Arabic for Beginners – Best tips for Arabic Language Learning 

The language is named after the Arabs, a term initially used to describe people living in the Arabian Peninsula bounded by eastern Egypt in the west, Mesopotamia in the east, and the Anti-Lebanon mountains and Northern Syria in the north, as perceived by ancient Greek geographers. Modern Standard Arabic is an official language of 26 states and 1 disputed territory, the third most after English and French. 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. Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government and the media. Throughout its history, Arabic has inspired many other languages around the world. 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, as well as several African languages, are among the most affected. In contrast, Arabic has borrowed vocabulary from other languages, including Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Persian in mediaeval times, and English and French in modern times.

1. Create a study plan for yourself and set short and long term goals that are clear, realistic and measurable.

You can’t learn Arabic overnight. But planning well in advance makes your journey easier. The study plan also helps you to monitor your performance and manage your available time. Divide the entire study content into smaller chunks to learn step by step, create a list of all the topics you want to master and figure out when and how you want to start with each one. Avoid being overambitious. Do not stress or burn yourself out with pressure. Have complete clarity about your personal goals and why you are learning Arabic. Get them written on a plaque and ensure to place this at a place you see the most in your home, near the clock for example.

2. Make time for a regular study schedule to improve your Arabic

There will be some days of low energy with no interest in studying as compared to some days where you are enthusiastic and full of energy you can study vocabulary and grammar for hours. In reality, it is critical to research on a regular basis. Every day, try to learn Arabic in shorter bursts but more often. For example, you could do one lesson and the exercises every day. If you study Arabic for one hour a day instead of five hours once a week, your language skills can develop faster.

3. Avoid all possible disruptive factors when learning

Ensure you have no distractions around you to disturb you. Turn off your phone and let your friends know that you are not available for the next hour. Even though it may sound a little rude, eventually you will realise the importance and see that your study sessions become more efficient.

4. Create some helpful study tools for yourself 

Start to write a journal or a diary so that you can capture the new words and phrases that you hear being used in day to day conversations. This will also help you build your vocabulary or important phrases that would further enable you to hold your first conversation with an Arabic speaker. 

5. Label all the objects in your home with their respective Arabic words

Labelling the objects around you prevents duplication of work. It ensures you do not have to translate the name of the object in your native language before you can get to its respective Arabic name. This will ensure that you are able to think of situations and objects in the Arabic language itself.  

6. Use mnemonics

Sometimes no matter how much we learn certain things, phrases or words from the vocabulary, we are just unable to memorise them. This can be best accomplished by using Mnemonics. 

7. I also recommend you to use spaced repetition system apps such as Memrise, Anki.

You could choose to use the existing Flashcards in the Arabic language or make your own decks. 

8. You can use a post-it or a large poster for that.

Now, place this magic list all over your apartment. Choose places where you spend a lot of time like: next to the coffee machine, above the stove, on the toilet or on your mirror. Whenever you are at one of these places, you will automatically have a look at the list and will be surprised how well it works.

9. Visual learners could actually sketch around

Visual learners could actually sketch something relevant to the word learnt so that it gives them an approximate reference to know what that word stands for. In order to learn all the parts of the speech, A learner could actually colour code them so as to make each word stand out on its own and be recognised with its colour code. For example

Nouns – blue

Verbs – red

Adjectives – green

10. Students are used to highlighting texts from school days in the textbooks.

The same can be applied in the case of vocabulary, words or phrases, conversation fillers or connectors and commonly used flow words that will be able to to help a learner make his or her conversation with the Arabic speaker smoother, by highlighting all relevant and important information can be seen immediately seen at the first glance.

11. Indulge in entertainment in between learning

Intensive learning of any language wood leave a learner exhausted hence we recommend not to reach a Burnout stage and incorporate small pieces of entertainment such as listening to songs, watching movies, listening to radio, podcasts, audible stories in Arabic, watching TV shows etcetera.

12. Do not underestimate the value of textbooks and learning grammar.

Learners must never ignore learning from textbooks or avoid grammar for the sake of improving their spoken Arabic. This would be best required to improve comprehension skills in Arabic and also to practice reading and writing the Arabic language.

13. I am sure you have conversation partners not only to speak Arabic with but also to get corrected.

Learners of the Arabic language argue that they may have teachers and students in the class to talk with, however, I would still suggest you have a Constant Conversation partner with you who can help you improve your spoken Arabic why being available at a time when you are studying and need help. You could ask them for feedback on your speech and accent and learn the way a street Arabic is spoken by a native. They can also help you to correct your writing if you were to show your articles written in Arabic for receiving feedback.

14. Do remember as a learner you are bound to make multiple mistakes.

Let the thought of making mistakes will not deter you from attempting to speak, write or read. However, I suggest you turn around, and use that feedback to improve your Arabic

15. Do pat your back, give yourself some credit for accomplishment after every satisfactory Arabic session

After every Arabic learning session that you completed satisfactorily do go ahead and reward yourself with a kunafa, a cup of kava, your favourite food, drink or a well-deserved nap on the couch. Be proud of your performance, even if you achieved a little less on one day than on the other. Every study session is associated with something good in your subconscious, and celebrating achievement will further seal the deal to keep you going on.

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 the liturgical language of 1.8 billion Muslims, and Arabic is one of six official languages of the United Nations. It is a Semitic language that first emerged in the 1st to 4th centuries CE. It is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. The ISO assigns language codes to 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 or simply al-fuṣḥā.

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