Forgotten Arabs, Arabic Language and their Stakes and Lands

    I recently spent the greater part of a year in the Middle-East, in an Arabic speaking nation. I have been trying to speak Arabic, give or take, since 1992. It has been a while of attempting and interacting for me. Thirty-one years? Not much in the scheme of things, but the majority of my life. I got back from there, very close to the Persian or Arabic Gulf, last year. More recently I re-took the Arabic listening and reading test, a standard affair that some people ace. I usually do not. I failed again a little over a week ago; this costs me some money not earned that I could be doing. My motivation and pride stung once again. I hear things, possibly for the 10th time in my life, that I guess I am not understanding. A friend of mine speaks native Arabic because his mother is Tunisian, and I struggle to understand him. Perhaps some of it is its own dialect. But a lot of the blame is on me. Not doing enough.  No. La. La means no in arabiya. 

    I am not as bad as the rest of the world, though.  

    And I continue to try. Sort of. I do not try hard enough, really. I admit this.

    Most of the people with me in the Middle-East did not bother to learn any more Arabic. They are Americans, and have no use for that tongue. English only.

    Yep, that is enough for most Americans. Even for those of us living in other lands. Why learn their languages and customs, cultural nuances and unique views on the world?

    The worst of the Arabic-based terrorist groups have been pummeled and while not quite rooted out, the highest value targets have been neutralized, to the West's satisfaction. On to Africa, where much of it is not as Arab. But still much of it is.