My taxi cab arabic was limiting my Cairo experience. There's only so much you can really do when your vocabulary is restricted to: "take the next left" "turn right" and "here is fine"... So I've finally started my Arabic lessons. My tutor, the lovely Hala, comes to our place three days a week at (are you ready for this?) between 7.30 and 7.45 AM.
Haram anna, as they say: Poor me.
It's pretty safe to say that mornings are not my best time. I start functioning around 11.00am, after I've had a coffee and a carb. So what was I thinking, booking my tutorials so early in the day? Far from being my first choice, my tutor was only available at two times: crack o' dawn or after 6.00pm. Rather than cut into my evening socialising, I decided to bite the bullet and give the early morning lessons a shot.
To my absolute SHOCK -- it's the best thing I ever did for myself. I am learning the language much faster than I ever thought I would and (eureka) getting up so early means I have a head start on the day and remarkable clarity and energy that I was missing out on when I woke up late. (I can just see my mom laughing her head off when/ if she reads this...)
I am loving my lessons and have turned into a bit of a keener (another suprise, since I never was much of a student) I think a large part of that is that she understands my lifestyle and tailors our lessons accordingly.
Example? I have recently learned arabic for: "Waiter, can we have another bottle of water please?" to "Do you have black eyeliner?" to "Thank you, I've had enough coffee and would like the bill."
Ahhh, I can feel myself settling into life here. Al a tool, lao samhaat, al atool.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
ahh - that's so early! i'm so proud of you! btw, aamir's montessori teacher said that early morning is the best time to learn!
I KNOW -- can you believe it?! And I havent cancelled once (okay, it's only been two weeks, but STILL) Thanks for the encouragement!
Post a Comment