Arabic LANGUAGE LEARNING GUIDE

Now that you know why learning Arabic is so beneficial, you probably can’t wait to begin your journey to fluency. However, unlike other European languages like French or Spanish, which share more words with English, learning Arabic can be really challenging for English speakers, so here are some tips to make it easier for you to achieve your language goals and become a proficient speaker in close to no time.

If you’re truly serious about speaking Arabic, the first thing you should do is find a qualified native teacher. This will ensure that you have access to the best learning materials and have a professional create lessons that are interesting and cover all the aspects of the language you need to know. Additionally, having a tutor means you’ll get to ask any questions you have about the language, which can lead to learning things about Arabic that you wouldn’t find in books or online, so if you want to expand your knowledge of the language and learn as much as possible, getting a teacher is certainly a good idea. What’s more, a trainer can help you practise the language and improve your pronunciation, so if your goal is to sound as much like a native speaker as possible, don’t hesitate to send us a quick inquiry now and we’ll put you in touch with one of our amazing Arabic tutors who will create a completely personalised language course based on your requirements.

As we previously mentioned, there are plenty of different Arabic dialects you can learn. Although it might be tempting to try to learn all of them, you should commit to one first and move on to others once you’ve mastered the variant that’s most useful for you to learn. Unless you need to learn a particular dialect to travel to a certain country, you should start with Modern Standard Arabic. This variant is the standardised version of Arabic that developed in the late 19th century and is used in all Arab countries, especially in academia, mass media, law and literature. It’s also the dialect that’s taught in formal education, so, as you can imagine, it’s ideal for those interested in reading books in Arabic, writing professionally in the language and studying in an Arab-speaking country. Once you are fluent in MSA, you can move on to a vernacular variety like Libyan Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, Algerian Arabic, Sudanese Arabic or Gulf Arabic, which is mainly spoken in the UAE, depending on where you want to go and what you want to do with the language.

Due to the fact that Arabic doesn’t sound like Indo-European languages, it might be hard to remember words at first, but don’t worry, there’s a simple way to memorise new vocabulary more effectively: using flashcards. Flashcards are just cards that have a word or phrase on one side, and its meaning on the other, and they are one of the most useful tools to practise your vocabulary every day. If you use them for at least fifteen minutes a day, you’ll avoid forgetting key Arabic words and you’ll be able to make progress much more quickly than just by repeating word lists, so go ahead and create your own deck or download apps like Quizlet or Anki, where you can find flashcards made by other users.

To learn the Arabic alphabet as quickly as possible, don’t waste time trying to look for the equivalent Arabic letters in English, as some letters like ع simply don’t exist in our language. Instead, you’ll have to pay special attention to the vocalisation of each of the 28 Arabic letters until you can properly distinguish them and practise writing them as much as you can while following the stroke order. Although learning how to write these letters from right to left can be intimidating for beginners, it’s not something you should worry about, as most learners are able to master this in close to no time. What you should pay attention to, however, is that Arabic letters change their form depending on where they are in a word. This can be confusing at first, so carefully study the different ways a letter can be written depending on whether it is in an initial position, a medial position, a final position, or an isolated position. To illustrate this, here’s a chart of the Arabic letters and the various forms they can take depending on their position in a word.

The easiest and most entertaining way of improving your Arabic is to immerse yourself in Arab cultures as much as possible from day one. Don’t know how? Here are some of the best ways you can do this.