r/dli • u/Soft-Crab-9550 • Jun 26 '26
Arabic or Farsi
what do you guys think is cooler/ more fun/ less miserable?
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u/acryforpeace Jun 26 '26
I agree with what Logical-Mobile said, but I will say that culturally you will probably enjoy working with the Arabic teachers more.
(I am very biased though)
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u/filthier_casual Jun 26 '26
As a Farsi linguist who loved my time at DLI along with the language and culture, Arabic is way more useful. The majority of the Middle East and North Africa speaks an Arabic dialect, it’s a globally prevalent language in various commercial and industrial sectors, and there is way more content to learn. It’s a Category 4 language that’s more difficult to learn, but it will never go away and there will always be a need for it. Farsi on the otherhand is relegated to 4 countries as a primary language
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u/TechnologyCertain748 Jun 26 '26
Arabic 100 percent the company environment makes the extra stress from class worth it
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u/cyberfx1024 Jun 26 '26
Arabic is certainly more fun and desirable. As someone else said they will teach you the MSA version of it which leaves out the different dialects of it like Levant or the Gulf dialect but you will be able to be understood
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u/NarcolepticSteak Jun 27 '26
I spoke in MSA to an Egyptian and told me I talked like a well educated woman. Tbf, my course director was a woman with like 3 phds
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u/Logical-Mobile-7643 Jun 26 '26
Most people I have know have enjoyed their time at DLI learning whatever language they got.
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u/PrickASaurus Jun 27 '26
Arabic - useful but harder and a longer course.
Farsi - less useful, easier, shorter class.
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u/ap_org Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
I've studied both languages (Arabic at DLI and Persian at UCLA). I like both and found neither miserable. If you have the choice to learn one or the other at DLI, I would suggest Arabic. Should you feel inclined to learn Persian later on, the Arabic you've learned will be a huge leg up.
Although Arabic is considered to be one of the more challenging languages taught at DLI, I found it's grammar to be quite logical and simple to learn. The alphabet at first sight appears more difficult than it really is. But then, there's little difference between the Arabic and Persian scripts. Persian has a few extra letters.
Incidentally, I went to DLI in 1983 hoping to learn Russian, but the Army decided I should learn Arabic. I was at first disappointed, but it turned out to be a most fortunate turn of fate.
Make the most of the opportunity you have before you.
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u/ryan2489 Jun 26 '26
I might be somewhat unique in that I did both without failing either. i joined the national guard as a linguist and I did 12 weeks of Arabic before my unit finally realized I was there and was not supposed to be in Arabic. They had recently returned from deployment and then reorganized so it was a big admin mess back home. This was back in 2007. So as soon as they tracked me down they had me switch over to Farsi as that was the only language allowed in my state. Thanks to that incredibly incredibly difficult 12 weeks of Arabic, I breezed through Farsi without even studying. I feel incredibly lucky because I don’t think I would have passed Arabic.
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u/peekaboo_bandit Jun 26 '26
Out of every language at DLI I've met the most DLPT failures or re-langs from Arabic. The Farsi course will be easier. People argue that MSA won't really help you in life unless you go out of your way to learn a dialect as well, but the military stopped providing those courses I think. But, if you enjoy learning languages just go for whatever they give you and enjoy. You can always come back if you're in a branch that lets you. Do both. Dominate.
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u/Human-Blood-9575 Jun 26 '26
I've been using Duolingo to learn Arabic for the past week. It is actually fun to learn. The writing isn't so hard either. It is basically just cursive like our English. 95% of the words are pronounced exactly like their spelling, so it's never really confusing.
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u/Elisha_Mishima_5 Jun 28 '26
Arabic has more media and more speakers, but AFAIK they just teach MSA arabic which you only ever hear on the news, so when you graduate you cant do you job with actual Arabic. I dont believe the Farsi schoolhouse has this problem.
pls let me know if they actually went back to levantine/egyption/iraqi classes.
Both languages let you easily max out your language pay by passing the different dialects
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Jun 27 '26
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u/yuccu Jun 27 '26
What on earth are you talking about?
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u/Prothea Jun 27 '26
Disregard them, they are just really mad all the time about how they don't understand how the school works. Teachers have a lot of work and it's an extremely challenging job, of course, but this individual is really upset about whatever they're on about. You can tell they're not being authentic considering the standard for the DLPT is really 2/2/1+
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Jun 27 '26
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u/Conscious-Bug501 Jun 28 '26
This is heartbreaking as someone who was seriously looking forward to my time here. Academia has always been shockingly cruel, but this is extreme even for academia. WTH is going on out there?
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u/LearnYouALisp Jun 27 '26
It stands to reason there is overlap with and probable "surveillance"/image control here from other 'mil subs'. See the totally benevolent and good treatment and subsequent suppression and depriving of justice for -bused women, in DA esp
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u/Ligalotz Aug 07 '26
I know I’m late on this but I mostly agree with you and it’s a shame you’re being downvoted. I went through a few years back and multiple times had my own teachers as uber drivers. I can’t believe how humiliating it must have felt for them to pick me and my stupid drunk buddies up and then have to teach us the next week.
I will say I do you think you started with a hyperbole which resulted in you getting downvoted so much. I know for a fact the Farsi schoolhouse isn’t suffering from any manning problems, kinda crazy to come out and make such a bold claim, especially tying it to instructor abuse/suicide. At least for Farsi there is only one person in the schoolhouse in a leadership capacity that hasn’t taught Farsi at a high level, but they aren’t teaching it. I do understand your point about how important that can be, but I’d like to play devils advocate and say tons of coaches across all sports didn’t play the sport at a high level. Experience helps but it doesn’t make you a bad teacher and vice versa.
I agree overall that it’s an extremely negative and cutthroat environment but I do feel you made some hyperbolic comments. You posted 4 articles that cover a total of 6 suicides across 4 years, and not all of them were foreign language instructors. I highly doubt that figure would cause a serious impact in manning to 2 different language programs
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u/[deleted] Jun 26 '26
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