My Arabic journey: why it’s been so difficult

[@Thelinguist]

📲 The app I use to learn languages: tinyurl.com/nt3s2237 🆓 My 10 FREE secrets to language learning: tinyurl.com/5n6kyv2j ❓Are you learning Arabic? How has your experience been? Let me know in the comments!

[@StillAliveAndKicking_]

LingQ could be excellent if it didn’t have major bugs that make it at times unusable. Watch a film in LingQ, and the current text is often not shown as the text scrolls too far down. Switch to another app, then switch back, and the video restarts. It can take a minute to relocate the current place in the film.

[@HalimaErtugrul-eu5wj]

❤😊❤

[@HalimaErtugrul-eu5wj]

I recommanded Hellotalk app to learn arabic

[@StillAliveAndKicking_]

LingQ is potentially brilliant, unfortunately it has several very serious bugs, making it sometimes unusable when watching imported KZbin videos.

[@jarancrane2462]

I'm a revert, and my Arabic goals for the time being is to be able to read and recite the Quran. I've focused all my language learning during Ramadan to learning how to read the script, and so far it's going kind of well! The vowel pronunciation is the hardest for me, but all things considered i should be able to at least read the Quran (even if I can't understand it) by the end of the month, inshallah

[@LanguageSimp]

Arabic so hard but SO worth it!

[@reemalbashab-ik3zv]

جرب طريقة ( نور البيان ) لتعلم القراءه والكتابه بطلاقه

[@alexandace9550]

You both can learn it!

[@TheSkum]

attention seeker is here

[@alexandace9550]

Oh.

[@_-LION_]

الولايات المتحححدة الأمريكية

[@Killer97]

there is a saying regarding arabic farsi and turkish that goes " turkish starts easy and becomes hard, Farsi starts hard and becomes easy, and arabic starts hard and stays hard"

[@LearnEnglishwithCamille]

Haha I’ve been learning Turkish for a year and a half and it has never been easy, even from the beginning, so hard! 😂😂

[@A7-yw9qr]

Think about it, why are there more arabic speakers than persian and turkish speakers combined?

[@Killer97]

@@A7-yw9qr there are more arab countries than just iran and turkey? also all different dialects of arabic are still called arabic while different dialicts of turkish and farsi have different names, i.e. farsi has farsi, tajik and dari. turkish has turkish, azeri, kazakh, turkmen etc. so in reality there are more speakers than you might thik. also arabic is the language of the quran so non arab muslims have a bigger icentive to learn arabic. and last but not least hardest != impossible

[@ali383pro]

العربية تبدأ صعبة وتصبح اصعب حتى بالنسبة للعرب

[@orangotango9231]

@@jalal6529 wtf

[@derpauleglot9772]

It's really therapeutic to see someone who's been studying languages for 50 years (?) talking about how he's struggling, especially with all the "How I learned Japanese in 4 months"-videos that keep appearing in my feed.

[@Shakki_Channel]

I think he's been at it for 15 years, after he retired. Still very inspirational though!

[@rashidah9307]

@@Shakki_Channel No, he hasn't been studying Arabic that long. But he has been learning foreign languages [several] for around 50 years.

[@ahabrawgaming1289]

You cant learn japanese in 4 months thats unrealistic and mathematically incorrect if you calculate the amounts of kanji you can learn per month. It takes 3 years to be fluent in japanese. This is if you stress yourself, dont sleep, learn 10 kanji symbols per day, dont do nothing but study japanese for whole day. Even if you managed to get the higher level in jplt which is N1 you will still not understand almost 50% of japanese language. Dont forget that iapanese is actually more difficult than arabic especially when it comes to grammar. Japanese language makes arabic language look very simple.

[@Shakki_Channel]

@@ahabrawgaming1289 Studying 24/7 and learning only 10 kanji per day is a crazy example lmao From my experiences studying both Chinese and Japanese, anywhere between 15-35 new words per day is comfortable depending on the day. That's 70 new characters at best considering that a lot of words are compound words consisting of 2-4 characters in Japanese I can swear to you that after you get to N1, you will not have a "50% comprehension of a language" because that's not how it works. You know the common phrases, descriptors, question words etc, and will likely only have trouble with very specific topics that can be described to you - at N1 level, they might be able to retain the information after hearing it once. Your learning speed gets faster after you pass certain thresholds, after studying the basics and after becoming intermediate. No offense to you, and hope you don't mind the essay, but that's just another reason why "10 kanji per day for 3 years" is a terrible example. Either you've never studied a language or you are using awful methods that should be rectified ASAP.

[@Shakki_Channel]

@@rashidah9307 Ohh I see, I remembered him saying something about starting his language journey after he retired and being monolingual before that. But it might've been someone else. Thanks for clearing it up!

[@EhabBellkasy-up3wg]

دَبَبْتُ للمجدِ والساعون قد بلغوا جَهْدَ النفوس وألقَوا دونه الأُزُرا وكابدوا المجد حتى ملَّ أكثرُهم وعانقَ المجدَ مَن أوفى ومَن صَبَرا لا تحسَبِ المجدَ تمرًا أنتَ آكلُه لن تبلغَ المجد حتى تلعَق الصَّبِرا

[@zolfa-simplemind-5411]

kzbin.info4H1VSLA5UKc?feature=share

[@SuS_s]

اكيد

[@eagleeye5520]

ما أجملك يا لغتي الحبيبة

[@mulham9481]

بارك الله فيك لقد اقنعته بالاستمرار في تعلم العربية بأبياتك هذه 😂🤍

[@ahmedmusawi4239]

بارك الله فيك اول مايشوف الأبيات راح يهرب ويتعلم هندي 😂

[@hiromorita6485]

Hi! I also learn Arabic,However it’s extremely hard language for Japanese like me. It’s my goal to listen and talk with Arabic speakers. I’ll never give it up to learn Arabic 😄

[@shimaaamin2591]

Dear Steve and all your great followers, I am a native Arabic speaker (Egyptian), I teach both languages English and Arabic for South Africans and Europeans. I teach standard Arabic parallel to slang Arabic through 4 levels of difficulties. Standard Arabic is important to understand Qur'an, books, and poetries, however, slang Arabic is important to communicate with us (Arabs), because we speak slang Arabic not the standard Arabic anymore. My strategy is starting with the very basic sounds to produce words in Arabic, then we keep going to speak Arabic for some time through real experiences in life, like cooking together in the kitchen, or have our online lesson while we are walking at morning to describe our great environment in Arabic (This how we teach babies how to speak in any language through experiences, real experiences)..... When I see that my students are comfortable enough to start making a sentence of 3 to 4 words, I go with them to the second level which is reading and writing using Montessori philosophy teaching in language (in order to feel the letters). Our third level is more complicated which is learning Grammar, eishhhh I know it is difficult in Arabic, but again I use Montessori way to make it more understandable and sensorial. The last stage is when you express yourself, in speaking and writing. Then you are an Arab... It is a long journey though... Almost 6 years of effort and time... like babies when they learn any language... they only listen for a whole year, only after a year they start producing some sounds, after three years, they say a sentence of 3 to 4 words. But after 6 years they can express themselves very well. Herein, I am offering you and your followers, 2 free online sessions to get to know my strategy of teaching Arabic.... Hope to see you soon, contact me on WhatsApp if you are interested [phone].

[@RiversOfBlud]

​@@shimaaamin2591 bro you typed this in a reply

[@RiversOfBlud]

حظ موفق

[@dinahassan4320]

Good luck

[@watchyoutube9627]

If you want i can speak With you even to be strong

[@TheVovozela]

Learning fusha in Arabic is like learning to drive on a manual gear car. You may struggle at first, but then, you'll easily understand most Arabic dialects. You've inspired me to explore the potentials of starting an Arabic teaching platform.

[@R.Background]

انا من اليمن . اتكلم العربيه والانجليزيه بطلاقه وانا الان اتعلم اللغه الالمانيه لازلت اواجه بعض الصعوبات في تعلم اللغه الالمانيه عندما ارى فيديوهاتك اشعر بالتحفيز و النشاط اتمنى لك السعاده

[@Truth_Seeker198]

تعلم لغتك العربية ابتداء، ثم بعد ذلك لا يضيرك أن تتعلم كل لغات العالم !

[@ڝڞڟ]

العربية* - الإنجليزية* - بطلاقة* - اللغة* - الألمانية* - السعادة* Also: أتكلم* - وأنا* - الآن* - أتعلم* - أواجه* - أرى* - أشعر* - أتمنى*

[@user-ov2fc5sd1e]

​@@Truth_Seeker198 خبل أنت؟ الرجال قال يتكلم العربية والإنجليزية بطلاقة. بأي حق تقول له تعلم لغتك بالأول؟!

[@mohammadhalima8444]

شكراً للجهد الذي بذلته بتعلم اللغة العربية. اللغة العربية الفصحى أجمل من اللهجات المستعملة في بلدان الوطن العربي

[@thecatch4648]

100%

[@Buhaibeho]

صحيح، الفصحى اجمل و أبلغ.

[@mohammadhalima8444]

@@Buhaibeho بالطبع

[@mohamed-vm2qg]

معك حق

[@Ha77778]

بالطبع بكثير وأصعب

[@YuserAlhaj]

تحياتي ستيف، لديك عزيمة رائعة على تعلم اللغات رغم صعوبة بعضها، أتمنى لك التوفيق

[@MohammadMahmoud-n6h]

أنا سعيد أنك وصلت في النهاية لتحقيق شيء، أتمنى أنك استمتعت بالرحلة!

[@jazzyeric21]

Arabic has been kicking Steve's butt! It's interesting to see the language genius struggle and figure out how to work through it.

[@ahabrawgaming1289]

Its an easy language even a homeless can speak it

[@guyeshel9316]

@@ahabrawgaming1289 I guess there are too many homelessness where you live

[@spaghettiking653]

@@guyeshel9316 It's a funny idea though, hell, I mean, even prostitutes spoke Latin and Old Chinese!

[@user-fayzawww]

@@ahabrawgaming1289ur obviously never studied Arabicl

[@yukina8585]

@@user-fayzawww yeah, obviously Let's not talk about Pre-Islamic Arabic, it's even harder

[@tedc9682]

This video has tons of information for students of any language. You identify problems, give examples, show solutions you have tried, and so on.

[@shimaaamin2591]

Dear Steve and all your great followers, I am a native Arabic speaker (Egyptian), I teach both languages English and Arabic for South Africans and Europeans. I teach standard Arabic parallel to slang Arabic through 4 levels of difficulties. Standard Arabic is important to understand Qur'an, books, and poetries, however, slang Arabic is important to communicate with us (Arabs), because we speak slang Arabic not the standard Arabic anymore. My strategy is starting with the very basic sounds to produce words in Arabic, then we keep going to speak Arabic for some time through real experiences in life, like cooking together in the kitchen, or have our online lesson while we are walking at morning to describe our great environment in Arabic (This how we teach babies how to speak in any language through experiences, real experiences)..... When I see that my students are comfortable enough to start making a sentence of 3 to 4 words, I go with them to the second level which is reading and writing using Montessori philosophy teaching in language (in order to feel the letters). Our third level is more complicated which is learning Grammar, eishhhh I know it is difficult in Arabic, but again I use Montessori way to make it more understandable and sensorial. The last stage is when you express yourself, in speaking and writing. Then you are an Arab... It is a long journey though... Almost 6 years of effort and time... like babies when they learn any language... they only listen for a whole year, only after a year they start producing some sounds, after three years, they say a sentence of 3 to 4 words. But after 6 years they can express themselves very well. Herein, I am offering you and your followers, 2 free online sessions to get to know my strategy of teaching Arabic.... Hope to see you soon, contact me on WhatsApp if you are interested [phone].

[@amrwaleed6140]

As An arabic speaker I feel lucky alhamdulillah

[@t.samirjon2160]

You are arab so you never feel how difficult the arabic language is

[@ahabrawgaming1289]

Its an easy language anyone can learn it

[@mustafa-rp3eb]

No its not its one of the hardest languages in the world​@ahabrawgaming1289

[@miniar5384]

Maybe you can learn Arabic but you can't talk like native Arabic also for example someone from Saudi Arabia he can't understand someone from Morocco or Tunisia ​@@ahabrawgaming1289

[@guyeshel9316]

@@ahabrawgaming1289 Depends what is your native tongue

[@mhammadbenaboud1397]

I am 73. I started learning German at 60. My level now is B2. German is my 5th language. There are 5 levels that I learned : textual analysis, hearing, grammar, writing and speaking. Thay go together. My purpose was to participate in international conferences which i have now achieved. But i still take advanced courses.

[@lenten5201]

ماشاء الله تبارك الله ربنا يزيدك علماً

[@mima2023]

Wow that's amazing and pretty much inspiring

[@modiabdullah1865]

نُقدِرُ مَجهودك الذي بَذلتهُ في تَعلم اللغةِ العربية ، وَنتمنى لكَ رحلة يَسيرة ومُمتعة في التعلم لأنها لغة عَظيمة.

[@miahl4814]

I started studying Arabic in 2012 at a community college. I decided to major in it at a four-year university. I did university study abroad programs in two North African countries. A few years after that, I went to the Defense Language Institute to study Egyptian Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Being that I am a linguist in the US military, I am entitled to a month long Egyptian Arabic (MSA included) language course. Arabic is very difficult but rewarding. Stay the course, Steve, and you will continue to fall in love with the language and culture.

[@ilyesyounes1398]

علي طريق لورنس واصل فصفر وبض مادام بلحة وبن سلمان كلاب حراستكم فوق رقابنا

[@احمدبسام-ض7ض]

Egyptian Arabic 🤣😅

[@oussamabensafia2540]

إصرارك هذا قد حفزني لتعلم المزيد من اللغات. Your determination inspired me to learn more languages.

[@nuhabukha8585]

شكراً لك على هذا التحفيز الرائع ! أنت حقًا مذهل. اللغة العربية لغةٌ جميلة بالفعل ستستمع بها كثيراً وتحديداً عند قراءة الشعر والنثر. تحياتي لك وأتمنا لك التوفيق.

[@modiabdullah1865]

تُكتب أتمنى

[@nuhabukha8585]

@@modiabdullah1865 الكتابة السريعة 💔

[@afsane_nezhadi]

Arabic comes from throat like someone swilling something when they speak ugly and without p zh ch g... letter sounds words language

[@LyanHelles]

I love seeing people learn my native language ❤ it’s HARD y’all but the fact that you’re doing it amazes me so much¡ good luck ❤

[@Wazkaty]

Salam, I'm learning Arabic but I'm struggling because the "differents" Arabic (what I called Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet, not dialects [even if I don't like this word]) confuse me : How are they structured ? Is MSA really different? And depending on the "aim country", even the written Arabic (newspapers, TV, journalism) seems to be different. But I don't get it. Not yet. It is really frustrated ! I don't want to learn 'a false thing' because it would be hard in the future to fix it. That's why now I need to deeply understand the eco system of the Arabic language

[@a.r.4707]

Just start with MSA and when you have a solid base you can focus on those different dialects.

[@shimaaamin2591]

Dear Steve and all your great followers, I am a native Arabic speaker (Egyptian), I teach both languages English and Arabic for South Africans and Europeans. I teach standard Arabic parallel to slang Arabic through 4 levels of difficulties. Standard Arabic is important to understand Qur'an, books, and poetries, however, slang Arabic is important to communicate with us (Arabs), because we speak slang Arabic not the standard Arabic anymore. My strategy is starting with the very basic sounds to produce words in Arabic, then we keep going to speak Arabic for some time through real experiences in life, like cooking together in the kitchen, or have our online lesson while we are walking at morning to describe our great environment in Arabic (This how we teach babies how to speak in any language through experiences, real experiences)..... When I see that my students are comfortable enough to start making a sentence of 3 to 4 words, I go with them to the second level which is reading and writing using Montessori philosophy teaching in language (in order to feel the letters). Our third level is more complicated which is learning Grammar, eishhhh I know it is difficult in Arabic, but again I use Montessori way to make it more understandable and sensorial. The last stage is when you express yourself, in speaking and writing. Then you are an Arab... It is a long journey though... Almost 6 years of effort and time... like babies when they learn any language... they only listen for a whole year, only after a year they start producing some sounds, after three years, they say a sentence of 3 to 4 words. But after 6 years they can express themselves very well. Herein, I am offering you and your followers, 2 free online sessions to get to know my strategy of teaching Arabic.... Hope to see you soon, contact me on WhatsApp if you are interested [phone].

[@Wazkaty]

@@a.r.4707 Thank you! I'm familiar with the alphabet, now time to work on it ! :) Not the right day but, stil, Eid Mubarak !

[@a.r.4707]

@@Wazkaty Eid mubarak to you too in advance😊. Where are you from by the way if you don't mind me asking?

[@han_ane9763]

اللغة العربية ليست صعبة بل مثلها مثل جميع اللغات اذا حاولت سوف تتعلمها، تحياتي لكم من المغرب Good luck in your journey

[@tiffanyb2713]

It's very cute that you misspelled "journey" because "gurney" is actually the bed we are on when we enter a hospital or move around a hospital, for example from the ambulance into the emergency room. In other words, you made a word play without knowing it with the meaning that learning Arabic is very traumatic.

[@anasschiguer4953]

@@tiffanyb2713😂😂

[@jaloulonex1898]

Unfortunately mr you were learning a dialect ...

[@Adam-l6c]

@@tiffanyb2713 😂😂😂😂

[@monzerfaisal3673]

هذا رأيك لأنك عربي، لكن لا يمكنك إنكار الحقيقة. لغتنا من أصعب اللغات

[@letssuperfuntime]

Great respect to you for continually challenging yourself, and taking on one of the "last bosses" of language.

[@عبداللهالمهري-ح1و]

التشبيه كان بمحله

[@HabebAUH]

أنت شخص ملهم لقد كسرت العوائق وأجتزتها لتعلم لغة العربية ورغم كبر سنك، إلا أنك كافحت و صابرت، أتمنى لك التوفيق والبركة في قراءة التفسير القرآن وفهو روح العربية.

[@احمدبسام-ض7ض]

اي تفسير و اي قرآن ؟!! الاهبل يقولك : انا اتعلم اللهجة اللبنانية : يبيي و يا حبيب البي و سانية و دئيئة..

[@basmaziad5347]

New subscriber from Morocco🇲🇦. Good luck in learning Arabic. I am also learning English😊.

[@kolsafi71]

🎉 if you're around environment with belong English speaking then can learn early otherwise take more times

[@user-hc8ow1vh2b]

Berber amazigh

[@kolsafi71]

Wow from Morocco, Do you know Noora fatehi now one' or the best Bollywood actress in India....

[@basmaziad5347]

@@kolsafi71 Yeah of course I know her

[@kolsafi71]

@@basmaziad5347 ...,👍🙏 welcome

[@haitham6413]

What you are doing is great, Steve. Keep going and don’t give up. Arabic is a beautiful language and deserves your effort. Greetings from Egypt❤

[@Apprendre1999]

Yes, bro i agree with you. She is the most beautiful one in the world

[@aag3752]

Thank you so much for this vid. I think you're amazing for learning Arabic, despite how difficult it can be. I'm *Lebanese* btw. And even though that's not our only language (we've spoken many throughout our long history in this beautiful eastern Mediterranean country), it is an important language today. More power to you!

[@HamzaHamzayt-y5p]

Mr Kaufman you are a great man . Proud that some people still acknowledge the importance of this historical language , by the way i'm from Tunisia

[@waelshalan]

يسعدنا انك تتعلم اللغة العربية وأنا أجد انك اصبحت جيد جدا انا افضل الفصحى لأنها لغة جميله وثرية جدا وتستطيع التواصل بها مع كثير الناس في مختلف البلاد العربية بعكس اللهجات فبعضها لا يفهمه غير أهلها كبلاد المغرب والخليج

[@timetraveler9518]

Im glad you enjoy learning about Lebanon❤🇱🇧

[@احمدبسام-ض7ض]

لانكم مشابهين لهم في السُكر و العربدة فقط ليس لانكم مثقفين او علماء او بلد ناهض

[@timetraveler9518]

@@احمدبسام-ض7ض وهذا فقط رأيك

[@احمدبسام-ض7ض]

@@timetraveler9518 مو رأي هذي حقيقة مشاهدة على ارض الواقع لبنان ما فيها صناعة او انتاج او حتى هوية يعرفون نفسهم فيها حتى الصادقين منكم اللي يقولون احنا فينيقيين ما عندهم مشروع لتعليم اللغة الفينيقية او تاريخ الفينيقيين بس كلام اما عن التفسخ و الانحلال عندكم فحدث ولا حرج و هذا الشي يحبونه الغربيين يا هبيبي صدقني لو انتو بلد اسلامي يطبق الدين و بنفس الوقت متقدم و فيه نهضة مثل اليابان او امريكا او حتى الصين ما راح يمدحونك لانك مسلم و ملتزم الغربيين و عقليتهم انا عارفها زين

[@roudy879]

@@احمدبسام-ض7ض منيح ما منشبهكم بالتخلف يا علماء ومثقفين.

[@skylarbenedict5693]

Thank you for openly sharing your struggles! As a fellow non-native Arabic speaker, I know that many of the things you outlined are things a lot of us struggle with when we're first introduced to arabic in various classroom formats. If I could offer a suggestion though, I think it would be valuable to expand on what you're sharing here in the form of a larger conversation around table amongst different Arabic learners, both native and non-native. My main concern in what you're expressing is that it really emphasizes the challenges of studying arabic instead of the long-term rewards and beauty of forming a relationship with this language and many variants. Yes, it's true that Arabic learning presents a lot of challenges, but I wouldn't want people to feel discouraged from exploring this language because it's been labeled as a "difficult language". I don't want to in any way imply that I'm devaluing your experience, I'm certainly not, I just also want to emphasize that there are so many of us out here who have found a lot of success and joy and cultivated a lot of knowledge about resources for learning this beautiful language.

[@sunnyayoubi1070]

Hi Steve you are an inspiration for me❤️ I am 64 yrs old Lebanese woman living in Australia I speak Arabic and English and have been learning Spanish on KZbin for a short time, I’m loving it. You inspire me with your videos and all the languages you fluently speak. You are an awesome man and very intelligent. What was your favourite learning language? Keep practicing 👍😘🌹

[@mohamejd]

Buena suerte

[@Wazkaty]

I totally understand, I struggle too, and for the exact same reasons ! It's not a language but a entire new world, we'll get it !

[@shimaaamin2591]

Dear Steve and all your great followers, I am a native Arabic speaker (Egyptian), I teach both languages English and Arabic for South Africans and Europeans. I teach standard Arabic parallel to slang Arabic through 4 levels of difficulties. Standard Arabic is important to understand Qur'an, books, and poetries, however, slang Arabic is important to communicate with us (Arabs), because we speak slang Arabic not the standard Arabic anymore. My strategy is starting with the very basic sounds to produce words in Arabic, then we keep going to speak Arabic for some time through real experiences in life, like cooking together in the kitchen, or have our online lesson while we are walking at morning to describe our great environment in Arabic (This how we teach babies how to speak in any language through experiences, real experiences)..... When I see that my students are comfortable enough to start making a sentence of 3 to 4 words, I go with them to the second level which is reading and writing using Montessori philosophy teaching in language (in order to feel the letters). Our third level is more complicated which is learning Grammar, eishhhh I know it is difficult in Arabic, but again I use Montessori way to make it more understandable and sensorial. The last stage is when you express yourself, in speaking and writing. Then you are an Arab... It is a long journey though... Almost 6 years of effort and time... like babies when they learn any language... they only listen for a whole year, only after a year they start producing some sounds, after three years, they say a sentence of 3 to 4 words. But after 6 years they can express themselves very well. Herein, I am offering you and your followers, 2 free online sessions to get to know my strategy of teaching Arabic.... Hope to see you soon, contact me on WhatsApp if you are interested [phone].

[@Wazkaty]

@@shimaaamin2591 I'm busy these weeks but I'll contact you later. Thanks !

[@mravalik]

An Arabic language learner from Michigan, and I have influences from Lebanese, Jordanians, Palestinians, Iraqis, Omanis, Moroccans, and Algerians, so the choice in dialect is hard to choose from because they're all so beautiful. Thank you for the video, Steve!

[@Zylo_YoungSuccessJourney]

no please don't learn iraqis,Moroccan and Algerian you will regret it ... I am an Egyptian and most countrys don't understand them

[@Muhammed_English314]

​@@Zylo_YoungSuccessJourneyAs an Iraqi, I can say the same for Egyptian, no offense.

[@Zylo_YoungSuccessJourney]

@@Muhammed_English314 بنفهمكم بس عشان بحب المحتوي العراقي ...اما الجزائري والمغربي بعيييد جدا عن العربي

[@a.r.4707]

​@@Zylo_YoungSuccessJourneyI'm not even Arab but I can understand Iraqis quite well. I have base in MSA and some Levantine dialects.

[@shimaaamin2591]

Dear Steve and all your great followers, I am a native Arabic speaker (Egyptian), I teach both languages English and Arabic for South Africans and Europeans. I teach standard Arabic parallel to slang Arabic through 4 levels of difficulties. Standard Arabic is important to understand Qur'an, books, and poetries, however, slang Arabic is important to communicate with us (Arabs), because we speak slang Arabic not the standard Arabic anymore. My strategy is starting with the very basic sounds to produce words in Arabic, then we keep going to speak Arabic for some time through real experiences in life, like cooking together in the kitchen, or have our online lesson while we are walking at morning to describe our great environment in Arabic (This how we teach babies how to speak in any language through experiences, real experiences)..... When I see that my students are comfortable enough to start making a sentence of 3 to 4 words, I go with them to the second level which is reading and writing using Montessori philosophy teaching in language (in order to feel the letters). Our third level is more complicated which is learning Grammar, eishhhh I know it is difficult in Arabic, but again I use Montessori way to make it more understandable and sensorial. The last stage is when you express yourself, in speaking and writing. Then you are an Arab... It is a long journey though... Almost 6 years of effort and time... like babies when they learn any language... they only listen for a whole year, only after a year they start producing some sounds, after three years, they say a sentence of 3 to 4 words. But after 6 years they can express themselves very well. Herein, I am offering you and your followers, 2 free online sessions to get to know my strategy of teaching Arabic.... Hope to see you soon, contact me on WhatsApp if you are interested [phone].

[@m3talhe4d72]

Hello Steve! I'm studying Arabic and initially struggled with the alphabet because I'm dyslexic, so I want to tell you about everything I do to study in case it might help you (or anyone else)! 1. I write simple words or sentences on a whiteboard, with a stylus on my phone, or on paper which target the letters I struggle with the most. I find this really helpful for reading, because usually if I can write a letter, I can also read it, as input tends to be easier to recall than output. 2. I use an app called Kalaam to study Classical Arabic instead of studying MSA, because Classical and MSA are VERY similar. Kalaam is essentially a flashcards app to study the Quran, but as it teaches you the most used words first, they tend to be the same sorts of words you might find in articles or books (but NOT spoken Arabic). I'm not studying the Quran for religious reasons, actually I just find it very beautiful to read (also frequently read parts of the Bible and Torah for funsies lol), but I inadvertently found it helpful for MSA as well. I really can't recommend this app enough; it's free, and once you have approx. 65% of the words, it will unlock verse translations, which is a mode that lets you translate verses from the Quran with a time limit of 1 min each "round." This is particularly helpful to me for really reinforcing the memorization and acquisition of the words in context rather than just random words. It has the entire Quran that you can read with a system very similar to LingQ. Also, you get a huge hit of dopamine when you translate words and then all of the sudden the sentence just clicks! Love this app a lot! 3. This sort of goes hand in hand with the last one, but I recently went to a local used bookstore and chanced by Sahih Al-Bukhari with an English and Arabic side by side for six dollars canadian! It's too advanced for me yet but it serves as a good motivation as the book is GORGEOUS and even at a low level, flipping through the pages lets me get little gleams of information when I actually do know a word. It has all of the harakat because it's a religious book and they usually have them (which is a blessing). 4. I'm currently going through the free online course from Qatar university called "Arabic for Non-Arabic Speakers" and I find it pretty helpful, especially because some words I know from reading on Kalaam. I do this course on the EdX app on my phone, it's free for iOS and Android, and I assume it's available on PC as well. The app has other Arabic courses as well from MIT, Harvard, etc,. You can pay to take the course and get certified for earning the credit of the course. Doing so unlocks the ability to do homework and get assignments; I've never personally done this as I only really work with free resources (with Sahih Al-Bukhari being a birthday present to myself lol) so I can't attest to the quality of this. 5. I haven't done this course yet but I plan to do the Language Transfer Arabic course; I've completed all 90 lessons of the Spanish course and it helped me tremendously, so I'm hoping this will be even just a fraction as helpful. I'm not sure if this is available anywhere, but I found a transcript of the Spanish course and I'm going to look for one of the Arabic course as well. Probably making a transcript would be really helpful for learning but I don't feel like doing that lol. Oh, and Language Transfer is completely free btw. It's an audio only based course however the Arabic course currently only has up to a beginner level available. 6. This step is sort of extra for me right now because I have a pretty low level, but I like to go on Wiki and read whatever strikes my fancy. I mostly just pick out words I know and look at the pictures, but because it doesn't have harakat, it forces me to really break down the words, sentences, and look at the context to figure out each word. When I don't know a word's meaning, I look it up on DeepL, Google Translate, or whatever other dictionaries I can get my greasy hands on. Sometimes I will get ChatGPT to read paragraphs aloud to me in languages like Spanish and French which have half-decent pronunciation compared to the TTS of Google, but I haven't actually tested this for Arabic and I would take this one with a grain or several of salt. Forvo is good for pronunciations as they have various dialects and all of the recordings are by native speakers, but I can't remember if you have to pay to use it on PC and it's not free on mobile. In languages I'm pretty much fluent in I also sentence mine when I do this and make Anki cards on PC or use Mochi to make flashcards on my phone; Mochi is free on iOS but I'm not actually sure if it's on Android or not. I believe there is also a web version. Way nicer to use and look at than Anki in my opinion but I like the simplicity of Anki on my laptop for some reason. I haven't done any sentence mining in Arabic yet because I already use Kalaam for flashcards and don't want to overdo it. I may try making an Anki deck for the transliteration of words in Palestinian Arabic as I'm not as interested in reading it so much as speaking it. 7. I haven't done much of this yet, but I also like to watch KZbin videos in Palestinian Arabic to get in some comprehensible input; I don't have any channels to recommend as I haven't done this for any extended amount of time. I like to watch them a few times over and shadow each phrase. I try to find videos that are slow and have subtitles. When I practice shadowing, I take the time to get the pronunciation as close as possible, but the reality is that accents aren't THAT important to me. However I don't have a hard time with the pronunciation most of the time because I find it very similar to French. I haven't personally tried this, but if you don't have anyone to correct your speaking, try recording yourself and comparing it to the video you're shadowing. I don't really watch TV or movies but I can imagine it would be much the same, albeit with much longer episodes. And finally, I don't do all of these every day, but I try to do most of them and take the time to really get into it and enjoy it. I'm a firm believer that you can't really acquire new things if you're not having fun or at least able to be neutral. I try not to overdo it and enjoy the process because I know that Arabic is a difficult language. I don't really study grammar; it'll come to me naturally the same way English grammar did, and I'm sure that if I make a mistake and use the right words, whoever I speak to will generally understand me. Best wishes to anyone else learning this beautiful and ancient language. 🥳

[@TheNightOcelot]

Thank you for sharing your obstacles and how you keep pushing them 💪

[@rayanrayan9167]

تحياتي لك استاذ ستيف كاوفمان من المملكة المغربية . Best grettings from Kingdom of Morocco from Casablanca.

[@kazimierzgaska5304]

Humprey Bogart still there? 😁 Greetings from Warsaw, Poland.

[@Jsgaden]

I'm learning Darija ;-)

[@rayanrayan9167]

@@Jsgaden Great great great ! Keep going

[@zolfa-simplemind-5411]

kzbin.info4H1VSLA5UKc?feature=share

[@zolfa-simplemind-5411]

​@@Jsgadenkzbin.info4H1VSLA5UKc?feature=share

[@SamirTartir]

ممتاز! خليك اعمل هيك و ان شاء الله بتتعلمها مزبوط وبتيجي على الاردن كمان مرة وبنحكي مع بعض All the best, Samir from Jordan

[@ZadenZane]

Exposure makes a huge difference. Turkish is spoken locally throughout north London but Arabic isn't, at least not in places i know. So I'd have a lot more chances to practise Turkish than Arabic.

[@mahmoudalsayed9]

رحلة عربية موفقة تحياتي لك من مصر 🇪🇬

[@seewaage]

I had a hard time with Arabic too. I had a relatively easy time with Turkish and Japanese which aren't even in the same family as English but Arabic has been really tough for me. Thanks for the video!

[@aminael7861]

If you are a girl I think that I can help because I am moroccan and in the same time I wanna learn English

[@ingela_injeela]

Glad I started with Arabic first. Now, everything else feels easier. 😄

[@learnfastwithmostafa]

I taught Arabic to a doctor for one year, in private lessons, in a language school in Belgium. First, a lot of fluency activities and a lot of practice. We delved into grammar later on. He was a great learner!

[@김동운-s5k]

Thanks for your advice. I wish you good health, Steve.

[@المختاراحمد-ج8ك]

i am a arabic native speaker nd i want to tell u that Your pronunciation is great أنت رائع🤍

[@Noliem1]

I am an Arabic native speaker, and I want to tell you that your pronunciation is great.

[@المختاراحمد-ج8ك]

thanks @@Noliem1

[@Noliem1]

@@المختاراحمد-ج8ك You're welcome brother. 🌷

[@aabd1994]

When i wanted your videos i feel motivated to learn languages as more as possible, thanks from libya Arabia, شكرا

[@soffee222]

Bless you for your tenacity. Thank you for sharing your journey. Mine also started with a visit to Jordan and I have hit the exact same obstacles as you but not fared as well in keeping up. Reading without harakats is very difficult.

[@aabd1994]

تحياتي من ليبيا العربيه بالتوفيق

[@المملكةالمغربية-المورية]

ليبيا دولة أمازيغية يا منبطح للمشارقة

[@mawj8397]

تعلم اللهجة السعودية النجدية البيضاء.. فهي قريبة من الفصحى ان الحين اكتب لك باللهجة النجدية حتى اصوات الحروف هي الاقرب و الاوضح بالنطق .. وحتى في ادبيات اللغة تلقى الكثير منها في تراثنا اللغوي واذا رغبت بصديق اكتروني تسولف معاه فأنا هنا فقط اكتب بريدك الإلكتروني لي و بإذن الله اراسلك

[@MouhibBayounes]

Wow it is an actual amazing feat to learn arabic as a foreigner. I just advise you to focus on MSA before any dialect, so that you learn the general rules to the language, and it gets easier after that, you just need immersion and SO much commitment. FYI, i wouldn't do it if I was your place, but if you manage to learn arabic, you open yourself to so much underrated culture and history. I'm cheering for you.

[@AhlamAcademy]

Thats great Steve! I have been learning Egyptian Arabic for almost 1 year. I have been using many sources to learn. One resource you might find useful is Al-Kitaab textbooks, which shows the Fusha, Shami, and Masri for vocabulary. Al-Kitaab also breaks down the grammar well and provides good exercises to apply the knowledge.

[@sarifamunshi4970]

are you learning by yourself?

[@Roman-Pregolin]

Learning Levantine, goes to practice in Morocco. Good luck with that bro. I'm learning Portuguese so I went to Mexico...

[@guilhermedasilvabruner6533]

Do you know that Portuguese is not a language spoken in Mexico, right?

[@Roman-Pregolin]

@@guilhermedasilvabruner6533 do you know that Moroccan and Levantine Arabic are less mutually intelligible than Spanish and Portuguese?

[@Rationalific]

@@guilhermedasilvabruner6533 I think the point that person was trying to make is that Levantine Arabic differs from Moroccan Arabic to a similar extent that Spanish differs from Portuguese...very similar, but not mutually intelligible without a lot of exposure. In other words, it can be an impossible task to learn Levantine Arabic and then speak with Moroccans. (Of course, Steve in the video said that he was also learning Standard Arabic and speaking that in Morocco as well, with those in Morocco who could understand it and humor him, so I don't think it was a complete waste.)

[@Reverendinsanity-bt4zc]

@@Rationalific as a Moroccan i can say that is impossible to pronounce our dialect with only learning simple Arabic simply because our dialect is combination of amazigh (the language of native ppl in north Africa ) and both Spanish and french take a huge part of our vocabulary.

[@anstiptopna]

Hello, you really did a hard and long journey, and you faced real obstacles. to take credit of this hard work, here some advices : - focus on listening first - listen to classic arabic - when you rich certain level, you will be able to guess dialects - let grammar to the final steps (btw, many arab writers and speakers don't master grammar) the power of writing arabic, is that it opens the doors for a millennium of cumulated books in each and every topic. and you are now in a good level, I hope that you will go on and be able to read pdf books

[@2.2.4.4]

Exactly 👏

[@alexanderkormachev483]

Hey, Steve. Your videos are a magical journey in search of the Wizard of Oz. They inspire and help all those who are also on this road. Thanks a lot.

[@newazo]

You have right, Arabic is very difficult. Especially for someone who is trying to learn by himself. There is a huge difference between the official Arabic and the different dialects

[@onlignebridge4224]

Arabic variations. Remember British, Jamaican and American English. As well as Quelle Québec French vs. France's French.

[@onlignebridge4224]

What huge differences are there. Most Arabs inter communicate with each other. Arab migrant workers need no translators in Arabic speaking lands.

[@Mashaconbotas_26]

​​@@onlignebridge4224 I am constantly in contact with the Arabic language and culture due to the distance between my city and an Arab country. Dialects in Arabic are not comparable to dialects in Spanish, English and French. I once met two Moroccans who couldn't understand each other, even being from the same country, just because they were from different zones. A Saudi from Saudi Arabia wouldn't be able to understand a Moroccan and vice versa. When I spoke to a Saudi about this same topic, he told me he could barely comprehend 50% of what a Moroccan was saying. However, depending on the geography, Arabic speakers could understand each other if their respective dialects are similar (which normally coincides with the proximity of the countries where those dialects are spoken) So no, Arabic "dialects" have nothing to do with what we know as dialects.

[@Nermeen.]

Egyptian Arabic is the easiest and the common dialect that any arab can understand if you spoke with

[@RyhanMuhammad-bb2xh]

​@@Mashaconbotas_26 The funny thing about your words is that, as an Arabic speaker, I have a dictionary of the Akkadian language. You would be shocked if you knew that more than 90% of the vocabulary is used in our Arabic language. Never mind that you are talking about easy contemporary dialects. The problem you face is that you insist dealing with the everyday language (the dialect) as a separate language from Arabic. Arabic is an easy etymological language Here is a comment on one 💢💢💢💢 Study new Hebrew as you need , but What denies the fact of correspondence between Akkadian and Arabic? Note many classical historians said that the Akkadians are Arab, as Pliny did. And the term Semitic which derived from (Shem) one of the alleged sons of Noa was first used in the 1780s by members of the Göttingen School of History, It's not historical What makes me believe in a biblical theory?? Although if I despise my mind and believe in that biblical theory, would Shem have a language other than the language of his brothers Ham and Japheth? Who said that each son invented a different language? Were there any Noahic languages? Study new Hebrew as you need , but What denies the fact of correspondence between Akkadian and Arabic? Note many classical historians said that the Akkadians are Arab, as Pliny did. And the term Semitic which derived from (Shem) one of the alleged sons of Noa was first used in the 1780s by members of the Göttingen School of History, It's not historical What makes me believe in a biblical theory?? Although if I despise my mind and believe in that biblical theory, would Shem have a language other than the language of his brothers Ham and Japheth? Who said that each son invented a different language? Were there any Noahic languages?

[@rami26s1]

It is amazing how well you've picked up the language. I am a native arabic speaker and have recently been picking up Spanish. I appreciate the struggle, although learning Arabic is such a harder task.. much respect.

[@Bretoui]

i love how determined you are good luck to you

[@vesschan]

The question mark represents a glottal sound in Arabic. Actually learning IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is quite helpful while learning pronunciation in different languages.

[@zahleer]

He's talked about that a few times and he's not a fan of it. Imagine juggling 20 languages and learning more new symbols to explain sounds. I do like the IPA just because I like to stick to fewer languages so I won't waste time trying to wrack my brain and figure them out all myself. You have to be acquainted with linguistics to understand what it means palatal reversed pulmonal explosive ejective winking yawning vowel.

[@shimaaamin2591]

Dear Steve and all your great followers, I am a native Arabic speaker (Egyptian), I teach both languages English and Arabic for South Africans and Europeans. I teach standard Arabic parallel to slang Arabic through 4 levels of difficulties. Standard Arabic is important to understand Qur'an, books, and poetries, however, slang Arabic is important to communicate with us (Arabs), because we speak slang Arabic not the standard Arabic anymore. My strategy is starting with the very basic sounds to produce words in Arabic, then we keep going to speak Arabic for some time through real experiences in life, like cooking together in the kitchen, or have our online lesson while we are walking at morning to describe our great environment in Arabic (This how we teach babies how to speak in any language through experiences, real experiences)..... When I see that my students are comfortable enough to start making a sentence of 3 to 4 words, I go with them to the second level which is reading and writing using Montessori philosophy teaching in language (in order to feel the letters). Our third level is more complicated which is learning Grammar, eishhhh I know it is difficult in Arabic, but again I use Montessori way to make it more understandable and sensorial. The last stage is when you express yourself, in speaking and writing. Then you are an Arab... It is a long journey though... Almost 6 years of effort and time... like babies when they learn any language... they only listen for a whole year, only after a year they start producing some sounds, after three years, they say a sentence of 3 to 4 words. But after 6 years they can express themselves very well. Herein, I am offering you and your followers, 2 free online sessions to get to know my strategy of teaching Arabic.... Hope to see you soon, contact me on WhatsApp if you are interested [phone].

[@ingenueaone8447]

يعطيك العافية Thank you for sharing your struggles with us, letting us know we're not alone! I laughed out loud while watching this video cuz I've encountered exactly the same issue. I'm a Mandarin native speaker and learned Fusha on and off at the university. The writing system and the grammar have always been fun for me, but I found the same obstacle as you did that most of the content online is in Fusha and isn't helpful for communicating with real people! So now I'm living in Jordan to learn the dialect after graduating from the university. I'm in love with the Jordanian/Palestinian dialect. It's soooo lovely. My favorite textbook is Al-Kitaab, published by Georgetown University. It includes Fusha, Levantine dialect(Syrian), and Egyptian dialect.

[@samsbogh9361]

As a ex arabic teacher, a son of a arabic teacher and a grandson of historian arabic master and scholar I can only blame your proper circumstances and the way you discoverd and then blindly felt in love with arabic language reminding me the times when I first felt in love with Chinese language to discover that Chinese itself is divided in between mandarin and cantonese..... ...I read write and I speak 5 languages ( amazigh, arabic, french, spanish, english) i failed in learning chinese and I understand and can easily communicate with other 2 more (Italian and portugues) and the reader might be asking at this point why am I saying all this and that is because; for each language there's a circumstance situation and there's a story to tell like there's a tune for each dance or song ...making it short arabic language is like the same tune that has many different dances and what you are trying to do right now with all respect is learning how to become a choreographer in arabic instead of learning how to dance arabic... My advices to you: 1- stop cheating on arabic ( you're wasted too much time messing up with persian language) 2-you need to read and write arabic and you need to dominate the arabic vowels or (Harakat) 3-stay away from arabic dialects and only focus in the main classic arabic you find in literature books and stay away from egyptian movies and stay away from aljazera.... and lebanese language just like the moroccan language are not language but colloquial dualects that will not serve you in reading a book in arabic ( there are +400 million Arabs speaking arabic around the world but less than 25% of them know how to read or write arabic) 4-learn how to read and write arabic 5-read and write arabic 6-read and write arabic 7-read and write arabic 8-read and write arabic 9-read and write arabic 10-read and write arabic📚 P.s. New subscriber here and I appreciate and admire your heroism in fighting and defeating and going against all odds in learning Arabic I lost my fight against Chinese back in 2018 after 2 years of trying to self-teaching learning because of life circumstances .thanks and good luck

[@fredrickcampbell8198]

With regards to Chinese, there are many more than just Mandarin and Cantonese. If you look up any common Chinese character in Wiktionary and look under the Chinese pronunciations, you would find so many different pronunciations depending on which Chinese is spoken, although some only have pronunciations in Mandarin and Cantonese in Wiktionary.

[@samsbogh9361]

@@fredrickcampbell8198 Of course there are many more dialects other than Mandarin and Cantonese...and I absolutely agree 👍

[@Emma1996able]

Thank you for this great advice! What you are saying is exactly what I wanted to do, but I never found such advice anywhere else. People always advise newbies to learn dialects to talk to native speakers, while I think it is easier to learn any dialect if you learn MSA first. I will stick to MSA beginner books for a long time before I try to read real news or books. Please, do you know a good dictionnary? It could be English-Arabic, French-Arabic, or German-Arabic? I am looking for a solid dictionnary.

[@stoicservant4017]

@samsbogh9361 best advice to learn arabic that l heard untill now

[@wetriedbefore]

​@@Emma1996able For student of MSA, the Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic is a real gem. If you want an English-Arabic one, there's the fourth edition by JM Cowan. Recently they published the fifth edition in its original German-Arabic.

[@npc_pers0n]

This is a great video! Love from Lebanon 🇱🇧

[@Thelinguist]

I would love to visit. Let's hope peace comes to your country and region.

[@Arabe-con-Hamid]

thanks for sharing. شكرا على مشاركة تجربتك في تعلم اللغة العربية

[@coryjorgensen622]

Great to hear your Arabic update since we spoke together 3 years ago, Steve! Glad to see you're venturing into some dialects now. شدّ حيلك!

[@WolfusMandrago]

Just what I needed. Thank you!

[@ahmadkhallid9933]

I really do support you in your learning journey and I am happy to offer you free Arabic practice sessions.

[@Legalterminology14]

The Arabic language is the most difficult one on the earth . بالتوفيق استاذنا الكريم

[@josmith5419]

Not even close

[@lululemonkity]

Thank you for learning my language it means alot

[@mutasemfng8657]

من الرائع ان اجد من يحب اللغه العربيه . اتمنى ان استطيع مساعدتك.

[@nicholasjung6817]

Honestly, I'm someone who is passionate about languages and learning, I was feeling kinda down, but you gave me a lot of inspiration to keep going and keep defying the odds that are always against us. Thank you!

[@شهدبنتالشيبانيالعماري]

My advice for you is to focus on the standard Arabic or rather the fussa. It is the most elegant type of Arabic and you can communicate through it with all kinds of Arabic. With time after mastering the fussa you will be able to understand almost all kinds of Arabic . Trust me 👍🏻👍🏻 I am an Arabic

[@rashidah9307]

You are Arab, so this means that you learned Arabic in the exact opposite way of what you just said--first you learned your mother tongue (your dialect) and then you learned standard Arabic at school or through reading. Right? Your opinion is very common among Arabic speakers, but it's not very helpful for most learners. It is the LONG road to learning Arabic, which is why Steve switched to Levantine Arabic. Fusha is so vast that most students get lost or discouraged and never end up learning how to communicate with people in everyday life unless they move to a place where they need to speak to the people. To me, this is sad. On the other hand, if you start with a dialect, you will be able to feel the progress that you're making much quicker and you can always learn how to read and write Fusha down the road. That's what I've been doing, and I've been very successful.

[@PoorNeighbor]

@@rashidah9307 Is it really that true that fusha and arabic dialects share that many words in common? I can understand the Quranic Arabic, podcats in Fusha, the news (mostly) etc.. But when a native egyptian/lebanese/algerian speaks i only understand very basic words 'sama3a', 'sa3b','mamnu3'. Some of these words you can't even find in arabic dictionnaries online.!

[@Youssef0120]

@@PoorNeighbor Yes they're very different but the common standard arabic helps. As a native arabic speaker, I didn't understand egyptian movies or shows as a kid when my family watched them, but when you get some exposure you can quickly catch up because most of it is the same

[@MotorStorm66]

*fusha

[@danielmonteyro]

Arabs don't understand that they don't speak Arabic, they speak languages that developed from Arabic and are still called Arabic for religious purposes. Arabic and Latin were a lingua franca someday, but such as Latin was turned into the Romance languages, Arabic turned into the Arabic languages... but for some reason, people don't understand that there're no "Arabic varieties", there're Arabic languages, so you're not focusing on a Arabic variation in order to learn other variations, you're learning a language to learn its sister languages, and that's why the task to learn Arabic "variations" will be quite a task

[@motasemmutasem4527]

I respect your noble efforts to have this experience seriously. I am Arabic speaker who works hard to learn more foreign languages. Kind regards.

[@victorbrown3570]

So disappointed in myself. To this day and for the rest of my life I will regret not learning Arabic after working in Saudi Arabia for 15 years. I have some minor excuses that just don't cut it. I did try, even did a 1 month intensive course in Cairo where I was confused the whole time between standard Arabic and Egyptian Arabic.I took classes on our compound and briefly at a university. Every now and then I tell myself to give it another shot even at my age of almost 70. I can read it a bit and understand it a little bit when I hear certain words, phrases, etc. Why did I want to learn Arabic, because I so wanted and still want to learn a non European language, especially a non Romance language as I speak French, Spanish, Portuguese and I'm studying Italian and German. Unfortunately I'll continue to get this feeling from time to time for the rest of my life, that I should be speaking Arabic well. Interestingly, I now often run into lots of Arabic speakers here in the US where I live very close to Detroit, Michigan. Happily, I understood everything you said in Arabic Steve. Lastly, things have changed greatly in Saudi since I left it in 2006. Sometimes I think, had I gone to other Arabic speaking countries or to Saudi since the changes, I'd be speaking Arabic now. Sorry, it would take me too long to explain that. I haven't worked on Arabic since I left Saudi. The hurt I get is intense. Sometimes I think to give Swahili a shot; supposedly it has a lot of Arabic in it. I started learning languages at 25 after a backpacking trip to Europe / Central Asia and being surrounded by multilingual people. I started with French as I thought it would help me some day in visiting Africa. Then I kept going. Learning languages and about different cultures became my passion. I got a degree in Teaching English as a second Language and l lived abroad, I'm American USA, for 25 years in a few countries Travel and languages changed my life drastically. I should have started young.

[@chaoslanguagelearning]

Fascinating! Well, better late than never.

[@victorbrown3570]

Thanks for the feedback. That's what I keep hoping though it's not looking likely.@@chaoslanguagelearning

[@shimaaamin2591]

Dear Steve and all your great followers, I am a native Arabic speaker (Egyptian), I teach both languages English and Arabic for South Africans and Europeans. I teach standard Arabic parallel to slang Arabic through 4 levels of difficulties. Standard Arabic is important to understand Qur'an, books, and poetries, however, slang Arabic is important to communicate with us (Arabs), because we speak slang Arabic not the standard Arabic anymore. My strategy is starting with the very basic sounds to produce words in Arabic, then we keep going to speak Arabic for some time through real experiences in life, like cooking together in the kitchen, or have our online lesson while we are walking at morning to describe our great environment in Arabic (This how we teach babies how to speak in any language through experiences, real experiences)..... When I see that my students are comfortable enough to start making a sentence of 3 to 4 words, I go with them to the second level which is reading and writing using Montessori philosophy teaching in language (in order to feel the letters). Our third level is more complicated which is learning Grammar, eishhhh I know it is difficult in Arabic, but again I use Montessori way to make it more understandable and sensorial. The last stage is when you express yourself, in speaking and writing. Then you are an Arab... It is a long journey though... Almost 6 years of effort and time... like babies when they learn any language... they only listen for a whole year, only after a year they start producing some sounds, after three years, they say a sentence of 3 to 4 words. But after 6 years they can express themselves very well. Herein, I am offering you and your followers, 2 free online sessions to get to know my strategy of teaching Arabic.... Hope to see you soon, contact me on WhatsApp if you are interested [phone].

[@AyaBakloul]

​@victorbrown3570i am moroccan our arabic is much harder than muddle easter arabic

[@cctoycc8114]

والله انسان ملهم و طموح كل ما اترك قناته و ارجع القاه بعده بنفس الشغف و الاجتهاد

[@المختاراحمد-ج8ك]

أنت حقا رائع حقا اللغة العربية صعبة و لكنك تعلمتها ما شاء الله

[@ryccki4el]

انا جدا فخور لأن العربية هي لغتي الام ، اتحدث بطلاقة وبكل لهجات الدول العربية 🇩🇿

[@williamrovsen7841]

العربية مشتاقة من الآرامية والسريانية.

[@إبن-العربي]

​@@williamrovsen7841 لا تدري ولا تدري أنك لا تدري

[@williamrovsen7841]

@@إبن-العربي ادري أو لا ادري احكيها لقريش

[@jkf3169]

كلامك صحيح. لكن كسمك بكلا الاحوال @@williamrovsen7841

[@ZKh408]

@@williamrovsen7841 وانت ليش ضايج والله ياالله العربية لغة سامية وليست مشتقة من السريانية او الآرامية اللي همة ايضاً سامية والعبرية كذلك ، متعصبين للغاتكم كالعميان 😂 الحمدلله الذي عافانا مما ابتلاكم به اصلاً لا تستطيع فهم السريانية والتمكن منها بدون العودة الى الجذور العربية ويجي يگول مشتقة من السريانية 🤦🏻‍♀️

[@mansourmohammed7830]

Keep in mind, the basic Arabic language is Classical Arabic, then dialects begin to appear. The Egyptian dialect is completely different from the Saudi dialect, for example, and the Emirati and Jordanian dialects, and so on the rest of the Arab countries. What you hear in Egyptian films will never be clear in Emirati films, etc. If you want to read all Arabic resources, including news and books, focus on classical Arabic only, because all these countries understand it well.

[@hodair]

What do you say to a Brazilian who wants to work in Arab football? What dialect do you suggest?

[@mohamedabdlehamed7789]

@@hodair

[@asmaajo1913]

​​@@hodair بالنسبة لي ، نصيحتي سافر إلى البلد الذي ستعمل فيه بعد تعلم كلمات معدودة واختلط بالمجتمع ستجد الكل حولك يُحاول التواصل معك وتعليمك من الصغير إلى الكبير، مُجتمعاتُنا مِرحابة وكريمة بشكل يفوق الخيال، وإن تواصلت قبل السفر مع أحد من البلد التي ستزورها ممن هو يُتقِن لُغَتَك ستجد الاندماج في المجتمع وتعلم اللّغة يَسهلُ عليك كثيراً لا تخف أبداً مجتمعاتنا طيبة بشكل لا يُصدّق سَيجتمعون حولك ويُساعدونك في التّعلم ((تصوّر إن مرض أحدنا ستجد الكل ممن يعرفه وممن لا يعرفه حوله، إن تزوج أحدنا الكل يحضر العرس سواء يعرفك أو لا يعرفك 😂،الآن نحن في رمضان الكل يتصدق ويذبح ويُوزّع الطّعام على الحارة)

[@aboibrahim9710]

Definitely khalij dialect because your going to work in khalij @@hodair

[@benlarbi4574]

The Arabic language is a very rich and beautiful language. I wish you success in your journey. اللغة العربية من أغنى وأجمل اللغات في العالم..حظ موفق في رحلتك نحو تعلم اللغة العربية.

[@Taratouille.]

Its the most beautiful language to ever exist imho. So totally worth the struggle

[@matthewhayden6505]

It sounds absolutely awful

[@sciencetamer1404]

keep your venomous comments for you please!

[@bastet-onthemoon]

​​@@matthewhayden6505really? I bet you haven't listened to Hebrew or German yet

[@matthewhayden6505]

@@bastet-onthemoon Hebrew sounds similar to Arabic and German sounds cool as fuck honestly

[@bastet-onthemoon]

@@matthewhayden6505 you must be kidding. Both Hebrew and Arabic are semitic languages, but definitely don't sound the same. Try to listen to Arabic poetry for instance or Arabic news bulletin, and you would get what I mean.

[@Fatima-sowf7]

انت رائع في تعلم اللغة العربية بسرعة اتمنى لك رحلة ممتعة ❤🥀

[@albaraa-bin-malek]

From Google, "Arabic has over 12 million distinct words. To put this into context, the Oxford English Dictionary includes just over 170,000 words. As one example, Arabic has 23 words for love."

[@goldofox5111]

yes, but beginners need only one word for love and most natives wouldn't know more than five at best. Beginners should stop trying to conquer the ocean and take on the lake instead.

[@Truth_Seeker198]

​@@maktabati_ ذكرتني بقول الشافعي رحمه الله: ولسانُ العرب أوسعُ الألسنة مذهباً، وأكثرُها ألفاظًا، ولا نعلمُه يُحيط بجميع علمه إنسانٌ غــــيرُ نبيّ، ولكنه لا يذهب منه شيءٌ على عامتها، حتى لا يكون موجوداً فيها مَن يعرفُه. ذكره في الرسالة.

[@tracych26]

As a Lebanese person, I hope you stay motivated! Arabic is a beautiful language that is definitely worth learning, and Lebanese Arabic opens up a treasure trove of beautiful music and other content to consume. Great video :D

[@cuteorpyarahamza]

As a Pakistani, I found Arabic extremely easy to learn.

[@moraaoo4889]

أنت حقا شخص رائع, و ايضا بالنسبة لى انت مثل اعلى فى عالم اللغات, لذالك انا اصبحت من محبيك و متابعيك انت و قناة Language simp, انا فى الوقت الحالى اتعلم اللغة الروسية و الانجليزية, اتمنى لكم و لنفسى التوفيق من عند الله You are really a wonderful person, and also for me you are an ideal in the world of languages, so I have become a fan and follower of you and the Language Simp channel, I am currently learning the Russian and English languages. I wish you'll and myself success from God.

[@chaoslanguagelearning]

I wonder Steve, if your teachers mentioned that there's what's informally called Middle Arabic. It's something between fusha standard Arabic and dialect /colloquial. This is easier to learn as it does away with harakat, albeit, only at the end of words, which is a great bonus even for native Arabic speakers who struggle at times with grammar. This middle language is actually works as a lingua franca among Arabs of different dialects. This what overall you hear on TV and online discussions. Let me give you some examples: with harakat, and without harakat: ْأُريدُ أنْ أتَعَلَّمَ اللُّغةَ العربيةَ .. اريد اتعلَّمْ اللُّغهْ العربيه I wanna learn Arabic سأكُونُ سَعِيدأً أنْ أتَعَلَّمَ لُغاتٍ عَديدَةٍ .. راحْ/ سَأكونْ سَعيدْ انْ اتْعَلَّمْ لُغاتْ عَديدَهْ I'd be happy to learn many languages أنا أعْتَقِدُ أنَّ عَلَيْكَ أن تُرَكِّزَ على المُحادَثةِ لا عَلى قُواعدَ النَّحوِِ .. انا اعْتَقِدْ عَليكْ ان تْرَكِّز على المُحادَثهْ لا على قواعد النَّحو I think you'd have to focus on conversational Arabic and not on grammar As you can see in these examples, there is no harakat on the end of words, just like in Persian. Secondly, the two styles are similar. With the middle language everybody will understand you without the need for following strict grammar rules. Then gradually you'll develop grammatical skills over time. The good thing is in Arabic unlike English for instance, there's a degree of flexibility in using the harakat which are equivalent to vowels in English. For example, you can say Sama'tu instead of Sami'tu (to hear) or Areedu instead of Ureedu (to want) or Araftu instead of Ariftu (to know) and so on. Strictly speaking, the correct haraka should be used, but hey , no big deal , even Arabs themselves make these mistakes. In Eng you can't say Geve instead of Give or wint instead of went, or worse , bitch instead of batch ! In Arabic, you can, in comparison!! Finally, I should say learning Egyptian or Levantine Arabic is not the right way. Middle lang is. Hope that helps.

[@kazimierzgaska5304]

Thank you for the very usefull information. Maybe I will find a courage to start learning Arabic one day. Greetings from Warsaw, Poland!

[@Muhammed_English314]

As an Arab, this so-called "Middle Arabic" is cursed and should not be taught (You're free to disagree). I've never heard anyone speak like that, everyone either speaks in their dialect or tries their best at standard Arabic while maybe butchering a haraka here and there.

[@idkk4125]

I don't recommend this middle Arabic thing as a native speaker

[@joeldabu8839]

Your video precisely narrated my own travails with wanting to be conversant in Arabic. All the instruction for foreigners is in Fus’ha, like teaching you to learn Classical Latin when you’re prepping to talk to folks in the Mercado in Sevilla.

[@briteness]

After some conversations with Muslims, asking them about some things in the Koran and the Hadith traditions, I found that the go-to answer to challenging questions was to say that you cannot really understand the texts unless you speak Arabic. I heard that from at least three different Muslims. So, I decided to try to learn the language. This effort lasted about 10 days, which is lame even for me.

[@betos-08]

The Quran is interesting. Many times it's very straightforward, you can translate it word for word and understand. But it's very ambiguous and unclear at other times. Most English translations add parentheses or add words or pronouns that arent in the Arabic. It's reminds me of Japanese books, when a character is speaking, often they dont say who is speaking but just have the dialogue. It's very confusing. You definitely need either a sheikh or to read the tafsir to help understand what's going on.

[@مصطفى21]

@@betos-08 A lot of people aren’t aware that ellipsis is very common and actually a natural part of Classical Arabic. It’s very present in the Qur’an. But it’s also present in various texts we have from the classical era, the poetry for example and other texts. I find this aspect fascinating personally because it requires one to think and ponder over what they’re reading. Also it makes the speech very concise.

[@switchbone5083]

Yeah the language has many levels fusha then standard Arabic then colloquial, you in English standard and colloquial very similar unlike Arabic which a problem and then you got fusah which the quran are written is a whole different level only few people know the ins and outs who spend time reading and studying a lot and you can play and be creative and tricky in it with massive massive vocabulary which standard are part of and Arabs were famous for poetry and battles back then and quran is above all is the best of the best in terms of the writing and using words that's one of his proves at that time that it's master piece no one could come near to produce something like it that's why it's sometimes hard for the average person to breakdown or understand sometimes and even after that somethings have different interpretations and some you just put the obvious basic label to it and you may never get the real meaning and some to this day still discuss give some possible hidden meaning interpretation so that's why you better ask the scolars I hope you got the idea 😂

[@shimaaamin2591]

Dear Steve and all your great followers, I am a native Arabic speaker (Egyptian), I teach both languages English and Arabic for South Africans and Europeans. I teach standard Arabic parallel to slang Arabic through 4 levels of difficulties. Standard Arabic is important to understand Qur'an, books, and poetries, however, slang Arabic is important to communicate with us (Arabs), because we speak slang Arabic not the standard Arabic anymore. My strategy is starting with the very basic sounds to produce words in Arabic, then we keep going to speak Arabic for some time through real experiences in life, like cooking together in the kitchen, or have our online lesson while we are walking at morning to describe our great environment in Arabic (This how we teach babies how to speak in any language through experiences, real experiences)..... When I see that my students are comfortable enough to start making a sentence of 3 to 4 words, I go with them to the second level which is reading and writing using Montessori philosophy teaching in language (in order to feel the letters). Our third level is more complicated which is learning Grammar, eishhhh I know it is difficult in Arabic, but again I use Montessori way to make it more understandable and sensorial. The last stage is when you express yourself, in speaking and writing. Then you are an Arab... It is a long journey though... Almost 6 years of effort and time... like babies when they learn any language... they only listen for a whole year, only after a year they start producing some sounds, after three years, they say a sentence of 3 to 4 words. But after 6 years they can express themselves very well. Herein, I am offering you and your followers, 2 free online sessions to get to know my strategy of teaching Arabic.... Hope to see you soon, contact me on WhatsApp if you are interested [phone].

[@gongkong-oi7qx]

I recommend u muslim lantern to speak with. He is a native learned speaker

[@JosephTinini]

ما شاء الله يا استاذ انك تبلى بلاء حسنا في تعلم اللغه العربيه بالتوفيق وانا ايضا شغوف بتعلم اللغه الانجليزيه واللغه الالمانيه اني اشعر بصعوبه التي تواجهها في مسارك التعليمي لكن اصرار والاستمرار في مضي قدما

[@warqaanizar2527]

جهدك المبذول يجعلني فخورة استمر لغتك جيدة جداا

[@flashgordon6510]

This is making me glad I picked Japanese, lol. Arabic was on my short list, along with Russian. I guess I like harder-to-learn languages...

[@edmoala]

Japanese, Arabic, and Russian? You cray cray

[@chaoslanguagelearning]

Japanese has 3 alphabets and 46 characters and other diacritics etc. Arabic alphabet has 28 letters and three vowels and three main diacritics. Even the writing system is simple. In fact simper than English!! yes. compare these two characters in English and Arabic: A - ا or B ب . you can see the letter A has three lines , the Arabic A just one line ! The rest of the letters more or less the same.

[@belstar1128]

at last the arab script is easy compared to japanese and Russian is very easy compare to these 2

[@mazenbasha]

رائع جدا وجميل.. لديك اصرار و صبر فريدان من نوعهم وجهك منير بالطيبة والعزيمة حظاً موفقاً يا عمي، أتمنى لك التوفيق. تحياتي لك من دبي

[@hodair]

It's strange that you say that the "harakats" bother you! For me, the lack of them is what makes it difficult to save which vowel to use... I study Arabic here in Brazil

[@SoriduSnakeu]

Brother Steve, you're doing a great job. I greatly appreciate your approach and motivation.

[@eelmohamed]

The worst way to learn Arabic is to try learning one of it's dialects. Most of them butcher the Arabic language especially the Egyptian and Lebanese dialects. All Arabs know classic Arabic since it's the one that's taught in schools. If I weren't already an Arabic speaking person, I would learn it first then try to learn the dialect of the country or the region of my interest.

[@MazuiWanna]

No, not butcher. Those were different languages before Arabs conquered them 😊 and they still are different languages, NOT dialects. I'm tired of people like you and classicos undermining languages.

[@alaswim5276]

​Are you sure of that I mean these dialects which you considered it as languages..these dialects nothing than a distortion of the arabic language and a result of un education and ignorance of arabic languages which result from years and years of backwardness..​@@MazuiWanna

[@OmarAbdulMalikDHEdMPASPACPAPro]

Thank you so MUCH, Mr.Kaufman. I have struggled w/ Arabic for decades. I am able to read Quran b/c many have the vowel signs. However, it is Fusah, which hardly any modern Arabic speaker uses. I was learning Egyptian Arabic, which apparently people from different Arab countries don't use! : ( . I became very frustrated and quit. Your advice has helped inspire me. I'm almost 60. Do you find that learning languages keeps your mind sharp as you get older. BTW, I first saw you from this young Japanese gentleman named Karsuma (YT). Thanks again. Take care.

[@ancientromewithamy]

I only started Arabic recently (starting with MSA, I'll figure out dialects at a later point, but really I want to understand things like news). I'm still struggling with trying to remember the short vowels when they're not written, I feel like it's not giving me all the information I need there. Writing a lot has helped (with learning the writing system) and listening a lot.

[@LaurieJoseph-z8f]

Great suggestions! I studied Arabic in University decades ago, after 3 years I could read and understand a lot but my speaking in either Levantine or Egyptian was poor, so now I need to start over with dialect but luckily I can still remember the reading. It seems easier to find good learning content online in many other languages...

[@chaoslanguagelearning]

I suggest you learn and focus on Middle Arabic, the lang between standard and dialect. It's the lingua franca among Arabs. Everyone will understand you. The key of course to learning any language and that includes Arabic is practice, practice and more practice. You might say am stating the obvious. yes I am! :)

[@stevesmith291]

If you haven't seen it already, there's an intresting video entitled "How to acquire any language NOT learn it!" by Poly-glot-a-lot that has had 4.1M views. Starting from zero, Jeff Brown becomes fluent in Arabic in a year. As the title suggests, it's worth watching for learners of any language. He's in the Stephen Krashen / compreshensible input school.

[@SuperTikes]

I loved that video!

[@Массинисса-у1э]

Have you tried the Arabic Voices textbook? It has monologues in both Standard Arabic and some dialects. The audio is available for free on KZbin.

[@ahmetyasar4908]

I think a good way to learn Arabic vocabulary and İslamic culture is to read Hadeeth (The sayings Of Prophet Muhammed peace be upon him) Books. They are generally the size of a paragraph and in a Hadeeth Books they may have thousands of them. Some books have a hadith And than its translation under it. So you have a paragraph and the meaning of the words just like LingQ. Also the fact that they divide it into different topics is helpful. Like there is a topic and 100 paragraphs about that topic. And it is easy to learn the vocabulary about that topic. I Especially advice you to read "Sahih Al Bukhari"

[@a.r.4707]

When you want to learn Arabic it all depends on your goals akhi. You generally need quite varied vocabulary for the daily life interactions. Hadith vocabulary will help you more with religious literature and classical Arabic. Many of those words are not used nowadays among Arabs in their daily interactions necessarily. If you learn Arabic first and then you read the hadith collections explained by the Muslim scholars, past and contemporary, you will get good grasp of literary classical Arabic in general. It might not help you that much in speaking though unless you are giving a khutba or some islamic lesson.

[@HtetThiriNaing]

Lots of inspiration 🎉

[@Fahadx43]

That’s why i’m so grateful for being an Arabic native speaker so i don’t have to learn it from scratch as a foreigner 😭, KEEP GOING ALPHA LANGUAGES LEARNER

[@ahabrawgaming1289]

Its not really difficult compared to japanese.

[@Sarah-yx5qz]

@@ahabrawgaming1289 no

[@NShll-sd9yw]

@@ahabrawgaming1289 The difficulty of Japanese lies in memorizing a large number of kanji characters and roots, etc yet the grammar is fairly easy, on the other hand, Arabic has a small number of alphabet letters but the grammar, syntax, morphology, parsing, sentence structure, and poetry meters are quite complex.

[@RyhanMuhammad-bb2xh]

​​@@NShll-sd9yw Arabic grammar is the most logical and easiest according to the languages I know: English, French, and German. I wonder, if I presented you with any paragraph in a language you know, would you not be able to extract a subject, a verb, an object, an adjective, an adverb, and a noun ? In fact, this is Arabic grammar the most magnificent thing at Arabic . Or will your intelligence not allow you to find the subject who performed the verb, and you will not find the object that occurred? It has the verb, it is the most beautiful thing in the language. I think there is a mistake in the educational system

[@reynir775]

If Lord Steve struggles, Allah help me on my journey haha

[@robstein007]

He doesn't have your motivation, motivation is everything, wish you successfully learn it.

[@carnivoreisvegan]

I feel the same. I just started and the "infinite ocean" is pretty difficult.

[@nina0891]

Don't lose your motivation, Maybe he struggles with arabic, but he did learn chinese, witch is a very difficult for many other learners, trust yourself and go ahead, if somebody else did it you can do it too, good luck

[@Tehui1974]

LOL

[@Catherineskits]

Haha you’ll do it, it’s all about input naturally

[@sarahwatts8184]

im not learning arabic and i dont know what hes talking about but i like it