Arabic for Beginners – Best tips for Arabic Language Learning
Arabic is a Semitic language that first emerged in the 1st to 4th centuries CE and rose to become the lingua franca of the Arab world. It is named after the Arabs, a term initially used to describe peoples living in the area bounded by Mesopotamia in the east and the Anti-Lebanon mountains in the west, in northwestern Arabia and in the Sinai Peninsula. There are 30 different varieties of Arabic spoken in various Gulf and countries where Islam has had an influence. The ISO assigns language codes to these thirty varieties of Arabic, including its standard form, Modern Standard Arabic, also referred to as Literary Arabic, which is modernized Classical Arabic. This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā “the eloquent Arabic”) or simply al-fuṣḥā. Modern Standard Arabic is an official language of 26 states and 1 disputed territory, the third most after English and French.
Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government and the media. Arabic, in its standard form, is the official language of 26 states, as well as the liturgical language of the religion of Islam, since the Quran and Hadith were written in Arabic.
During the Middle Ages, Arabic secured a predominant position in Europe, owing to contributions in science, mathematics and philosophy. As a result, many European languages ended up borrowing many words from it. Arabic influence, chiefly in vocabulary, is seen in European languages—such as Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese and Catalan—owing to both the proximity of Christian European and Muslim Arab civilizations and the long-lasting Arabic culture and language presence mainly in Southern Iberia during the Al-Andalus era. Sicilian has about 500 Arabic words, many of which relate to agriculture and related activities, as a legacy of the Emirate of Sicily from the early-9th to late-11th centuries, while Maltese language is a Semitic language developed from a dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet. The Balkan languages, including Greek and Bulgarian, have also acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish.
Arabic influence on other languages
Arabic has influenced many other languages around the globe throughout its history. Some of the most influenced languages are Persian, Turkish, Hindustani (Hindi and Urdu), Kashmiri, Kurdish, Bosnian, Kazakh, Bengali, Malay (Indonesian and Malaysian), Maldivian, Pashto, Punjabi, Albanian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Sicilian, Spanish, Greek, Bulgarian, Tagalog, Sindhi, Odia and Hausa and some languages in parts of Africa. Conversely, Arabic has borrowed words from other languages, including Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Persian in medieval times and languages such as English and French in modern times.
Arabic is the liturgical language of 1.8 billion Muslims, and Arabic is one of six official languages of the United Nations. All varieties of Arabic combined are spoken by perhaps as many as 422 million speakers (native and non-native) in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet, which is an “abjad script” and is written from right to left, although the spoken varieties are sometimes written in ASCII Latin from left to right with no standardized orthography
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Get into the habit of maintaining a journal or a diary
Whether it is a bullet journal, or a todo list, a diary, a grocery list, get into the habit of maintaining a few conversational and most often needed words for yourself. This will help you maintain a quick vocabulary and use it to frame sentences to make a conversation later. Look for words from movies you have watched in Arabic with English subtitles or English movies with Arabic subtitles. Or words you have found difficulties or new in an Arabic book you are reading. Remember Arabic has multiple synonyms for everything! You learn a word, then later you’ll hear at least three more that mean the very same thing. Keep adding to enrich your vocabulary. People often feel overwhelmed when there are SO many words to learn, but this should do the trick! Look for online visual dictionaries if that is your learning style.
Interest is a great force to drive you to success. Utilize it.
You must start anything with a strong reason to do it. Only then will you channelise your efforts and accomplish it!
How you study the language largely depends on your reasons to study this language. If it is only to be able to communicate informally with people around then we suggest you focus on the colloquial dialect of Arabic. Just not to miss – There are several Arabic dialects, of which the Egyptian is most popular and recognized. You must take out a few minutes even if it is 15 to 20 minutes or 30 minutes every single day to practise, read, write, listen rather than spending three to four hours in a week. This will not only make you stick to a systematic schedule but it will ensure the Arabic language is embedded in your subconscious deeply. That in turn will further gear you to develop an ear for the language and you will be able to recognize the formation and words from the Abjad Script.
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Look for a good teacher who speaks native Arabic
Arabic is a slightly different language to learn and hence, self-study isn’t really an option unless you have a bit of formal study into it. As a beginner, we recommend you seek a teacher for yourself whether you do an offline or an online course.
Find yourself a conversational partner
Arabic requires you to have plenty of conversational practice and places high emphasis on self-learning after class. So look for exchange programs, signup for Meetups online to find yourself a native conversational speaker in Arabic.
Visual Aids
Change the language of your devices electronic media, social and networking sites to Arabic to force your mind to recognise repeated words, commands. Label items in your kitchen or your study table in Arabic so that you are forced to recognise them faster than memorizing from vocabulary lists.
Be kind to yourself and great things will follow
Accept it’s natural to forget!
As a beginner, you are likely to be challenged by learning so many different words while you are figuring out how to get a grasp of the Arabic language. We’ve all been there, we all have tried to learn words and we all know how difficult it is to memorize lots of new words at the same time from a new language! So don’t beat yourself. Be kind and give yourself a little more time. With practice, you shall conquer the mighty new language! 🙂
Train your mind to link Arabic directly to objects and situations, not English words
One important thing that beginners must refrain from is thinking of words in English/ their native language and then trying to translate them into Arabic. This significantly slows them down as the brain is trying to do translation half the way while trying to make a conversation. It may be worthwhile an effort to train your mind to link Arabic directly to the objects and visual situations so as to be able to pick on Arabic quickly.
Your online friends! Online Tools.
Online apps
In today’s world, online apps are your best friends..they even help you find friends! 🙂 There are plenty of smart free apps that support your learning in a fun, interactive and manageable way. Of a few these are our favourites
Drops – Drops is a brilliant, game-style app that allows you to play for free for 5 minutes a day. It’s great for practical, day-to-day vocabulary.
Duolingo – Duolingo is one of the most popular free online resources for learning a new language. The site teaches several languages, including Arabic. Duolingo provides extensive written lessons and dictation and uses gamification to make learning fun.
Memrise Memrise is an app that claims to have created a 3-step approach to learning that helps you acquire a new language like you did the first time around: naturally all while having fun!
Quizlet – Quizlet is also brilliant because it allows you to create your own sets of flashcards and use other people’s too. It’s also great for subject-specific lists and dialects.
A word of caution while having fun!
Beware of fake free online teaching sites/tools
Nowadays there are several websites offering free lessons for every language. Free tips. Free videos…
However, if the material is not good, the ‘free’ can actually be a disheartening experience and be a total waste of time. Be particularly careful about social networks, where jumping one content to another may just take you on a trip around the world without, actually getting you to learn anything!
The fun part
Listen to Arabic songs, playlists on various music apps, audiobooks, watch Arabic movies with English subtitles, and English movies with Arabic subtitles to get a hang of the words, their pronunciation, dialect, natural slow of words and native speech. Also, listen to Arabic news and podcasts to strengthen your pronunciation. Look for online flashcards or create a flashcard deck for yourself and if possible play with friends equally interested or intrigued in the language.