Your Guide to Learning Arabic
How to learn Arabic
Arabic is considered one of the most beautiful languages in the world, it is a very poetic language, writing in Arabic is akin to drawing, and the language itself is rich and difficult to learn at the same time, which is the best exercise for your brain.
It’s easy to get lost in learning Arabic if you don’t know how to approach it wisely and where to start.
Unlike learning any language, there are a few things to keep in mind when learning this beautiful language.
You should know that learning Arabic is different from learning French or Spanish. it’s harder than that. when you learn French, you learn one language and what you read is what you say. In Arabic, what you read is not what you say, this is a very important point to keep in mind before diving into the Arabian Sea.
Arabic can be divided into two parts: Spoken colloquial Arabic and Classical Arabic.
Spoken Arabic
There are 3 main dialects in spoken Arabic:
Levantine Arabic
Egyptian Arabic
Arabian Gulf
In addition to the Moroccan dialect, which I don’t recommend you learn unless your wife is Moroccan.
Classical Arabic
It has 4 important parts:
1. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA)
2. Media in Arabic (BBC News)
3. Studying the Quran
4. Arabic Literature
The only mistake that most beginner students make when they want to learn Arabic is that they google “Arabic Courses for Beginners” and register for the first course they see online without taking into account the points I mentioned above. Don’t make this mistake because it will only frustrate you and waste your time and money.
Your first step towards learning Arabic is to understand exactly what you want to achieve by spending 6 months learning this language.
I have developed 2 questions to give you more clarity on how to approach Arabic intelligently:
The first:
Why do you want to learn Arabic?
Second:
What are the 3 most important things you want to achieve in the next 6 or 12 months of learning Arabic?
Why Do You Want to Learn Arabic?
The answer to this question will help you decide where to start and motivate you throughout your learning journey.
Maybe you have a job opportunity in the GCC and need to learn Arabic to run your business, or maybe you love Arabic culture and want to learn Arabic so you can communicate with people in their native language and feel comfortable while travelling in the Middle East. or maybe you love learning languages and Arabic is something new that will challenge your mind and introduce you to a whole new culture and even open the door to a new horizon.
Whatever your reason for learning Arabic, it’s important to identify it, write down a piece of paper, and put it in a safe place so you can come back to that note every time you lose motivation or lose control.
What Are The 3 Most Important Things You Want to Achieve In The Next 6 Or 12 Months?
This is the most important question that you must clearly answer. What level do you want to reach in Arabic? Is speaking or reading more important to you? do you want to understand newspapers and read BBC news while drinking your morning coffee, or do you want to speak like an Arab when talking to a native Arabic speaker, or do you have an interest in Arabic literature? and you want to know what Nijib ma7fuz said about love? Be sure to write down the 3 main skills that you will acquire in 6 or 12 months of learning Arabic.
My advice to help you make the best decision:
From my experience of teaching Arabic over the past 15 years, I understand that most students want to achieve two goals when learning Arabic: first, you want to be understood, so speaking is the most important skill you want to achieve in the first place. then they want to take their Arabic to the next level, where they can have complex conversations about business, and politics, and freely express their opinions and emotions. And to achieve this, I will recommend you the following plan
Learn Arabic for Beginners
Master The Arabic Alphabets
Your first task as a beginner in Arabic is to master the alphabet & reading basic words and sentences.
Some Arabic letters are very difficult for a foreign student to pronounce. Since many Arabic letters are pronounced with the throat, such as the letter (7a) (kha) (3a) (gha), you need to practice a lot to learn how to pronounce these letters.
Tip for you: Try saying each letter out loud a few times. Take your time and do it slowly.
How to read Arabic Sentences & Scripts
Once you’re familiar with Arabic scripts, it’s time to learn how to read words and short, simple sentences. this is important because the sound of an Arabic letter changes depending on the vowels it contains and its position in the world.
Focus On Reading
Here are a few things you need to consider when it comes to reading:
1. We read from right to left. & Numbers are written from left to right. 2. Arabic letters also change shape depending on where they are located in the world (at the beginning, in the middle, at the end, or separately).
3. Arabic has a root system – it’s a huge help when it comes to vocabulary!
Confusing? I know, but it will be easier with you along the way.
Tips for you: Spend at least 20 minutes reading the Arabic script, and do it loudly, not silently.
We all agree that speaking is the most important skill to master in any language, not just Arabic.
80% speaking and 20% grammar and reading.
As a beginner, the second thing you need to work on is speaking, not grammar or writing. In my method, I focus on having 80% of students speak and 20% on grammar and reading. Of course, grammar is important to learn, but not in the beginning, because it will make you think too much before you say something, and when you think you are not speaking, you only speak when you are not thinking. If you are new to learning Arabic, the grammar you need to learn should only be related to the spoken language if necessary.
As you start to progress in Arabic, you start to feel more confident in speaking and become more familiar with Arabic scripts and your reading starts to improve, you can learn more grammar to add more complexity to your sentence structure.
Learning Arabic for intermediate Students
As a general rule, Arabic learners at an intermediate level can communicate in Arabic on almost any topic related to everyday life situations, as well as build up a good vocabulary and the ability to read more complex texts.
At this level, intermediate students want to further strengthen the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing Arabic, greater familiarity with Arabic grammar and vocabulary, developing listening and reading comprehension skills, as well as understanding key aspects of the Arab world. and Arabic culture.
The emphasis here should be on practising speaking as much as possible and intentionally using new words and Arabic phrases while speaking with a native Arabic speaker.
Listening is a key element to progressing to the next level
There are many interesting Arabic TV shows that I would recommend watching on Netflix or shahid.com. My favourite TV show that I advise you to watch is Alhyba. This is a great TV show!
Learning Arabic for advanced Students.
The hardest part that advanced Arabic learners have at this stage is that they don’t feel the progress, no matter how much they learn. They can speak Arabic quite confidentially; they have no problem conversing on difficult topics and their reading level is very good. They fall into the plateau zone and can’t go beyond it. Another problem they face is that they get confused about words with the same pronunciation. Advanced learners tend to learn so many new words because they can read faster and understand better, they gain access to more vocabulary that can confuse their pronunciation later with the words they already know.
The way I usually work with advanced students is to bring more clarity to the number of words they know and have them practice the new words they are learning by making sure they know the difference in sounds between the words they have almost the same pronunciation.
As a general rule, native Arabic speakers use almost 40% of Arabic phrases and cultural idioms. As an advanced student, you must include this in your speech if you want to approach fluency and sound like an Arab. I put a lot of emphasis on this in my teaching method using the storytelling techniques in which I use cultural and funny stories full of Arabic phrases and proverbs.
Challenges faced by beginners of the Arabic language when choosing to study Arabic.
If you love learning new languages and you are interested in learning Arabic and discovering its beautiful culture and want to explore the Middle East, then you must be aware of the challenges that confuse Arabic students, and sometimes make them stop learning Arabic, as it seems impossible to them to learn.
The most common question I am usually asked when beginning students come to work with me is: what Arabic language should I learn?
The Arabic language is like the ocean, it’s easy to get lost in it if you don’t know how to approach this language.
I also had many students who spent a year or two learning Arabic but couldn’t speak or even order coffee in a restaurant. These students saw Arabic as any other language to learn, they just signed up for the first course they saw online and then discovered that the Arabic they have obtained can only be seen in books, it has never been spoken by native Arabic
it is important to note that the Arabic language consists of two main parts: Classical Arabic and Colloquial Arabic.
Classical Arabic can be divided into 4 sections:
1. Modern Standard Arabic (MAS)
2. Arab Media (BBC News)
3. Arabic literary language (novels and poems)
4. Qur’anic studies
Spoken Arabic has 3 main dialects that are commonly spoken in the Middle East.
1. Arabic Levantine (Palestine, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon)
2. Egyptian Arabic
3. Arabian Gulf (Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Emirates states)
if you are interested in learning to speak, spoken Arabic is your best start. And if you want to learn to read newspapers, you should consider the Media Arabic program.
Tips for you: The most important thing is to understand what you would like to achieve in 6 months of learning Arabic and how you are going to use it, then you can choose the best option that suits your learning purpose.
Challenges intermediate Arabic learners face as they progress through the advance level & fluency level
You have studied Arabic for one or two years and now you can converse comfortably in Arabic, you have a good reading level and you have acquired a good amount of vocabulary. You can express yourself with confidence and get by anywhere in the Middle East. but you want to learn more, you want to reach the advanced level and perhaps fluency in the future, and you find it difficult to get past the intermediate stage no matter how much time you spend learning Arabic.
When you are at the beginner stage of learning Arabic it is easy to see progress as the language is completely new to you, once you start progressing towards the intermediate level it is difficult for you to see any tangible improvement due to your familiarity with the language.
To overcome this stage, Strategic Learning is essential, what do I mean by “strategic learning”?
1. You should intentionally focus on using the new words and phrases rather than keep using the same vocabulary over and over again.
Another challenge the intermediate learner faces is not being able to distinguish between words that have the same sounds.
like ( جامعة ) and ( جمعة ) both words have almost the same sound but different meanings, the first one means “university ” and the second one means “Friday”.
2. Try to put a lot of effort into knowing the difference in sounds and meaning.
3. Finally, listening to Arabic TV shows with subtitles is a must here.
Tips for you: The more you listen, the more you will train your ears on the sound of the language and become familiar with more complex structures and sentences.
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