5 week challenge

In a Finnish-Lebanese marriage neither side has it easy when it comes to learning the mother tongue of the other. In the first 6 months of our relationship I was keen on learning Arabic, and impressed my future mother-in-law with my Arabic when I talked with her for the first time on the phone: "marhaba ... kifik ... mniha kamen ... mapsuta ktir" (hi ... how are you ... I'm good too ... I'm very happy). That was 6 years ago. My phone conversations with her still repeats the same four lines.

In addition to those lines I have quite good food-related vocabulary, complimented with "delicious", "can I have some ____ please" and "that's enough, thank you". Also, obviously speaking Arabic is easier when you are face to face at the dinner table, because you can always gesture the rest of your words. And nod a lot.

I've been to Lebanon once, 3 years ago. It was a wonderful trip; the country was surpsingly lush, food was amazing, people were warm and welcoming. Traffic was the only part I didn't like: every one makes their own rules regarding which way one can drive on the one-way roads, how many cars can drive next to each other in multilane roads, which traffic lights to obey and so on. Just close your eyes and hope you're still alive when you arrive to the destination.

I learnt more Arabic during the trip, and was able to follow some conversations by picking up words here and there and guessing the rest. When we returned to Canada I hoped to continue learning Arabic, but unfortunately hoping isn't enough, since one should also dedicate some time for it. I didn't. I have a good variety of excuses why not. "It's so difficult .. in order to learn I have to see the words, but I can't understand Arabic alphabet .. I want to learn Lebanese dialect and there's no books on it .." list goes on. When 2012 switched to 2013, I decided that this year it is, I'm finally going to take Arabic seriously. I got a program called Pimsleur, which promises that by spending 20-30 minutes a day you will be fluent (enough) in no time.

All excited I started, repeating words after the cd like a parrot. Lot of the stuff was familiar to me and it was all easy. In 10 days I was in lesson 7 and ... then I stopped. Not sure why; it got too difficult? I was too busy with other stuff? Another great excuse.

That was two months ago, and the guilt of not even trying to learn has been brewing ever since. But last night my husband presented me with a 5 week challenge and a great prize: 5 weeks to cover the rest of the Pimsleur lessons, because then we'll be in Lebanon! Great challenges and tight deadlines, that's what the perfectionist in me loves! Kamil!