In the Near East, my linguistic interests comprise Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, and Farsi. I remember a curious cookbook in the then underdeveloped ground floor of my house in the 1970s. It had drawings of ancient ziggurats, jars, food, and other artefacts, which captured my interest in the Near East. As a teenager, I casually tried to learn Arabic, from borrowed books from Lulu Island's central library. By the age of 25, almost 26, I enjoyed an adventurous December in beautiful Egypt. Seeing the Great Pyramids was a goal, which I achieved early in life.
Source: tatoeba (10528274)