Research Indicates That Arabic Is Harder to Learn Than Hebrew

Thinking of learning Arabic on a whim? Think again:

Haifa University’s Professor Zohar Eviatar and neuropsychologist Dr. Rafik Ibrahim of Rambam Medical Center have shown that the complexities of the Arabic language impede the right brain from taking part in learning to read it. This is largely because of the graphic complexities of the language, in which very similar shapes stand for different letters, while the same letter is depicted in a variety of ways depending on whether it is in the beginning, middle, or end of a word.

...Asked why Hebrew-speakers do not have the same difficulty, Eviatar told Israel National News, “It’s true that many Hebrew letters are built around similar square shapes. However, only five Hebrew letters change their shape depending on whether they end a word or not, while many Arabic letters do so, and even take on different shapes in other parts of the word.”

While this difference may not matter to you and me, it may matter to more and more students in Israel since Arabic to become compulsory in Israeli schools:

The Israeli authorities are introducing a new scheme to make Arabic-language classes compulsory in state schools.

The programme, which will start in 170 schools in northern Israel, will make lessons mandatory for fifth graders.

Education officials hope the scheme, called "Ya Salam", will turn language into a cultural bridge and promote tolerance between Jews and Arabs.

Arab students currently are required to learn Hebrew while Jewish children can take Arabic as an additional language.

But increasing demand from students to study Arabic as part of their school matriculation certificate, the Bagrut, had prompted changes to the national curriculum, officials said.

"We live in a country that has two official languages," Shlomo Alon, head of Arabic and Islamic Education at the ministry of education, was quoted as saying by Haaretz newspaper.

"Studying Arabic will promote tolerance and convey a message of acceptance."

I imagine that learning Arabic will be a lot easier for them than for someone whose mother tongue is English. Also, according to the study, the main problem is the written Arabic--as opposed to speaking it.

Of course, being fluent in Arabic won't help if the students don't make a point of finding Arabs to talk to.

Check out Solomonia, who has a post entitled She's Impressed With Israel. He writes about an unusually favorable post about Israel that a Arab girl wrote on Nizo's Blog. In the comments, Nizo writes:

...I have a friend from the UAE at Harvard, and once when visiting Boston, I had dinner with a group of Gulf Arabs who spoke perfect Hebrew and who were being groomed to become the next ambassadors to Israel when peace and recognition were to ever come.

Who knows, language may help to form bridges to understanding after all, though it will depend a lot on what is actually being said in those languages.

See also: Video: Whatever Else, Hebrew IS Easier Than Klingon

Technorati Tag: Arabic and Hebrew.