I have for some time harboured an ambition to acquire just a little Arabic to expand my horizons and understand the most basic.
Recently, I had an opportunity to visit places where Arabic can be experienced, while it was still possible to get by in English, so I was not completely lost.
And despite the fact that my efforts have been extremely limited and I have infinitely much to learn yet, I was pleased to see that where I previously heard a totally incomprehensible flow of mumbo-jumbo, I was now able to pick out small pieces like 'كيف حالك' or 'صباح الخير' and understand them (in the middle of a word stream which I still admit is mumbo-jumbo to me) - when I stand in front of 'بلوميتغديلز' I can spell my way through it and understand the company name before I doublecheck the English logo - and when flight 'واحد خمسة واحد' is announced, I can hear that it's my plane before the announcement comes in English.
That is not much. But it is important to note that a little progress is also progress.
(Translated from Små fremskridt er også fremskridt, originally published May 14th, 2017)