Dubai Forums Dubai Expat Forums Arabic learning Forum

Well, erm... this might sound weird but I can read and pronounce Arabic but I can't understand it. ... is there anyway which I can actually try to make sense of words? I can speak Urdu, Pashto and obviously English which is the reason I can read arabic.

So you're saying the reason you can read arabic is because you know urdu and pashto? Those are two completley different languages...by themselves. Also, they contain letters that are not found in the arabic language and other letters are pronounced differently....


Anyhow...if you want to learn how to understand the language just listen to people and see how they react or what they do...it'll be the easiest thing to do.

bushra21 wrote:So you're saying the reason you can read arabic is because you know urdu and pashto? Those are two completley different languages...by themselves. Also, they contain letters that are not found in the arabic language and other letters are pronounced differently....


Anyhow...if you want to learn how to understand the language just listen to people and see how they react or what they do...it'll be the easiest thing to do.

No apart from that, i've taken a few arabic classes and generally read Arabic.

Thanks though.

Liyamu wrote:Well, erm... this might sound weird but I can read and pronounce Arabic but I can't understand it. ... is there anyway which I can actually try to make sense of words? I can speak Urdu, Pashto and obviously English which is the reason I can read arabic.

I know this is an old thread, but I just wanted to respond,...

It isn't uncommon that people can decode written language and not understand spoken language.

I can remember having a class with a mix of english speaking & esl students. I had one student read one section in the book. He was read flawlessly. I ask him a queston about what he'd read, and he gave me a blank look. I repeated the question, and he shrugged. The other students told me he doesn't know english. I laughed,... there is no way he doesn't know english he just read perfectly.

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