How Not To Learn Arabic

These are some short notes, I wrote them quickly to address the most common mistakes new students do.

People who are interested in learning Arabic, this is your first lesson.

 YOU MUST LEARN THE ARABIC ALPHABET FIRST.

The alphabet is the first lesson to start with if you want to  learn any language , you can’t skip it !!
I have seen a lot of people that they are so eager to learn Arabic, but they don’t bother learning the alphabet !!! they just jump to learn words, phrases using transliteration  !!!  Most of them gave up before they even know how Arabic alphabets look like.

Skipping the most important lesson, will not take you any further in your journey to learn Arabic. A child can’t just start walking over night, he struggles trying to crawl first for few months until he is able to stand up and take his first step.

 You will never be able to learn a language using the alphabet of another language.  

You are doing it the wrong and the harder way.

Learning Arabic using transliteration may seem easy at first, but it will be so frustrating later on,  but why?

• You will learn some words and phrases, but you will remain where you are all your life.
• you will never be able to read an Arabic newspaper or a book, and worst than that you will never be able to look up a word in a dictionary.
• you will never know which word is correct and which is not.
• You will never be able to help yourself and whenever you see a new Arabic word, you will always need someone’s help, and even if you find someone to help you, you may even be more frustrated with the result.  why? Here is an example:

Transliteration has no rules so everyone makes his own. I would never recommend learning Arabic using any other alphabets other than Arabic. unless you are only interested in learning a few Arabic words or phrases.
But if you are too lazy, or just not that interested to do your first  lesson, here is a Good book for you
Yep, the title says it all, the entire book is in transliteration, not a single Arabic word.

On the Other hand, when you learn the Arabic Alphabet you will notice how fast you are learning , you will appreciate more how beautiful this language is,  and you will realize that Arabic is much easier than what it looks like and more friendly than what you have have been told .

Believe me it is much easier than English in so many areas (maybe not in grammar, but every language has some easy and challenging aspects) .

It is not like English, that you have to pronounce letters which do not exist in the word, like ” LAUGH” or “ENOUGH” , I can’t see any F there, so why should I pronounce it ? Also, when you have to omit the pronunciation of some letters such as “S” in ISLAND , why is it there when I can’t pronounce it ?

Why these  words are pronounced  differently when they have the same vowel put/ cut?

Well, when it comes to writing and reading Arabic doesn’t come with such confusion. what you hear is what you write it , and what you see is how you should read it ( supposed that you are reading a text with حَـرَكـات).

Please never skip this lesson, repeat after me ”   I MUST LEARN THE ARABIC ALPHABET FIRST  “, again LOUDER.”

There are many Audio books and videos out there that teach the Arabic alphabet, but most of them they are not well explained, or organized. I recommend that you find a native Arabic speaker or hire a private tutor in order to teach you how to read Arabic.

 Once you learn how to read Arabic you will be more confident and ready for self study.