Speaking Arabic by J. Elihay

A key approach to break your Arabic language barrier

Wed May 27 2020

Do you find learning Arabic complex?

Many Arabic learners find that learning a dialect of Arabic is much easier than learning Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Classical Arabic. This is because dialect Arabic is the form of Arabic that people grow up speaking and hearing in their daily lives, so it is more natural and intuitive to learn.

One popular Arabic dialect, and my favorite one, is the Levantine Arabic dialect spoken in Jordan and Palestine. It is known for its melodious sound and relatively simple grammar compared to other dialects. The book, Speaking Arabic by J. Elihay, is a great resource for those looking to learn a dialect of Arabic, as it covers the basics of the language including grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. With its unique approach to teaching Arabic, beginners can quickly and effectively learn to speak and understand the language.

A bit on my background and approach

Before I started with this book, I had an okay foundation of Fusḥá (MSA) from the Madinah Arabic series of books and I was able to understand the Quran to a large extent without having to depend on translations. However, I had zero confidence in my ability to speak and had a fear of having to form sentences. Not only that, I also struggled with breaking apart long sentences in Arabic. The lack of punctuation marks in Arabic literature made this even more difficult for me. As a result, I couldn't even dare crack open books of tafāsīr (Quranic exegesis) or classical Islamic literature in Arabic. Madinah Arabic books are great for getting one started with Arabic. Unfortunately though, students of the Madinah books end up learning a lot of grammar but they learn almost nothing about the every-day-use vocabulary nor the ability to hold a meaningful dialogue.

Studying this book – along with a daily practice routine of forcing myself to translate from English to Arabic and vice-versa – not only helped me break the barrier from being able to express myself in Arabic and interact with native Arabs, it also gave me the confidence to pick up classical Islamic literature and easily understand it. As a proof point, within a few months of of following the daily regimen, I started to prefer reading tafāsīr as well as Hadith literature in Arabic instead of depending on English translations. As a bonus, I now also understand quite a bit of spoken Jordanian and Palestinian Arabic that you find on YouTube’s Jordanian channels like Roya TV, Amman TV, and Sowt Jordanian podcasts. I am also now comfortable interacting and dialoging with native Arabs.

To get you started...

In the book resources section below, instead of not-so-useful non-contextual drills of vocabulary, you will find over 4,500 phrases and full sentences in the colloquial Palestinian/Jordanian dialect that are used in the Speaking Arabic book along with flashcards in the form of an Anki deck. I highly recommend everyone interested in Levantine Arabic to buy this book and listen to its audio. It helped me tremendously.

Why did I create a flashcard deck?

The book, Speaking Arabic, unfortunately only contains transliterated/romanized Arabic which is very hard to read and it doesn't help you with learning the spelling in the Arabic script. I had worked for over two years converting the transliterated Arabic into actual Arabic script to help me learn more effectively and also to be able to read written colloquial Arabic. With help from some Jordanian peers, I have also standardized the dialect in the deck to Jordanian since this book introduces and mixes a lot of various Levantinian dialects. I can attribute the success in my fluency to speak to using the excellent spaced repetition system (SRS) used in Anki.

Speaking Arabic by J. Elihay Resources

  • Buy the Speaking Arabic Book: Please buy the book to give credit to the author
  • Speaking Arabic (PDF) and Audio (MP3): Download the book with accompanying audio MP3 files
  • Anki Flashcard Deck: 4,500+ phrasal and conversational sentences from the Speaking Arabic book that includes the accompanying audio for each phrase
  • Flashcard Videos: Flashcards in videos for your daily listening and translation practice without having to use a flash card app
  • Complete Text: Spreadsheet version of the complete Anki deck that includes the full vocabulary. Note that this sheet has multiple tabs: sentences, vocabulary, and a verb forms cheatsheet.

Dos and Don'ts of Language Learning

  • DON'T worry about grammar. Focus on content. Getting lost in the grammar and losing sight of the forest for the trees is the biggest barrier for most learners.
  • DON'T worry about jotting down and memorizing lists of vocabulary. Individual list of words and their meaning are seldom helpful in language learning. The best way to learn new words is within a context of a sentence or an expression.
  • DON'T worry about making mistakes. The good thing about dialect is, and unlike Fusḥá, you have the freedom to speak as you want. Native Arabs will appreciate your conversations and completely overlook any mistakes.
  • DO learn to think and learn in sentences and context. and not in out-of-context vocabulary lists.
  • DO focus on language production and not just consumption. Force yourself to go from English to Arabic and not so much on the other way around. This will help with building your vocabulary and expression recall muscles.
  • DO practice EVERYDAY for 15-30 min at a minimum. Anything less, and your progress will be very slow.
  • DO use a good spaced repetition system app, like Anki, to learn
  • DO make friends with native speakers and immerse yourself in the language and culture through either studies abroad or at least subscribing to Arabic channels on social media.

Other Resources

Anki

Dictionaries & Translators

  • Levantine Dictionary (Lughatuna): The best dialect and classical dictionary on the planet
  • ChatGPT: In addition to Fusḥá, OpenAI's ChatGPT also understands Arabic dialects and can convert between dialect and English back and forth. It works pretty well.
  • Microsoft Translator: Fortunately, Microsoft Translator understands Jordanian dialect and can help translate sentences.

Learning Channels

Subtitled Videos

Podcasts

  • The Arabic We Speak: Good for listening and comprehension skills for Intermediate to advanced learners along with free worksheets.
  • theLevanTongue: Good for listening and comprehension skills for Intermediate to advanced learners. Worksheets available for purchase