the reasons I like Arabic is because it's essentially tough love. I'm so used to being put up on some shining pedestal by science professors that it's masochistically satisfying to spend one hour every day receiving criticism. The cracks these classes make in my ego cause me pain, but result in renewal, like I've finally discovered a way to let in some fresh air. And from a logical standpoint, a totally critical approach to language makes sense. If you never know when you're wrong, how are you supposed to improve? Despite my chronically perfect quiz scores, I'm wrong enough times in Arabic to even out my perfect scores in physics, math, and biology combined. Usually, my homework comes back scribbled all over in red pen, repaying me for all those times I've scribbled all over others' work in the same shade.

But today I got a compliment.

On my creative writing assignment, in which I described an alibi for why I could not have stolen the missing baklava (obviously an extremely thought-provoking and insightful piece), Dr. Bradford wrote "Very nice job! You've got great potential." He stopped me after class and told me the same thing--essentially, that my writing shows understanding and has the potential to develop into something great. I was thrilled. By default, I'm better at writing than speaking, regardless of language, and it makes me happy to see that ability carry over to my broken, elementary-school Arabic. Thank you, استاذ دوج. It's a relief to know that someone who knows their stuff has the confidence that with some work, mine might turn out all right.

2 comments:

Becca Ricks said...

I felt the exact same way. I felt as if everything I did was wrong, I struggled to understand what Ustaaz Doug asked me in class, and my homework was full of errors. But one time after I went to retake a quiz in his office he told me that I was consistently one of the strongest writers in the class and had so much potential for success.

I changed my major to MESA within the hour.

Jessica Elysse said...

He's great, isn't he? :-)