Has anyone had a go at learning Arabic from scratch? (I'm a Caucasian Welshie with absolutely no heritage or family links to any of the Arabic nations) If so, what learning tools did you use?
Just having a think a year or two in the future about doing an MA in Middle Eastern studies/history. I feel if I was going to do it, that I would want and strong grounding in a number of the languages from that part of the globe, and if I prove to be hopeless at it, then perhaps it's not something I should consider.
I did it from scratch. No background either. I figured it would help with work before they put me where I am now, I ended up having to pick up another related language as well due to the locality. I would put my level at average to above average, if I really wanted to up it I know what to do, it's more than enough for reading and communication now but a big advantage is living in an environment where you're constantly exposed to it / don't need to go very far to immerse yourself in it.
I don't think I can be of much use to you where it matters - learning tools - as I did it old school, some boring old book that quickly got me confused within the first few pages in the explanations of sukoon and tanween without even attempting to pretend that this wasn't going to be a slog.
You look at the apps, youtube vids etc these days I'm sure happy they actually highlight the beauty of what you're about to do first.
What I can say is - don't worry about learning the alphabet and writing too much, it's easier than it looks, do it at your own pace. Don't worry too much about pronounciation either, with your background it's a guarantee you will have difficulty pronouncing and linking some of the letters - ayn, ghayn, maybe dhaud, the 'r' is also very nasal among others - these aspects will take work. What you can do first, right away is start building up the database of sound to meaning from whatever source you find entertaining - subtitled movies, subtitled songs, children's books - that is, in essence - the language.
The book was only good for the foundation of the writing system, the 3 forms of each alphabet obviously and some grammar. With Arabic, for a non-native, you'll find very quickly that building up the base isn't the issue, it's the long term work needed to be able to read publications comfortably when they don't provide the marked short vowels and other grammar related markings at all. That will take a lot of work. The initial bit is ok.
Reading back, this post really isn't much use besides saying that path has been walked from your background, it can be done I suppose, hopefully you get someone more current in his learning to contribute to share materials.