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!