Two Russian journalists talk about how they learned Arabic

RT journalists Anna Knichenko and Dana Kovajokova were guests on the “Nass Online” program presented by the journalist Ahmed El-Gamal, on the occasion of the International Day of the Arabic Language.

Anna Knichenko talked about the beginning of her learning of the Arabic language, where she said: “In the beginning I was studying the Chinese language at the university and I went to the Chinese language group and after 4 lessons I said no! This language and Chinese culture is not close to me or to my soul.”

And she continued, “Then I moved to the Arabic language group, and I am frankly happy with this decision until now, as the Arab culture has always been close to me, and I have always loved the Middle East and Arab countries.”

As for Dana Kovajukova, she spoke about her mastery of Standard Arabic and Colloquial Levantine, saying: “My learning of Arabic was a long and difficult road. I need a language other than MSA so that I can talk to my Arab colleagues because people were surprised that I only spoke MSA, and at that time I started learning colloquial and learned for myself. I made a dictionary and wrote the sentences I learned in it.”