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  5. best place to learn arabic?


best place to learn arabic?

I know there is multiple dialects of it - so I'm wondering is it more useful to learn a specific dialect such as Egyptian arabic - or learn standard MSA.

(I only have prior knowledge in quaranic arabic)

...And to be honest, I haven't found the duolingo arabic course too good, like it teaches me the alphabet and the sounds well, but the actual grammar of sentences I still find hard to pin down, so I'm wondering if there are any better alternative online courses.

Thanks ;)

December 21, 2019



I came across this site somewhere on this forum, and I've found it really helpful: https://www.madinaharabic.com/arabic-language-course/lessons/ I came here without previous knowledge of Arabic because I was having a hard time going from "ok, I know the letters, cool" to being actually able to read the words with some fluency - it was an important step for me because I won't be able to go to Arabic classes and will mainly learn from books and whatever medias I can find on internet. Medinah Arabic has helped me go a step further.

I also saved this one for later, with many videos and texts for Arabic learners, but I feel they are better suited for intermediate learners than real beginners: https://learning.aljazeera.net/en

Finally, I really like this channel, because it covers everything step by step. Also, the guy is following his own manuals, so you can easily find writing exercices to complete his videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEmWUZanVYXEzZXYDHzD-iA

Hope this helps you :)


Thanks for the help - I should probably tell my mum this as she's interested in learning Arabic too!


It really depends on why you want to learn Arabic. Regional dialects are great to learn and I would strongly recommend learning one in addition to the standard but I would choose a dialect if you plan to interact with actual speakers of that dialect-like a large community lives in your area or you plan to travel or work there. I wouldn`t just pick the dialect with the most speakers worldwide and assume it will be the most useful for you.

If you want to be able to read things online and write, the standard is best for you. If you interact with Arabs on social media a lot, youll probably be reading a lot of whatever dialect they speak. If you learn the standard most of the grammar will apply to the spoken dialects, but some of the vocabulary and the pronunciation will be different.

For learning, Im old school so Id recommend getting at least one textbook to give you an overview of how the basic grammar works. Language apps are good for practice but they`re not the primary place I go to learn.


Since you were asking for resources here is a short list:

For standard arabic Jane Wightwicks Mastering Arabic is a decent text just ignore the part on case endings. The al Kitaab series is the textbook used for Stardard Arabic university courses but I wouldnt recommend this book for the casual learner its designed for people learning arabic for academic purposes so if your interest is just to communicate and not read literary texts or work at the UN this might not be best for you. Or maybe you do want to get that deep in which case go nuts. The first book is possible to do on your own, the second and third are difficult without a teacher.

For Egyptian arabic theres a book series Kallimni Arabi that I`ve heard good things about.

Theres a lot of texts out there to teach Levant arabic. I have one called Shou Fi Ma Fi, which is a book written for people who already know some arabic but want to familiarize themselves with the Levant dialect so it just focuses on the differences between standard and spoken. I have also heard good things about the books Colloquial Palestinian Arabic and Syrian Colloquial Arabic which are designed for beginners.

Keefak is an app that teaches Lebanese arabic focusing on conversation. It uses the English alphabet exclusively.

Mango Languages is an app thats free if you can access it via your local library otherwise theres a fee. They currently have courses in Egyptian, Levant, Iraqi and standard Arabic. The courses are focused on conversation and are listening and speaking based. Just a note, the grammatical explanation is very limited and when it is included its often badly explained or just plain wrong, so take that part with a grain of salt and dont use it as your only resource and focus on picking up vocab.

The app Busuu has a course as well that teaches formal standard arabic.


Mango Languages is amazing for reading, writing, speaking and listening. If it were free I would be much more fluent in arabic. It looks like their arabic only has 1 unit in Egyptian but 5 units in Levantine, which is the dialect with the most resources.

Very cool about the keefak I downloaded it and its a bit old and audio doesnt seem to work but it is still a decent resource.

I will have to check out Kallimni Arabi and Shou Fi Ma fi, thanks!


There appear to be a couple of versions of keefak. The one I have on my phone is keefak lite and the audio is working for me.

I'm glad someone found this comment helpful:)


Hello my friend! Would you like a native Arabic speaker:) I'm existed for help:)

And for your question, I guess learning Standard Arabic will be better than a specific dialect. For me, I think almost people know some words from each dialect by listening they catch the words one by one, and they have a group of words by the time.. So, not important the dialects as much as standard Arabic:)


Thanks! - i'll give you a follow then, I really would appreciate the help from a native speaker


You're welcome:) If you needed something just tell me, and when you learn Arabic, I can talk with you if you wanted to practice ^u^

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