1. First of all, let me make it clear that there are no fast fixes for vocabulary, perhaps with the exception of so-called “cognates” – words of English origin that have become a part of the Arabic language. If you haven’t doen so already I suggest you download my free report on over 200 such words here: Arabic Words.

2. You need to understand that Arabic is based on a system of roots. For example, the three letters K -T – B (كتب) can be used to form a vast number of words, such as kaatib - writer, kitaab - book, istiktaab - dictation, maktoob - written, kitaaba - writing etc. Most of these derivations are formed according to rules that can be learned easily. Once you have mastered these grammatical rules you will be able not only to guess the meaning of many unknown words, but to “invent” or “guess” new words yourself. So a good place to start your campaign to increase your Arabic vocabulary would be to take a good look at the grammatical forms that can be derived from a root.

3. Read extensively. What I mean by this is that you should try to read as much and as widely as possible. Only be seeing an Arabic word in multiple contexts repeatedly will you be able to build up the required connections in your brain to recognize it and remember its meaning accurately at a later point. Learning vocabulary from lists is very inefficient, as it strips the word from its meaningful context.

4. Read intensively. This is the counterpart to step 3: often, you should try to read a single piece of writing multiple times. Read it silently at first and then try to read it out aloud. A third pass through the text could have you trying to emphasise words for meaning, like in a theatre play.

5. Use audio whenever you can get hold of it. Using an audio recording of a text in conjunction with the text itself is not only good for Arabic pronunciation, but it also gives your brain another chance to absorb the new words.

6. Use memory techniques to remember stubborn words. As you know (see my method for learning the Arabic alphabet) I’m a big fan of mnemonics, or memory techniques that speed up learning. An example of such a technique for remembering Arabic vocabulary words would be this: “black” in Arabic is aswad. Visualize spilling dark black ink on a swot (a geek) in a classroom back at school. This little story allows you to associate the sound of the word aswad with its meaning black.

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Today I published Arabic Genie’s Magic Key To The Arabic Alphabet. It contains a unique method for learning the Arabic letters that hasn’t been published anywhere before. Instead of rote memorization, the method works through the use of mnemonics, or memory aids, that anchor the shape and sound of the Arabic letters in your brain – almost effortlessly.

Learning to read and write Arabic is one of the most important stages on your journey to speaking Arabic fluently. Yet, the Arabic alphabet is also the single most feared aspect of the language. Because of the writing system, many people either do not start to learn Arabic at all, or else, they avoid learning the written language and end up languishing at the beginner’s level.

If you’ve thought about learning Arabic before or you are learning it now, you should read my article in which I explain this revolutionary Arabic alphabet learning method.

Master The Arabic Alphabet

Some of the things you’ll learn by reading the article:

• How to remember the shapes of all 28 Arabic letters without rote memorization
• How a 7-year old boy from Yemen revealed the secret Arabic alphabet learning method to me
• How I refined this method and adjusted it so that it can be used by non-Arabs
• How you too can learn to read and write Arabic in hours

So, don’t delay! Check out the article on this result-getting method now!

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First up is Zattoo – a program that streams a number of TV channels over the internet. Luckily, Al-Jazeera Arabic is also available and the quality is rather good, especially the quality of the audio. So just a quick heads-up for anyone who’s been searching for ways to watch Al-Jazeera online: go and check out this program.

Other Arabic TV channels can be found on livewtv.com. Among others, you can watch:  ar-rrisaala, RTM Morocco, Iqraa TV, Al Majd, and 2m Morocco.

Another great news channel is Al Arabiya. You can watch it on livestation.com.

Watching Arabic TV can do wonders for your Arabic and now you can’t fall back on the excuse that Arabic TV is not available in your region.

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If you know how to speak the Arabic dialect of another region (e.g. Levantine or Gulf Arabic) or speak Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), then it will be easy for you to pick up the Nile way of speaking. In this article I’ll give you some general pointers to head you in the right direction.

Pronunciation

The most audible idiosyncrasy of Egyptian Arabic is that the letter ج is pronounced as a <g> sound as opposed to the <dj> or <j> sound in MSA and in other dialects. So, the name “Jamal” becomes “Gamal” and the word for “crazy” – مجنون – is not “madjnoon”, but “magnoon”. This peculiarity is easy to get used to and shouldn’t pose any problems.

The second noticeable aspect concerning pronunciation is that the sounds of two emphatic consonants (the “dark” sounds) are replaced with their “lighter” counterparts: the letters ض <Daad> and ظ  <Zaa’> are usually rendered as <z>.

The third sound pattern is that the letter ق is (usually) not pronounced as <q> but instead omitted or replaced with a glottal stop <’> (hamza  ء). So for instance, “qasr” (castle) becomes “’asr”.

Finally, the letter ث <th> is pronounced mostly as <s> and sometimes as <t>. For instance, مثلاً“mathalan” (for example) becomes “masalan” and اثينا “atheena” (Athens) becomes “ateena”.

Basic question words

Like the other dialects too, Egyptian Arabic uses a number of special question words that deviate from Modern Standard Arabic. In the table below I’ve listed the most frequent ones:

Grammar

- the regular masculine plural <oon> is always rendered as <een>. E.g.  مدرسون“mudarrisoon” (teachers) becomes “mudarriseen”.

- a regular action or state of affairs requires a <b> sound to be put in front of the verb. E.g.  انا احب السنيما“ana u7ibbu al-sineema” (I like the cinema) becomes “ana be7ibb al-sineema”.

- in a question, the question word is often put last, whereas in MSA it is usually put first. E.g. MSA  اين تسكن؟“Ayna taskunu?” (where do you life?) becomes “feen saakin?”.

- negation: in Egyptian Arabic verbs are negated by adding a “ma” and appending a “sh”. E.g.  لا اشرب“la ashrabu” (I don’t drink) becomes “ma ashrabsh”. Adjectives or nouns are negated by adding a “mish” or “mush” in front of the word. E.g. غير عادي “gheir ‘adi” (not normal) becomes “mish ‘adi”.

Whether you decide to learn Egyptian Arabic or not, bear in mind that the Arabic dialects approach MSA the more the conversation is not about “basic” topics (such as food, directions, family) but about more “advanced” topics (such as politics, religion, society, economy etc.). The more you progress in your study of the dialect, the more you need to acquire vocabulary and grammatical constructions from MSA.

Finally, and connected to my last point, it might be prudent to not rely wholly on audio materials or transliteration. At some stage or other you need to learn to read and write Arabic to progress further.

Hopefully, this post has given you some idea of the particularities of Egyptian Arabic and helped you decide whether you should learn it or not.

Click here for Part II of this introduction to Egyptian Arabic.

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1. Arabic is spoken by more than 280 million people as a native language.

This makes it the fifth (or fourth if Hindi and Urdu are counted as one language) most widely spoken language of the world. Being able to talk to that many people is definitely a huge motivation.

2. Arabic is cool.

Not many Westerners speak Arabic and having some command of the language will immediately make you appear extremely sophisticated and clever in the eyes of many.

3. Arab culture is rich and diverse.

Everybody should be able to find some aspect of the culture that they find intriguing. Just to give a few examples: have you ever listened to the Lebanese singer Fairouz or the Egyptian singer Amr Diab? What about sitting in a typical Maqha (café) in the middle of a Suq (market) while listening to a soryteller? Or reveling in the beauty of Arabic calligraphy? Or reading the 1001 Nights in the original?

4. Untapped economic potential.

The Middle East is extremely rich in natural resources. Someone who speaks Arabic will be in an extremely advantageous position job-wise in a few years time when the economy in the region really kicks off.

5. Arab hospitality.

As soon as you just utter a few words of Arabic in front of a native speaker, they will be delighted and eager to help you in any way possible. Ever learnt German just to discover that the Germans themselves are not impressed or positively disinterested when you speak their language? You will find the exact reverse in most of your encounters with Arabs. They really are proud of their language and pleased with anyone making an effort to learn it.

6. Understanding Islam.

In the current times of increasing hostility between the “Arab World” and the “West” it is crucial to understand the Islamic religion and the various streams contained within it. What if you were able to read for yourself Koranic verses that some Muslims say promote peace and other Muslims say call for war? You could make up your own mind much easier.

7. Demand for Westerners fluent in Arabic is high and supply is low.

And no, I’m not only talking about the secret services that are desperately looking to hire anyone fluent in Arabic. I’m also talking about businesses, interpreting and translating. Being able to speak Arabic will give you the edge over your competition.

8. Arabic is a bridge language.

Knowing Arabic opens the door to many other languages in the region. For example, approximately 50% of the vocabulary of Persian (Farsi) is made up of Arabic words. Similar considerations apply to learning Urdu or Turkish. Also, Hebrew is related linguistically to Arabic, which makes it easier to grasp the grammatical and semantic concepts in Hebrew.

9. Arabic is a very exciting language linguistically.

With the deeply entrenched root system, learning Arabic can be a great joy. E.g. if you know that kataba means “to write” in Arabic, then it will be easy to deduce that kitaab means “book” and kaatib means “writer”. It also has some

10. Travelling in the Middle East.

The Arab World is a great place to travel – if you know Arabic, that is. While the number of Arabs speaking English is constantly on the increase, the vast majority of the population only speaks Arabic. So it is essential that you speak at least basic survival Arabic when you travel in the region. And travelling there is certainly something that you shouldn’t miss with lush countryside, arid deserts and traditional villages.

What are your reasons for learning Arabic?

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In the article, the author writes:

But however modest our achievements, the presence of foreign students does seem to please the Damascenes. “Tadrusus el lawra Arabiya – hunna?” they ask delightedly – “You’re studying Arabic – here?”

Now, I very much doubt that an Arabic native speaker from Damascus would have asked “Tadrusus el lawra Arabiya – hunna”. First of all, if the comment was supposed to be in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) / فسحى (fusHa), then the question should have been “(hal) tadrus(u) al-lugha al-3arabiyya hunna?”. Secondly, more probable, someone from Damascus would have asked in Damascene dialect “btedrus 3arabi hoon?”.

This faux-pas puts doubt on the author’s claim that he had “studied hard” during his stay in Damascus. Despite this, I recommend this article to those thinking about studying Arabic in Damascus. It is a beautiful city with mostly welcoming people and a far cry from the fanatical stereotypes perpetuated by the media.

The article can be found here.

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