شجرة الطلح and the best part about learning Arabic

I was sitting at Starbucks, going over new vocabulary from موسم الهجرة إلى الشمال when I ran across “شجرة الطلح”. Hans Wehr didn’t help, saying it was either an Acacia tree or a banana tree and context didn’t help distinguish. So, I leaned over to the Saudis sitting next to me and ask them if they knew what type of tree شجرة الطلح is. The first leaned over the book examining the paragraph. Then each Saudi shrugged his shoulders as he passed the novel around hoping one knew the precise meaning. None of them did.  As they handed the book back and I sat down to continue, they first complimented me “ولله تتكلم كويس″ and then I heard them talking amongst themselves: “It’s great that he’s learning Arabic!”

This experience is a microcosm of the best  part of learning Arabic: Arabic speakers love it when foreigners learn Arabic, and forgive even atrocious mistakes. It makes sense, as the range of Arabic is so wide that they can hear strange accents or odd vocab from native speakers. I often hear Saudis kindly insisting my accent is “مغربي” even though I’ve never been within 1000 miles of Morrocco; (Lebanese is also often assumed due to my complexion and bits of لهجة شامية) Moreover, the range of Arabic is so wide that they are forgiving when we have poor accents or use odd words. Especially in literature, it’s not uncommon for stubborn words such as شجرة الطلحto be outside the active vocabulary of an ‘educated  native speaker’. So when we don’t know a word, it’s not a surprise. Most importantly, native speakers always try to help, always compliment any hint of a “لهجة ممتازة”, and are always appreciative of every effort we take to learn the language.