omigodomidgod!

[bellelass]

So my arabic prof here at school casually mentioned in class today that he has a belated TA coming in from Mosul, Iraq, and was wondering if any of us would be interested in devoting ourselves to learning Iraqi Colloquial and easing his way into Young American Society. The class would be a five hour class (standard for our arabic classes anyway) with no transript credit or real grades because the TA was all tied up in red tape that invariably ensnares Arab men trying to gain entrance to this country and so came too late for a legit class to be formed through the university.

That said, how awesome would it be to hang out with this guy who knows first hand what's up, :greenguy: and to pick up some dialect and culture, and to help him figure out what the hell is going on here...??!! Arabic dialects are almost like separate languages, its pretty neat, different stresses and words and entire grammatical structures..
I am the biggest nerd in the world when it comes to this stuff and the prospect of devoting myself to a class that I dont get credit for doesnt bother me in the slightest... Bah. what feeble tawdry things are credit and grades...

But anyway, I am really really really excited about this and was wondering what you all might think.. 5 hours of non credit class worth it, for the sake of learning it?? This is on top of my 6 hrs french, regular arabic class, and a mes class. I dropped goddamn american history.. most pointless thing for an american college student to have to take ever...

[simply_angelic]

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh HELL YEAH!!!!!!!! who says you hv to be rewarded through grades for your learning....i mean isnt that what school is for? to teach you about things that you want to learn about? If you do not go for it you'd be crazy.
& I hear ya when you talk about arabic being like an entire class of language unto itself. I know a guy who moved up there for a couple o years a while back & while he was there the guy that was trying to teach him arabic basically told him that if he forgot english it would be a helluva lot easier 4 him.....in fact he really pushed forgetting english. lol needless to say he didn't b/c I mean how do u forget a language? but he def learned a lot.....

[omisan]

I'd definitely do it. Knowing the colloquial form of any language always helps get you farther down the road than only knowing the textbook/lecture hall stuff.

[Somnambulation]

Sounds great. Is he a Kurd? I know Mosul is a Kurdish city anyway. Thr Kurds have a unique perspective on the events currently taking place in the middle east.

[bellelass]

Unfortunately, no. But still a really incredible person. I have several kurdish friends in class and whatnot, though.

Right now I have a like-minded study partner (read: insane...), another whitey, and we have solemnly decided to only speak in arabic to one another, an refer to our TA's with any questions about words we dont know.. So far we have a very interesting list.

God I'm a nerd.