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Published: September 14th 2009
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Fruit SukThe first two days of classes are in the books now and I certainly have a much better feel for the lay of the land in the Downtown and Jabal Amman areas of the city. The days are broken down into three hours of MSA or standard Arabic and one hour of colloquial Arabic. While they are definite similarities it is almost like learning two different languages at the same time. I think in retrospect I would have opted to pass on the colloquial for now until I had a stronger grasp on the language. That being said I have learned some useful phrases and have fine tuned my ear to some of the things you hear on the streets, in taxis, and while out ordering food and things like that. Both of my teachers are excellent and if you are looking for one on one Arabic instruction versus studying in one of the organized larger programs The Ali Baba Center is an interesting option. It is probably better suited for month long immersion programs since you don't have the interaction with lots of other students.
Yesterday was one of those days that was typical Jordan from many of the
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View of the Roman Theatre things I had heard before coming over here. As an American I think we are trained(unfortunately so) to think that someone is trying to scam us so it is hard to be open and trust complete strangers in a foreign country. I think I already have 4-5 invitations to go hang out and see the area with locals. So after class I wanted to wander back down to the downtown area which is the heart of what most first time visitors would expect to see in a large Middle Eastern city. After getting twisted around a bit I finally made it to the Roman Theatre, but turns out that it closed at 4:00 PM. You get a lot of offers for help and as I was walking around one of the guides walks up to me and s
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