Learning the Arabic Alphabet

This week I decided to begin to familiarize myself with the Arabic alphabet. Learning a new alphabet is extremely hard. However, if I want to excel in college I should start now. I hope to graduate college with a minor in Arabic so that it will better equip me in the International Relations field.

First Impressions

The things I noticed starting off with the alphabet is that everything is read from right to left. This will make things even harder as I am already accustomed to reading left to right.

Also, when forming words, the letters all seem to blend together and it is hard to differentiate from each letter. I expect to get a handle of this when I become more proficient in it, but as of right now it seems kind of overwhelming.

The Alphabet

So the Arabic alphabet consists of 28 letters which is shown below. This chart, like the alphabet, is read from right to left. The top row is the character, the middle row is the name, and the bottom row is the English letter (or letters) that it represents.

ج	ث	ت	ب	أ	Arabic Character
/Jīm/	/Thā’/	/Tā’/	/Bā’/	/Alif/	Letter Name
j	th	t	b	a	Letter Sound
ر	ذ	د	خ	ح	Arabic Character
/Râ’/	/Dhāl/	/Dāl/	/Khâ’/	/ħā’/	Letter Name
r	dh	d	kh	h	Letter Sound
ض	ص	ش	س	ز	Arabic Character
/đâd/	/ŝâd/	/Shīn/	/Sīn/	/Zāy/	Letter Name
d	s	sh	s	z	Letter Sound
ف	غ	ع	ظ	ط	Arabic Character
/Fā’/	/Ghayn/	/ξayn/	/Zâ’/	/ŧâ’/	Letter Name
f	gh	`	Z	t	Letter Sound
ن	م	ل	ك	ق	Arabic Character
/Nūn/	/Mīm/	/Lām/	/Kāf/	/Qâf/	Letter Name
n	m	l	K	q	Letter Sound
		ي	و	هـ	Arabic Character
		/Yā’/	/Wāw/	/Hā’/	Letter Name
		y	w	h	Letter Sound

The Rules

Part of what makes this language so hard is that each letter has about 4 different forms that it can appear in. The characters listed above are in the form where they are by itself. Those letters are not connected to each other to form words. If you were to put one of the characters in a word then it would look different if it was the first letter, different again if it was in the middle, and different again if it was the last letter. So each of the characters could have a different look for the beginning, middle, and end of a word. This makes it very hard for someone trying to learn it.

For example:

ب is the Arabic character for b. However at the beginning of a word it looks like بـ , in the middle it would look like ـبـ , and at the end it would look like ـب . That's 4 different variations of the same letter. So all in all I would have to learn 112 new characters for this language! Thankfully some of the letters have repeating variations and some even look similar. This takes some of the stress out of it. 

Short Vowels

Another thing I learned about the alphabet is that it is mainly consonants. To express a vowel there is a separate symbol added above or below each character. Here is another chart expressing the short vowels of the alphabet. Once again it reads right to left.

دُ	دِ	دَ	Arabic Character
/Đammah/	/Kasrah/	/Fatħah/	Vowel Name
u	i	a	Vowel Sound
The 'u' in put	The 'i' in sit	The 'a' in /ba/	English word with similar sound

The letter being used as an example is د (Dāl) which is the letter d. There are 3 examples of د , each being used with a different short vowel. 

The first column has a little slash above which represents the letter A.

The second column has a slash below which represents I.

The third column has a squiggle above that looks like a ribbon that represent U.

Reflections

I most definitely have my work cut out for me. I think for right now I will just stick to learning just the alphabet by itself and worry about the variations another time. There are actually more vowels that I didn't mention called "long vowels". I was already too stressed out over what I had already tried teaching myself I didn't want to add anymore.

I also came across a children's video to help them learn the alphabet. This is probably something could help me since I am also new to this language. 

I know that once I finally learn this language (and even just the alphabet) I will be immensely satisfied. It will be very difficult but I know that I am up for the challenge. This will be an exciting and interesting new experience.

Bibliography

 "Free Arabic Language Course, Learn Arabic." Free Arabic Language Course, Learn Arabic, Arabic Tuition. Madinaharabic. Web. 20 Mar. 2015.

"Learn the Arabic Letters and Alphabet - MyEasyArabic.com." Learn the Arabic Letters and Alphabet. Myeasyarabic.com, 1 June 2014. Web. 20 Mar. 2015.

Successful Counter Terrorism Operations

Today I spent my 20% time researching a successful counter terrorism operation, and an operation that didn't end well. The counter terrorism part of international relations is what I've decided I really want to focus on and seem very interested in. The operations I talk about in this blog are extreme examples of counter terrorism. Some operations aren't nearly as dangerous.

Successful Operation

The first thing I came across was a list of the top 10 most momentous counter terrorism operations online. This was exactly what I was looking for. While I won't list all 10, I will write about the one that interested me the most.

• Operation Jaque (2008)- This was a mission to go out and rescue 15 hostages held by a Colombian Organization by the name of Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) for many years. An extremely well-thought-out plan was put into action that included a spy being placed in FARC a year before the rescue mission was to even take place. The hostages were then placed under careful surveillance by cameras and motion detectors. Once it was time for extraction, FARC members were tricked into thinking that a group of Colombian Soldiers were actually from a non-government organization, sent to deliver the hostages to a fellow rebel leader. The hostages were loaded on to helicopters and once they were in the air, the helicopters were captured and the hostages were rescued without firing a single shot. While the United States only played a very small part in the process, this is still a perfect example of what counter terrorism is.

This whole operation caught my attention from the start. The amount of planning and precise execution that went into developing this plan is incredible. I would love to be a part of planning an operation like this. Not only is this so interesting to read about how the members of FARC were tricked, but it also reminds me of the Oscar Winning movie Argo. It was a similar story of a mission to try and rescue hostages by tricking Iranians that these hostages were actually members of a film crew. Their plan has to be so perfect in order for the others to believe it. It's a lot of pressure but I think I would be up for the challenge. 

This is a picture of some of the hostages arriving back home after being rescued. It really makes me happy to see that no one was injured during the extraction. You can see on their faces how excited and happy they are to be home. I would love to be able to help someone like this one day.

Unsuccessful Operation

Not every planned mission can run perfectly. I have discovered an example of an operation that didn't go according to plan.

• The Munich Massacre (1972) - This whole situation took place at the 1972 Olympic games in Munich. In order to seem peaceful and friendly to the public, the security was toned down due to the fact that this was the first Olympic games to be held in Germany since the Nazi era. Due to the low level of security, 8 Palestinian terrorists from the group  Black September broke into the Olympic village and killed 2 men and took 9 hostage. Then for some idiotic reason, the German police were filmed getting ready to attack the kidnappers and was broadcast on TV. This alerted the terrorists and the police were no longer able to go through with a rescue attempt. Next, police began to "negotiate" with the terrorist and offer them transportation to Cairo and then an air base. They were to be intercepted upon arrival, however, the police that were to confront them underestimated how many there were, and were severely under trained which led to a bloody shoot out in which 2 terrorists and 1 cop were killed. The remaining terrorists then decide to brutally massacre their 9 hostages and attempt to escape, where 3 more were shot dead. The remaining terrorists were captured.

This whole operation legitimately upsets me. The fact that these men were so careless to let their plan be broadcast on TV, and then not communicate with each other to execute a plan is horrifying. I'm the type of person that tends to think hard and possibly over think things. I feel like if they would have thought a little more about what was going on, their mission may have been successful. 

This is the most famous picture taken from this event. This one of the terrorists looking off of the balcony after breaking in to the Olympic village. This guy just looks terrifying. Something about his mask and the fact that I know what this man did and is about to do just disgusts me. Part of the reason why I want to go into the counter terrorism field is to prevent people like him from ever hurting someone. 

Reflections

I think I enjoyed researching these events more than I did for any of my other blogs. Reading about these stories, and others I didn't even mention managed to capture my interest. I've already begun looking into more information about these events such as books and other articles. 

While many people in this field don't ever do something as extreme as this, it is my dream to be able to get there eventually. I believe that I would be good at this, and that I can make a difference in what I do. 

I can't wait to see what my next weeks of research will bring me.

Bibliography

Barker, Evie. "10 Momentous Counter Terrorism Operations." Homeland Security Degree Guide. Homeland Security Degree Guide, 2 April. 2013. Web. 13 Mar. 2015.

Deshayes, Benoit. Operation Jaque. Digital Image. Linternaute. CCM Benchamrk Group, n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2015.