السلام عليكم

As-Salāmu `Alaykum (السلام عليكم) - Peace be upon you. Well today I had my first Arabic class, and I must say it was both exciting and daunting. Above is basically the only phrase in Arabic I learned. The rest of the class time was devoted to learning the Arabic Alphabet, which as you probably know is completely different from the standard alphabets used by the romance languages. Arabic is also written and read right to left, and I feel it is a good metaphor for learning Arabic; forget what you have learned and learn an entirely new mindset! Should be exciting!

Arabic Alphabet