I had taken a language class for my degree, Spanish, and I'm trying to keep up somewhat but have been focused on other things unfortunately. I try to read Spanish articles that get posted here, or lurk online in Spanish spaces, or listen to Spanish political videos.

The internationalist socialist forum that was held in Mexico recently is something I've been watching on an off, and trying to better my comprehension, as listening and understanding are harder for me than reading.

I'm honestly terrible at learning languages, as I get distracted too easily and forget vocabulary often. Though, in the future I plan to become fluent in Arabic and Farsi, and maybe Mandarin if it's relevant to work.

I can already read and write Arabic, but I wasn't given a formal education in it, and was taught by reading and memorizing Surahs in the Quran, as well as just being around Arab relatives. I speak Farsi the most naturally of the languages I have some understanding of, but I'm more adept at Spanish due to formal education. Since my mother often asks things of me in Farsi, and speaks to her family in Farsi (also since I've been in Iran for extended periods of time), I'm able to infer things about Farsi a lot easier then Arabic.

Although I can't actually read Farsi much funny enough, even though I can read Arabic (sorta). Because I was taught Arabic through the Quran, I only know how to read very formal Arabic with Tashkeel (I might be confusing the name) which indicate how exactly to say a word, something that Farsi doesn't have.

To give an example of what I mean, let's say you have the letter:

ب

Well, depending on the Tashkeel, that letter can make a variety of sounds:

• With a "fatha" بَ is read "beh", or "bah" if followed by ا
• With a "kasrah" بِ is read "bih", or "bee" if followed by ي
• With a "dummah" بُ is read "boh", or "boo" if followed by و

There's also "sukoon" بْ and "shaddah" بّ which connects it to the previous letter, either by ending it on the sound "b" sound for the former, or continuing with another tashkeel for the latter: بَّ، بِّ، بُّ

So you could get something like: "بِبُّ" which would read something like "bih'boh" where the end of the first sound connects with the second.

There's even more with things called "Tanwin" بً،بٍ،بٌ which have the same rules as their singular counter parts, but the sound ends with "n" so it's like: "ben", "bin", "bun".

Basically, this is a long winded way of saying, none of this us used in Farsi writing, (or even in coloquial Arabic, I'm just educated in an extremely formal script that is the Quran). So, whenever I try to read something in Farsi or Arabic without tashkeel, I just stand their gawking like an idiot because I get blindsided by every potential possible sound.

I should also mention I'm not at all trained in Arabic grammer, which is an entirely different notorious can of worms.

I'll probably become fluent eventually, when I have the means to do so, but until then, I'm a largely monolingual fool.