Everyone Sucks at Arabic

I met with another woman who's going to Syria in the fall on a Fulbright. She covers the U.N. for al-Jazeera. Her Arabic is thus a trillion times better than mine, but she's going to Syria for straight language training. She wants to be able to do live reporting.

She didn't start Arabic until after college. Morocco, Middlebury, IFEAD in Damascus (I didn't get in), and School of Oriental and Asian Studies in London later and she's working for al-Jazeera. "Oh, I work in it but I'm not very good at Arabic."

Right.

It seems everyone who studies Arabic protests how crappy they are. In my case it is warranted, particularly with formal Arabic. I can shoot the shit in Arabic, I traveled using Arabic almost exclusively last time I was in Syria, but give me a page or two and read and I think "Shit that's long... I wonder if Ruby's new video is up on youtube." Start talking to me about subjects off my general repitoire and I will smile and nod, uncomprehending. So my own evaluation that my Arabic is shitty is quite apt.

Will I ever be fluent in Arabic? Two years in and it doesn't look promising. Of course, after a year in Syria going to school and living with a family I might feel differently. I miss French. I want to learn Spanish.