What is the ROAD MAP to learning and speaking Arabic fluently and confidently without getting lost along the way?

Question

What do I have to know before diving into learning Arabic? What are the necessary steps to take to learn Arabic and speak it correctly?

Answer 1

Hi there,

Here are some of the tips that could help you learn Arabic:

-You will save your self a lot of time in learning any language by covering the particles first (on, in , at ....ect). There is not a lot of them and they cover about %30 or more of the context most of the time(writing or speaking)

-Arabic have influenced most of the world languages. Therefore, there are a lot of words that are similar in pronunciation with you mother language. For example: Spanish words that sounds the same in Arabic are shirt, music, shoes..ect. This method will make it easy for your to remember the words and use them.

-Practice, Practice and Practice speaking. You have to practice speaking the language so you can make mistakes and correct them along the way. I suggest finding a group, a partner or a teacher to practice speaking Arabic with them. Consistency is the key here. You will need to set a schedule for at least one hour a week to see improvements.

-Remember in Every language there are about 1000 most used words.

-I always suggest that you learn the formal Arabic instead of the dialects(unless you are focused on only one region). The reason is that there are many dialects out there. They can even differ from one state to another in one country only. Arabic Dialects are hard to understand sometimes even if you are a native speaker. Learning the formal Arabic will not deceive you, because at some point all the Arab speakers had to learn the formal Arabic somehow. Therefore, you will be understood and able to communicate. This tip applies to other languages as well (Ex: Spanish, French..ect).

-If you are able to read Arabic, please read it out loud (and maybe record your self to assess the language later). This method will help improve your reading while working on your pronunciation and speaking.

-Make the learning process fun. Whenever, we hear language learning, we think of the dull traditional way of paper and pencil learning. However, it doesn't have to be that way. You can incorporate games, hobbies and much more to make the process digestible and rewarding. For example : In all my classes, I use the Fun Immersion method like games, challenges, missions..ect all done in Arabic. This type of method will help you learn Arabic while having fun and stimulating your mind. There are a lot of resources out there to achieve this, you only need to do some research.

There are still more tips for learning and being fluent in Arabic. If you'd like hearing about them, Let me know and I will submit another answer. Best of luck to you.

Answer 2

The ROADMAP TO LEARNING ARABIC WITHOUT GETTING LOST ALONG THE WAY 

8 Tips to Learn Arabic Fast and correctly

1- Learn How to Pronounce Arabic Correctly from the Start

When some students who already took Arabic with another instructor call me to take Arabic lessons with me, I ask them to write two paragraphs in Arabic to assess their level. When I receive their paragraphs, I classify them as advanced. However, once I speak to them on the phone, guess which level a lot of them really classify as...beginner! 

Why? Because many of these students learned all their words incorrectly. You can know all the words in the dictionary, but if you don’t learn the correct pronunciation, no Arabic speaker will be able to understand you. It is a mistake that many students make. But the good news is that it can be easily avoided!

* Arabic pronunciation is straightforward, consistent, logical, and has rules.

 

In English, some letters and letter pairings, such as “gh” could be pronounced as an “f” in the word laugh, as a hard “G” in the word “ghost” and not pronounced at all in “though.”

Arabic pronunciation, however, has more logical rules. Thus, once you learn these rules, you will be able to pronounce any Arabic word with vowels correctly! 

2- When learning the alphabet, make sure to learn the few different ways of pronouncing certain letters in different dialects

* There are six letters that could be pronounced differently depending on the dialect or the region.

Example: The letter ث is pronounced as “th” as in three, or as a regular “t” as in tree, or as an “s” in so. Knowing this helps you understand all Arabic speakers once you learn the language. 

3- Choose the version of Arabic that meets your needs

Before starting your Arabic learning journey, you need to know which version of Arabic you should learn to achieve your own goals. There are many versions of Arabic. For example, if you are traveling to a certain country, make sure to learn the dialect which is spoken there, and not the dialect of another country or region. Still not sure which one you need? Here is a video to help you decide! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfqFIdaPYguGUOkCwyappiQ?view_as=subscriber

4- Make sure you learn from professional teachers who are preferably native speakers

However, some professional, well trained, and knowledgeable teachers are better than native speakers who have no knowledge and no methodology in teaching languages.

However, beware the YouTubers with bad pronunciation and bad information. Protect yourself from great marketers who are not professional Arabic teachers and who do not even have any knowledge about their own language, except for speaking it. You can avoid this trap by doing your research or reaching out to the teacher directly to get to know their background a bit better. 

5- Learn from organized material, especially courses that use the spiral method

Good courses will teach you one topic at a time, instead of teaching you random words here and there. Since languages differ in sentence structure, learning words will not help you master the language. You cannot translate sentences from English into Arabic word for word. However, after you learn how to make a sentence, you can add vocabulary to that sentence. 

Let’s look at this sentence as an example: “I am American.”

In Arabic, we say, “Anaa Amreekee” (if a male is speaking):  أَنَا أَمْرِيكِي 

(This sentence actually translates word for word into “I American,” since the verb “to be” is not used in this case).

Now that you know this sentence structure, you can easily use it with the words for other nationalities, which you will learn.

6- Immerse yourself in Arabic every day by:

* Listening to Arabic music: 

There are plenty of Arabic songs on YouTube that have Arabic lyrics and English subtitles. The brain is really good at retaining languages when accompanied by music, so this is a great method to use! Also, make sure to choose music that you like! This will allow you to have fun, and your brain will better retain what you hear (as opposed to listening to a song you do not care for).

* Watching Arabic shows, soap operas, movies, plays, and/or documentaries, especially with Arabic and English subtitles, at the beginning of your Arabic learning journey.

* If you are studying Formal Arabic (called Modern Standard Arabic), you can read or watch Arabic stories. Stories you are familiar with, such as “Aladdin” for example, are perfect for this!

7- Use material that covers your interests

Learning about subjects that interest you helps you retain what you learn.

For example: There was a class of teenagers at an institution where I taught Arabic who did not really want to learn Arabic. They were just dragged by their parents to that institution. Therefore, the teachers and the parents were very frustrated because the teenagers were not learning anything in addition to behaving badly in class. 

I asked the director to give me that class. I started by asking them about their hobbies and what sports they played an what teams they liked. All of them liked the Red Sox and baseball of course, we were in Boston. I saw the excitement in their eyes when they were talking about the Red Sox team. They learned how to write quickly because we played games involving writing the names of their favorite players.

We went to learn Arabic just using baseball. The parents were very happy because the teenagers became excited to come to school and to learn Arabic. 

 

8- Listen to Arabic before bedtime:

Listening to Arabic before bedtime is also a great way to learn. Studies suggest that the brain retains information the best when learning it shortly before going to bed. This is because when we go to sleep, our subconscious mind goes to work and stores this material. Therefore, it is almost like you are practicing and learning while you are sleeping.

I hope this was helpful. Good luck in your learning journey!