What should I learn first when I start learning Arabic?

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. 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. The 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.

According to the Foreign Service Institute [FSI], Arabic along with Chinese is one of the toughest languages to master for a native English speaker. With that said, it isn’t entirely impossible to master it.

1. Learn to first speak the language so you can seek further help in learning from native Arabic speakers listen to as many audio resources you can get your hands on this will enable you to familiarise yourself with how Arabic is spoken and you will be able to identify  Arabic words after repeated listening to the audio clips follow this up by reading the transcript to see if you have understood the word the way it is pronounced in the audio clip you always have an option to hear the audio clip again and correct your understanding about the words being spoken
2. Use Shadowing methodology to improve your pronunciation and accent of Arabic. Watch Arabic movies with English subtitles and English movies with Arabic subtitles. Speak the dialogues from movies after hearing them to build on your accent.
3. Listen to Arabic songs through the playlist on Spotify or on YouTube try to sing along this will help you pick up the accent of the words spoken because singers try to Slowly speak the words in their songs. 
4. I suggest you start looking up to the beautifully creative and artistic Arabic script learn to write it as you speak. This will reinforce your knowledge about the word or phrase being spoken with its respective pronunciation. Writing will further help your brain to register the sound of a word or phrase with its written format thereby enabling you to memorize it.

Arabic is a beautiful language to master which introduces its learner to vibrant culture. While it can be extremely intimidating to many, it definitely isn’t impossible to master the language. With a little extra dedication, effort and time, you should be speaking like an Arab. I also suggest you incorporate the above-mentioned tips along with enrolling on professional online classes. 

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