أهلا شباب, كيفكم؟
شو أخباركم, انشالله كله تمام وكله بخير
You guys know that, I've been on YouTube for quite some time now
and people know about my passion for Arabic
My very first videos are all in Arabic !
I always say that Arabic is the most challenging language I've ever learned
I began my Arabic journey with self-study
starting with Fusha (Modern Standard Arabic)
Then, I attended some classes during a summer holiday in Morocco
After that, I continued self-study, and later, pursued further learning in Egypt after my
Master
I have studied with Ahlan Arabic School in Rabat and Alexandria
While in Egypt, I picked up 科大 the local dialect
Following that, I taught myself the Syrian dialect and practiced a lot
with language exchange partners and teachers
So, I've tried various methods and used a range of resources
I have received a lot of comments from you all asking for help with learning Arabic
In this video, I'll walk you through the resources and methods I used to study Arabic
I'll provide you with different resources based on dialect
And of course I will give you advice to make a good study plan!
So, Are you ready?
يلا
The first question I often get is: Should I start with Fusha or a dialect?
If your goal is to learn Arabic in a systematic way
to understand media, read, or communicate in formal settings
like education or business
I highly recommend starting with Fusha
I know It's a bit more complex than dialects
but it lays a solid foundation for the Arabic language and makes learning any dialect easier
The vocabulary and grammar basics you gather while learning Fusha
will help you understand their usage in different dialects better
On the other hand, if you're learning Arabic purely to communicate with friends and family
or for daily life in an Arabic-speaking country
you might want to start with a dialect
But, Which dialect to choose depends on the country you live in
As for learning resources, the Egyptian dialect has, by far, the most and highest quality
Levantine Arabic is also a good option
So, I would suggest starting with Fusha and learning it to an intermediate level
Once you're comfortable there, you can gradually
start introducing dialect learning into your study routine
Before learning Arabic, the most important and essential part
is the Alphabet and pronunciation
which is also the number 1 challenge that our foreigners have when learning Arabic
Arabic consists of 28 basic letters
with a variety of special characters and vowel markers
Arabic pronunciation is characterized by a variety of unique sounds
that don't exist in many other languages
These include the emphatic consonants
Such as Taa’ (ط,Zaa’’ (ظ) Saa’ (ص)Dhaa (ض)
and the other consonants, which require deep-throat vocalization
Attention.
Many people have this problem
they maintain their wrong pronunciation even years after learning Arabic
because they have learned the unique Arabic sounds through Latin letters
And Latin letters do not cover the correct Arabic pronunciation
For example, you might see the letter ض as D Or غ as gh
and I want to point out if you ask me if you should learn Arabic alphabet or not
the answer is YES, a big YES
Even though you learn Arabic just for communicating
the letters are the heart of this language
learning Latin letter not only get you pronounce wrong
it wont let you to learn the “real Arabic”
in which you have to observe the change of the forms and understand better the rules
which is also the beauty of Arabic language
In Arabic, usually only the main parts of words - the consonants - are written down
The smaller parts - the vowels - are often left out
Imagine trying to read English without the 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u' letters
Sounds tricky, right?
But don't worry, when you're starting, there are little marks called "Harakat"
that show where and what these missing vowel sounds should be
At first, getting these vowels right might seem hard
especially because they can change the meaning of a word
Reading Arabic will start to feel more natural, even without the vowel hints
In the future
I'm sharing these challenges not to put you off from learning Arabic, guys
but to give you a heads-up about what to expect
Knowing what might be tough can actually make it easier for you
to handle those bumps down the road
Apps I recommend: Arabits, Kaleela, AlifBee
Attention, the popular app Duolingo does have an Arabic alphabet course
However, my Arabic-speaking friends and I have tested it
and found that some of the letters are mispronounced
So, please pay attention
You can also study with some YouTube channels, such as “Learn with Safaa”
“Learn Arabic with ArabicPod101”
The videos on ArabicPod101 also teach you how to write
What you need is to find notebooks and keep practicing your writing
I will put the link of the videos in the description box
Just to add, if you're looking to practice writing,
you can find children's exercise books on Amazon
Or, you could simply download some templates onto your tablet
and get started that way
About the pronunciation, you can check out this well explained video
which show the pronunciation position
Given the unique difficulty of Arabic pronunciation
I can't stress enough the importance of practicing with a native speaker or a teacher
This will help you get your pronunciation right from the beginning
If you don’t have friends who are native speakers, don’t worry
I will introduce you to an excellent language learning platform
where you can find native-speaking teachers
italki
What I love most about italki is that you can have one-on-one customized language lessons
with certified native-speaking teachers
With the help of italki teachers
You can focus on pronunciation from the very beginning
which will be incredibly helpful in setting a solid foundation
As you become comfortable with the basics
italki also serves as an excellent platform to practice your speaking skills
with native teachers
Even today, I continue to practice my Syrian Arabic with my teacher on Italki
The advantage of this platform is the ability to choose from a variety of teachers
with diverse profiles and dialects
Actually, Italki offers more than just Arabic
there are over 150 languages and lessons available
with prices starting at only $5
If you're interested, click on the link in the description below
to begin your language-learning journey
Plus, with my exclusive promo code ZOE5
if you pay a $10 lesson, you'll receive $5 for free
But act fast - this offer is only available for the first 50 users
Once you've got the alphabet down, you can start diving into some handy textbooks
I used these two French textbooks to learn Fusha
If you're a French speaker, they might be a good fit for you
If you're a bit pressed for time, you could go straight for Assimil
If you've got a bit more time to devote, try Manuel d'arabe moderne
Assimil Arabic is also available for German and Italian speakers
All the books I'm recommending come with audio, this is very important
For English speakers, I recommend” Mastering Arabic “
It even includes lessons on the alphabet
this book is organized into theme-based lessons that cover conversation
Regarding Reading comprehension, Arabic grammar, vocabulary
and exercises for the Arabic script
If you'd prefer to study with a teacher
many Arabic schools use the classic textbook, Al-Kitaab collection
I used to study with this book, I think it's the best for learning grammar
but I found the content a bit outdated once I reached the upper intermediate level
For vocabulary, you can also try out some Anki decks
But be aware, some of them use automatic pronunciation which can be incorrect
So, I recommend these two decks instead
As for YouTube channels, I recommend exploring ArabicPod 101
which offers excellent lessons for beginners
If you want some extra grammar lessons, you can check out the channel
Arabic Khatawaat
A good dictionary is also essential for checking conjugation and saving new words
I recommend Reverso and, for more advanced learners
Almaany is a great Arabic dictionary
For listening, I recommend a podcast for beginner level
A bit of Arabic
And the video “4 Hours of Arabic Conversation Practice”
you guys can listen to it while walking and repeating sentences
In this plan, you can begin by focusing on the alphabet and pronunciation
basically, you just need a notebook
a video series to follow, and an app to practice with when you have time
Aim to learn two or four alphabets per day, practicing writing and pronunciation
If possible, consider learning with a teacher on Italki
After this stage, pick a textbook with high-quality audio and study progressively
You'll start to learn grammar points and vocabulary from the text books
One exercise I found helpful when learning both Fusha and dialects
was daily conjugation writing and using these verbs to make simple sentences
So, in the study plan I prepared for you, I recommend integrating conjugation exercises
and adding a substantial amount of listening exercises
You can also follow various YouTube channels or Instagram accounts
to gain some basic knowledge
Keep practicing, and soon you'll see your Arabic skills improve
For this level, you can keep the basic study routine with your favorite textbook
If you want to expand your vocabulary
you can also check out these Anki intermediate decks
But I suggest creating your own flashcards since it’s hard for you to tell
if the TTS or AI is accurately pronouncing words
my Arabic friends and I went over the decks on Anki and other platforms
Unfortunately, automated recording is inaccurate
so, the decks that I’ll be suggesting you are the ones
with the authentic or good quality recording
Another good platform to use at this level is Aljazeera learning Arabic
There are a lot of videos, transcripts and exercises
good for this level, but the contents to be honest are a bit messy
Just don't study structurally with it, just to do some extra exercises
At this phase, you need to read and listen a lot, when it comes to reading
I used to read AlJazeera daily while learning Arabic intensively
I have even studied with my teacher
like we read together one news article per day in my choice
We learn new words and expressions, and we talk about it to practice speaking
The new words I have learned in the lesson, I put them in Anki to review
The point is to choose the topic I like personally
About listening, one YouTube channel I recommend is AlJazeera Channel قناة الجزيرة
watch the video on YouTube because some videos you have CC subtitles
and you can check new words with Reverso or language reactor add on
another channel is Al Jazeera Documentary الجزيرة الوثائقية and AJ+
عربي
Other channels such as
✔️فرانس 24 / FRANCE 24 Arabic
✔️Midan - ميدان
Podcast, you guys can check out AlJazeera podcast بودكاست الجزيرة
There are different kinds of contents, my favorite is رموز
Another Podcast for Fusha listening is الجزيرة, هدوء
They are all good for listening exercises
As I said before, when you get to an intermediate level, you can also start to learn a dialect
If you're specifically interested in learning Egyptian dialects
there's a great book series called Kalimni ‘Arabi
The books are full of useful and engaging conversations
complete with high-quality audio of real, colloquial speech
Plus, you'll get plenty of reading practice
If you're more interested in Levantine dialects
I recommend the book series Shwayy ‘An Haali
This series comes with native speaker audios and even an Anki deck
I used to use the book “Syrian Arabic Voices” to learn Syrian dialect by myself
I basically did shadowing for each text
and started to notice the difference between fusha
egyptian dialect and Syrian dialect
By the way, Linguism is a fantastic platform for Arabic learning resources
especially for their variety of flashcard decks with original audios- but they are not
free
For free anki decks, you can check these decks
one for Levantine, another for Egyptian dialect
To be honest, There are many resources for this level
that vary from news channels to TV series and podcasts
You can check out the channel of Anas Bukhash أنس بوخش
Anas brings together a lot of guests
basically famous people in the Arab world
so the conversions are often in different dialects
The good thing is that there are English subtitles
I often choose to interview with Levantine Arabic and do shadowing
Another great channel for Syrian & Egyptian dialect is AJ+ كبريت
For the podcasts, I highly recommend AL Sowt صوت (in Jordanian dialect)
Al Sowt offers a set of engaging podcasts that delve into
culture, politics, literature, and society across the Arab world
El Bulbul, the episodes feature conversations in natural Jordanian
Arabic and the lesson transcript are available on their website
And ofcourse Sarde After Dinner - سردة (mainly in lebanese dialect)
focusing on social or all kinds of intellectual topics
If you want to watch series , you can check out the website شاهد , the Arabic Netflx
actually, there are also some Arabic movies and series on Netflix
The plan I prepared for intermediate to advanced learners is based on immersion methods
You'll need to engage in extensive listening and reading
You can continue to use your favorite textbook if you like
However, I recommend adding at least
30 minutes of intensive listening and shadowing exercises daily
using videos or podcasts
You may write in a journal, but try to incorporate the new words you've just learned
Engage in extensive listening by listen to podcasts and audiobooks whenever you have
time
For vocabulary, it's already an achievement if you can digest all the new words
you learned from your textbook and intensive listening
In the end, read content that interests you: articles, books, and media websites
Building a habit of daily reading will truly help you expand your vocabulary
For intermediate learners, it's not only important to do a lot of input exercises
but also output exercises
As I mentioned before, a platform like Italki can be very beneficial
if you want to practice your speaking skills in Fusha or other dialects
If you are interested in the Arabic language
And want to know more about its history and evolution
You can also check out this video
Learning a new language is one of the most mind-opening experiences you could have
Imagine having the ability to communicate with nearly half a billion people
around 22 countries
Let's put an end to the toxic stereotypes that the media often presents
and instead try to communicate and understand each other
I never thought in my life that my best friends would be Arab and that I would enjoy
travelling through the Middle East
I'm thankful for the risks and the hard work that I've put into my language learning journey
and I hope you guys can have the same experience as well
as we learn to truly understand each other
Enjoy your summer and see you in the next video
Bye!