Article: Why learning Arabic is so hard

Here’s a great article from Slate called “I’m Trying To Learn Arabic.  Why’s it taking so long?” by Robert Lane Greene.

Summary of the article:

1. Arabic script is complicated and hard to learn

2. There are a number of sounds that are hard to pronounce for English speakers

3. The vocabulary is hard to learn because it doesn’t resemble English in any way

4. “Ferociously unfamiliar grammar”

5. The need to learn many religious and cultural expressions

6.  The fact that written Arabic is different than the spoken dialects

What do you think? Is Arabic hard to learn?