The Beginning of the End

My apologies for not posting for nearly a month (blimey that’s gone quick), it has been a very busy past couple of weeks. Since my last post I have really got stuck into studying here, immersing myself in my various subjects and realising just how hard accounting exams can be. I also visited Manchester for a week, as this was the flight that I had already paid for before I found the ridiculously cheap Ryanair one to East Midlands, whilst there I caught up with some very good friends of mine, and got the ball properly rolling on mine and Annabel’s property search, learning a few hard lessons along the way. A couple of days after returning to Almería, on the 18th May my friend Leigh arrived for a long weekend of general Almería hijinks. I spent the four days that he was here for showing him the various sights, meeting some of my friends from Uni whilst I cooked us a BBQ, and of course we went to several restaurants. Overall I like to think he had a good time (and apparently I’m a great tour guide).

My post isn’t so dramatic just to attract more readers to the blog, today has genuinely represented the beginning of the end of my time in Almería. My one to one Arabic classes finished today, gone will be all of the confusing chats where I don’t even realise whether or not I’m speaking Spanish or Arabic, and gone will be the familiar feeling of shame when I can’t remember a simple Arabic word because Spanish has invaded my mind. It is such a shame that my Arabic classes finish so early, this teacher was tough. And when I say tough, I mean really tough, the walls of her office were adorned with certificates stating just how awesome she was, she even had a certificate from Cambridge stating that she was one of the “great minds of the 20th century,” pretty good eh?

She informed me that due to the amount of work I’ve done for my Arabic IV module (the highest level there is at Almería) I will receive a final grade of 7 out of 10, more than enough to satisfy my ERASMUS requirements. She informed me that the exam is there optional, however if I do choose to do it, I could go all the way up to 10.

Why not eh? I decided to say that I’m happy to go for the exam on the 6th of June, I want to try and 100% something!

So my first exam will be in two weeks, after that I’ll only have three more weeks to go, it’s all rather terrifying really, the past god knows how many weeks have gone so quickly, I’m scared that I’ll wake up tomorrow and this adventure will be over.

I still have so much to do! Including:

– Having my mate Kinks here to visit
– Having my parents visit
– Going to Granada
– I would love to go to Cordoba, though it’s preeeeetty far away
– I still need to do my epic bike ride up into the distant mountains
– There are so many more restaurants that I want to go to, and so little time
– In a similar vein, my housemate has yet to teach me some very authentic Spanish recipes

With that in mind, I will be actively setting out to do these things.

Is there anything you think I should do in my time left, are there any particular things that you want me to write about? No matter how obscure the subject, tell me in the comments box below!

EPIC MEAT TIME

And nobody out of the nineish people got food poisoning, happy times…

An Academic Week in Review

And so concludes my first academic week (of which there will be many) at the University of Almería. After my brief period of constant floundering at the start of the week things soon picked up and I can quite comfortably say that I’m going to enjoy my time studying here.

My only problem thus far is that some of my classes start very early (8:00 in the morning). This means that I have so far missed at least two classes unfortunately. One of the classes that I had missed was Spanish language, I missed it because I had only returned from a not out three hours before my class was meant to start. In my defence, on said night out I had spoken Spanish for roughly six hours straight, so I had technically done thrice the amount of Spanish whilst having a great time, than if I had cycled in the dark to my early morning lecture.

Which would you pick, hmm?

My final class of the week was perhaps the most confusing. As I study both Spanish and Arabic at Manchester, I decided to sign up for the Arabic IV module, the most advanced level offered from the University. As I pushed open the door to my class, for which I was late due to a last minute building change, I was immediately struck by the distinct lack of other students in my class. Yes, it would seem that because nobody else studies Arabic at such a level within this entire university I now pretty much have a personal tutor for the whole semester.

And so ensued an awkward forty minutes of me speaking both Arabic and Spanish in the same conversation, something which I am really going to have to get used to. The teacher explained to me that the course can pretty much be tailored to whatever I want, that if I want to do more translation, less grammar, study Arabic songs then I need only ask. It seems to me that these classes will be very beneficial to my studies of the Arabic language – I am quite relieved that I am not going to forget all that I learnt in Jordan.

Overall this University seems to be quite a decent place, the people are friendly, the buildings well maintained, the lecturers engaging and the class sizes small. As time goes by I shall describe my classes in further detail, provided below are some pictures of the campus, and one of the cafe which serves delicious toasted Spanish baguettes and very strong coffee (the best kind!)

I have yet to go in the library, but will do so soon 😉

Do you have any questions? Is there a particular article you would like me to write? Feel free to contact me with any queries you may have!

A picture of part of the University campus

A second picture of part of the campus, it’s so sunny today!

The interior of one of the buildings, it contains about twenty seminar rooms, and it’s where I have several classes!

The University café, they sell amazing little toasted baguettes, strong coffees, and small beers here, it’s one of my favourite places to chill out in-between classes

A map of the campus, this should give you all a rough idea of just how big it is

There’s plenty of information available about the several events that the University and students organise

And finally, my lovely bike!

Some Solid Signs of Progress

Originally posted on 30th November, 2012

Five minutes ago I had a very strange moment, and am still slightly reeling from the shock of this weird realisation.

As I was flicking channels on the TV, desperately trying to find the Big Bang theory in English somewhere I accidentally came across a Jordanian news channel. I would have swiftly moved on, having accidentally put on the wrong channel yet again were it not for what happened next.

As I sat there, looking at the television I suddenly realised that I could understand what the two people were talking about, in Arabic. As I am only here for two and a half weeks more (where has the time gone) I have well and truly been working my socks off to ensure that I make the most of the Arabic portion of my year abroad; I have been doing extra homework, pushing myself harder than ever in classes, and taken a much more mature approach to studying in general.

Finally I am seeing the fruits of my labour, I find it easy to strike up a conversation with any teacher at the language academy on almost any topic (our speaking exam next week is a graded debate about fortune telling) and now finally I am starting to understand Arabic media, one of my most difficult personal goals for my Arabic learning has nearly been achieved.

It really is lovely, looking back over the past 12(ish) weeks I can really see just how much my Arabic has improved, it hasn’t been easy but by god it has definitely been worth it!

The television (revision?) will continue to stay on for as long as I can tolerate this crazy language, it is entertaining in a completely unique way!

James

The Jordan Language Academy

Originally posted on14th November, 2012

For the past nine weeks, this has been where I study, at the Jordan Language Academy, located in the 7th circle, Amman.

The website states that the JLA offers “immersive Arabic language training programmes” and this statement is, for the most part, true. Since starting at JLA I feel that my Arabic has improved ten-fold. Compared to our other education option for Jordan (the University), the language academy was touted as offering much better one to one contact with native arabic speakers.

The classes are split into four types of arabic language classes, each class is two hours long:

Bookwork

This lesson focuses mainly on reading comprehension and grammar, with a little speaking practice to boot. It is our most frequent lesson, once a day, four days a week.

Modern Standard Arabic Speaking

Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is the standard style of Arabic taught all around the world. In this lesson, we are provided with a list of questions for answering, debate and discussion. Thus far, the challenging topics have ranged from what our future plans are (I have no idea what I’ll be doing tomorrow, let alone in five years), our opinions on the idea of a worldwide smoking ban, and our hobbies. These lessons really raise some interesting issues amongst students and the teachers alike.

Local Dialect (Aamiyah)

Similar to the MSA classes, this class teaches us about the local dialect of Jordan – the sort of words that you would most commonly hear used in the street. This class has been extremely useful in providing us with a good knowledge of what to say to taxi drivers, market stall owners and other various people that one encounters in day to day life.

Media

One of the most difficult classes, media focuses on (as you may have guessed) media! We read newspaper articles and critically analyse satirical comic strips, all in Arabic.

Overall impressions

Nine weeks in with only a handful of weeks to go, I believe that the Jordan Language Academy has provided an extremely high quality service. I was placed in a group specific to my language ability (advanced), we had to sign a pledge indicating that we would pay 10p every time we were caught speaking English instead of Arabic and there are several lists, as pictured, that aid us if we forget any words.

Overall, I have really seen a huge difference in my Arabic language ability thanks to this outstanding institution!

The pictures mentioned within this article will be uploaded within the funky photos section of this blog

I’ll Know That I’m Good at Arabic When…

Originally posted on 5th November, 2012

I’ll know that I’m good at Arabic when…

I can understand the crazy taxi driver we had on the way to the language academy today. We spoke a little arabic smalltalk to him as we got in the taxi, just typical things like “hello, how are you” etc, then as usual all was silent for the next 10 minutes as we rapidly ran out of words to use.

Shortly later, a bus almost flattened a taxi at 50mph, prompting the taxi driver to say: “AGHRHGHEFJEABIFIIEHFEHFHHGHGHGHW”!!!

I have now decided that when I can decipher this ridiculous jumble of arabic words and curses, I can then say that my arabic has reached the level which I would like it to reach.

Until then, I’ll just have to do what I did today; smile and nod…