So, I'm trying to teach myself arabic at the moment and I'm having a bit of trouble with the script. Basically I need to know what sort of pen to use because ordinary pens/pencils fail. Google also fails. I figure a calligraphy pen is in order but don't know exactly what type to order. Anyone know what type I should buy?

Also does anyone have any websites/resources I could use? I've already looked in the Resource Thread and most of the links have rotted but I did manage to get some good materials from fatwa-online.com... Any help/advice/flames/links/fresh resources would be appreciated.

If you don't know the alphabet yet, dont worry about how pretty it is. First focus on knowing how to write out every form, then worry about making it pretty.

I bought this very good book http://www.amazon.com/Arabic-Alphabet-How-Read-Write/dp/0818404302/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211139576&sr=8-1

a few hours later(the book is only 93 pages) I had managed to fill in any gaps in my writing. I would recommend it for starting to learn from scratch as I wish I had done. The book doesn't teach you the letters in alphabetical order, rather it teaches you in groups of letters that look similar(most of the time the sounds are related too)like baa taa thaa and nuun , daa and dhaal, jiiim haa and khaain, etc order to help you distinguish better and not confuse them. In a couple hours you'll have it down. I swear.

just force a little arab boy to write it for you

You can use a normal pen just fine, that's what I did. I also suggest that you just learn the usual standard alphabet, without all the punctuation and pronunciation marks, because they make it all very, very complicated.

Other than that, good luck.

Holy shit, I don't remember making this shit. Benzo Rx + PBS.......

Anyway, thanks for the replies.

I've been working about 1-3 hrs a day for the last few weeks on it. I've gotten a lot better at writing the script. Basically, what I've been doing is visiting arabic news sites, copying the text into Word, double-spacing, changing text colour to light grey, putting a line of underscores under each line of text, printing, tracing the grey text first and then writing it out on the line below. I can easily write most of the common symbols now so I think I'm well past the growing pains.

The reason I'm so worried about the script btw is that I don't want to get too used to the transliterated version. I understand that it's best to learn the proper language from the get go? Is this correct?

I've been working about 1-3 hrs a day for the last few weeks on it. I've gotten a lot better at writing the script.

May i say that i admire your work ethic sir.