Ever since language classes at school you have likely heard that learning a language is good for the brain. Learning a language, any language, keeps our minds active and strengthens the knowledge we have of our own mother tongue, as well as rendering us better able to make ourselves understood in an entirely new dialect. But while these basic points are true for all languages, as you might expect the relationship between the original language and the language to be learned has a significant effect on the cognitive outcomes.
Arabic from English
There are innumerate reasons why a native speaker might want to learn an Arabic dialect. It could open up travel in the Middle East and North Africa, allowing the exploration of Marrakech or Cairo, Beirut or Amman. Perhaps instead the motivation is to learn about one of the world’s great empires from original sources, or to sample Levantine poetry without translation? Maybe you have colleagues or friends and you want to be able to reach out to them and connect in the language they feel most comfortable? It isn’t these motivating factors that distinguish Arabic from other languages when the learner is an English-speaker, but rather that the effects on the brain after embarking on that journey are noticeably different.
Vocabulary
The first obstacle that has to be surmounted when learning Arabic from English is the new vocabulary that must be memorised in order for one to express themselves clearly. Languages rely on different vocabularies but as an English-speaker, learning other European languages puts you at an advantage as there are many similar words making translation much easier.
Part of the reason for this overlap with the European languages is that they often have similar root words to English. In Arabic, however, there is a system of root letters often identifiable in a particular verb, a profession associated with that verb, and the place that verb is done. Once a learner becomes familiar with that system you can challenge yourself to improve your ability to recognise patterns.
Auditory perception
Arabic uses a different range of sounds and intonations to English structuring a distinct alphabet. It has been argued that training the ear to perceive and give meaning to these new sounds improves our ability to listen, but also to quickly process aural information, increasing understanding in both languages.
Syntax and Grammar
Arabic and English belong to entirely separate sides of the language tree, with Arabic a Semitic language and English part of the Western Germanic family. There are, therefore, significant differences in their grammar and sentence structure. An English sentence requires a subject, then a verb, then an object or a complement. In Arabic, a sentence can be completed with no verb and even if a verb is used it could be placed before the subject and still make grammatical sense. As another example, adjectives in Arabic always follow the noun so the ‘large cat’ would instead be described as the ‘cat large’.
Having to become familiar with new structures for the construction of a coherent phrase is a strong test of the brain’s processing power.
Symbol recognition
Where English uses the Latin script for writing, Arabic uses the Arabic script meaning a learner must understand how to read a second set of letters from scratch. Studies have shown that Arabic is read most fluently when a person engages their Left brain due to the reliance on detail, but that when we learn new things we often employ both Left and Right hemispheres. This actively sabotages Arabic reading comprehension as the involvement of our Right brain lessens our ability to distinguish between the 15 different letter shapes used for 28 different letters.
Now, there’s a risk that you read all this and think of Arabic as an insurmountable challenge – it is after all a category 5 level for difficulty – but remember, with the greatest challenges come the greatest rewards!
