Dear friends, I decided to make a publication about how to memorize Arabic. Here I will talk about strategies used when learning Arabic, both from beginners and intermediates. By the way, these tips work not only for Arabic, but also for any other languages, English, German, French, etc.
Reasons why words are hard to remember.
The problem of memorizing new words worries many people who study Arabic. I often receive questions via email and in comments about certain special methods that could help memorize new vocabulary. In general, there is nothing secret or complicated here, everything is very simple, there are several simple and proven strategies, but the most important thing is not just to know these strategies, but develop the habit of using them constantly, leading to automation.
Having experienced difficulties in learning a language, many begin to classify themselves as a certain group of people who are unable to learn languages. I consider this “theory” floating around in society to be fundamentally wrong, and I will try to explain my point of view on this matter. By the way, this opinion is more widespread in Russia. Look at the West: more than half of the people there know at least one foreign language in addition to their native language, and it never occurs to anyone to put an end to their ability to speak a foreign language.
In my opinion, based on the study of various literature and teaching experience, there is indeed a part of people for whom languages “come” easier. However, the answer lies not in the fact that these people have any special abilities and predispositions, but in the fact that these people either intuitively develop certain strategies and approaches that make learning languages easier. Someone was purposefully interested in different strategies and methods of learning languages and adopted them. As for the rest, supposedly not predisposed to languages, they prefer to give up at the beginning of the journey. It was not possible to intuitively find methods that worked for oneself, and they did not think to take an interest in this issue (they did not find the necessary information, were lazy, it did not work out and gave up, etc.), and as a result they classified themselves as “losers.”
So what kind of strategies are these, you’ve probably already asked yourself?
These strategies are so simple that it is difficult to imagine, but it is important to develop the habit of using them.
Strategy 1. Emotional content of memorized words. This strategy is to ensure that each new word you learn is not just a set of letters and combinations of sounds designated by these letters, but is something close to you, connected with your life experience (events in life, personal objects, feelings and etc.). For example, how can you remember the words حُبُّ، حَبِيبٌ، حَبِيبَةٌ love, beloved, beloved? Every person experiences feelings of love first for his parents, and then, as an adult, for his children, spouse, relatives and friends. By memorizing this word, you can imagine the person(s) you love. Or the word كُرْسِيٌّ chair, for example, can be remembered by imagining your favorite chair that you like to sit on, that you have at home. In this case, the words acquire individuality, significance for you personally, and no longer sound similar to others!
Strategy 2. Purpose and motivation. Everything is simple here. You must understand exactly why you need to learn the language. Maybe to communicate with friends who are native speakers of the language you are learning? Or for doing business or work? If you have a specific goal, then everything should be in order with motivation.
Strategy 3. Integrating new vocabulary into life experience. To implement this strategy, you need to use new words in the context of your life, in specific situations and events. For example, when you are walking down the street and have previously learned the words أَشْجَارٌ “trees” and شَارِعٌ “street”, you can mentally or out loud (if there are no people nearby) say the phrase أَشْجَارٌ فِي الشَّارِعِ - “der evya on the street." Or, let’s say, when traveling in public transport, you can try to describe your trip, i.e. specific action, mentally say “I’m going by bus (car)” - أذْهَبُ بِالْحَافِلَةِ (بِالسَّيَّارَةِ) \ أَنَا ذَاهِ It’s okay if you haven’t yet studied and don’t know any of the words needed to make a sentence. Just say this word in Russian, and the rest, those that you have already learned, in Arabic. The main thing in this strategy is to force the brain to use the learned vocabulary, organically incorporating it into speech!
Strategy 4. Children's algorithm for memorizing words. It consists of using children's unconscious experience in learning their native language. As the child grows up, he learns to speak. He remembers new words, starting with the words “mom” and “dad” from the lips of his parents and others, and immediately begins to repeat these words as soon as he sees any object associated with the new memorized word. For example, if I remember the word “table”, the child begins to say “table!” table!" as soon as he sees any table. Why is this happening? Because Nature itself intended it this way, laid this algorithm in us. So why don’t we follow this algorithm, because nothing is as simple as a natural, initially inherent habit, reaction, instinct, etc. Be a little childish! Remember a word in a foreign language, if you see an object associated with this word somewhere, say the word, repeat it.
I would also like to give a couple of tips that I hope will be useful to all Arabic language learners.
Advice one. I used this method at one time when I was just starting to learn English and then Arabic. The idea is to make stickers with Arabic words on surrounding objects in the house. We stick the word خِزَانَةٌ on the closet, the words حَائطٌ and جَدُرٌ on the wall, etc. In this way, you will constantly remember the names of objects around you in everyday life in the shortest possible time, and develop basic, everyday vocabulary.
Tip two. Keep a personal dictionary. This can be any notebook or notebook with pages lined vertically (one column each for an Arabic word, transcription and translation), or a ready-made dictionary for recording foreign words, which is sold in bookstores in the departments with textbooks on foreign languages. Write down all new words that appear in lessons and textbooks. This will allow you to return to repeating these words in the future and not forget them until they are firmly fixed in your memory. At first there will not be many words, and then their number will grow to one hundred, two hundred, three hundred or more. It is important to note that you do not need to repeat words, if there are many of them, all at once. It is enough to devote 5-10 free minutes between tasks to repeating words, and put a bookmark in the place where you stop each time. At the next “session” of repeating words, you can return to the place in the list of your words where you left off. By devoting a short period of time to repeating words, but with the proper frequency, you will not get tired, and repeating words will become an exciting memory game, while long “sessions” of repeating a large number of words will cause rejection and a reluctance to do it.
Technique for repeating Arabic words in a personal dictionary.
As for the repetition technique itself, it is done as follows. A wide bookmark or sheet of paper covers the column with Russian words. Then the Arabic word is read from the open column, the meaning of this word is remembered, after which the bookmark/sheet of paper is moved down one line. If the meaning matches, we move on and remember the remaining words. If you have forgotten the meaning of a word, then you need to read it several times, associate it with your personal experience, connect it with your objects, people, emotions, etc., and only then move on. This technique can be used vice versa, closing Arabic words and leaving Russian ones open.
I hope you find the above strategies and tips helpful. If you use any other methods, share your experience in the comments, and also ask questions if you have any.
After finishing 10th grade, I went to Dagestan for the summer holidays. Usually you are constantly surrounded by relatives there. But one day I was left in Makhachkala, left to my own devices. And he went for a walk around the city. This was probably my first independent walk through a foreign city. I walked along Gamidov Avenue towards the mountains. And suddenly, I saw a sign “Islamic shop”. No matter how strange it may seem, my first acquisition in Dagestan was an Arabic script.
Arriving at my uncle's house, I opened it. There were all types of writing letters and their pronunciation was explained in relation to the Dagestan alphabet “The letter ع approximately corresponds to the Arabic gI”, “The letter ح is similar to the Avar xI”. Together with ظ, these were the most difficult letters for me, because... it was hard to imagine how to pronounce them, and the others were mostly in my language. So I began to learn to read Arabic on my own. An ordinary Russian teenager, far from religion. Then I went to my grandfather’s mountain village. It was a time filled with the events of adolescence, when you try a lot for the first time. Along with all this, I tried to learn Arabic. What moved me when I bought this recipe is still mystical for me.
I recently found my first attempts to write in Arabic, which I began just that summer in the village with my grandfather. (If you click on the screenshots, they should enlarge. The spectacle is not for the faint of heart, I warn you).
Then, already in my 4th year at university, I started doing namaz, started going to the mosque, and met Muslims. One Friday in the mosque I said hello to one of my friends:
Assalamu alaikum! How are you? What are you doing?
- Wa alaikumu piss! Alhamdulillah. Here, I’m studying Arabic.
- How do you study? Are there any courses?
- No, on your own, using the textbook “Learn to read the Koran in Arabic.”
Then this brother went to Kazan to study and there he got new textbooks, and he sold Lebedev’s books “Learn to Read the Koran in Arabic” to me for 500 rubles when he returned from Kazan on his first vacation.
I worked as a night security guard in a store and took this book with me on duty. I started reading it in my free moments between the fights of the local drunks and until I fell asleep. As soon as I started getting acquainted with the book, I thought: “Subhanallah, this Arabic language is so easy to learn.”
My delight knew no bounds. I finished the first book in a month. I didn’t even memorize the words there - I just carefully studied the new rules and read the exercises for them.
Then I got my hands on another textbook (I already wrote about it in the post “A pencil that writes in the brain”). I began to simply study a lesson a day (they are very small). I simply learned new words in the morning - and then repeated them all day (on the bus, while walking, etc.) After a couple of months, I already knew almost 60 lessons by heart - all the words and figures of speech that were found in them.
After 2 months of classes, I was visiting an Arab and was surprised to discover that I could communicate in Arabic without speaking a word in Russian!!! It started out as a joke. I said hello in Arabic and my friend answered. Then I asked something else and he answered in Arabic again. And when the dialogue began, it was as if there was no turning back. It was as if we didn’t know Russian. My knees were shaking with happiness.
Previously, I needed to learn the Koran “photographically” - stupidly remember the order of all the letters in words. For example, it took me several days to memorize Surah An-Nas. And after I have learned the basics of grammar, I can read Krachkovsky’s translation and the Arabic text of the verse once (matching the translation to each Arabic word), repeat it a couple of times - and the verse is remembered. If you go through a small surah like this (like An-Naba “The Message”). After half an hour of studying, I can look at Krachkovsky’s translation and read the sura in Arabic (essentially from memory). The most difficult thing is usually to remember the order of the verses.
My tragedy is that having learned to read (it took about two months on my own and haphazardly), I simply could not imagine that it was possible to spend the same amount of time learning the basics of grammar and, if you make an effort and develop an active vocabulary, you can speak Arabic very soon.
The biggest problem for many people is that they think of language as an impregnable fortress that will take many years to storm and siege. And only after that you will master it. In fact, learning a language is better thought of as a small cottage that you build piece by piece. Having studied basic grammar (changing verbs according to persons and tenses, changing cases, etc. - this is a brochure of 40 pages in length) - consider that you have laid the foundation. Next, an opportunity arose - we built a room where we could live and moved there. Then - the kitchen. Then they built a living room, a children's room, and all the other rooms. I saw how houses were built in this way in Dagestan. Instead of renting an apartment, they buy an inexpensive plot of land, pour the foundation and build at least one room where they move. And then, as far as possible, they continue to build the house on the already poured foundation.
If suddenly someone wants to follow my path, which I consider optimal for those who do it mainly on their own, for example, in their free time from their main studies or work, I have prepared a selection of materials (now they have become more accessible and better).
→ (self-instruction book on reading and writing with voiceover of each word and many tips)
2. Basics of grammar. To study grammar, it is better to arm yourself with many books and choose the one that suits you best. The same rule can be given in different words in different books - so that incomprehensible moments can be considered from different angles. Start with one book and download others as needed.
→ Lebedev. Learn to read the Koran in Arabic - an unobtrusive explanation of the basics of grammar using the example of verses from the Koran (I personally went through the first volume. I hated studying foreign languages all my life, but I read this book as fiction, and I realized that Arabic is my language).
→ - a compressed volume of 40 pages gives all the basics (a brief summary of any textbook).
→ . A new thorough textbook, containing the basics of grammar with numerous examples, as well as the basics of morphology. Very accessible language and sparing volume.
→ (I haven’t tried it myself, but I’ve heard reviews from friends).
→ (Classics of the genre. Usually it is used as a reference book where you can find any question on grammar).
I think these books should be enough to spare. If you are not satisfied, google also Kuzmina, Ibragimov, Frolova and others.
3. Develop an active vocabulary.
→ . - read the preface to this book carefully and you will understand everything. I actually lived with this book for several months until I learned 100 lessons (I wrote about this in the article “A pencil that writes into the brain”). If you repeat “my feat”, you will feel close to the Arab world - no joke.
4. Language practice.
→ Get to know the Arabs, try to communicate with them. For example, you can look for students in the mosque who have just arrived in Russia and speak Russian poorly. If you are hospitable and not intrusive, you can develop very warm and friendly relations. You can learn the language directly from a native speaker.
→ Learn to type in Arabic (). This way you can Google materials that interest you, your favorite nasheeds on YouTube, etc. You will be able to plunge into the Arabic Internet, participate in their forums, discussions, make friends on FaceBook, etc.
You can bookmark the second part of the article, here is the link
After finishing 10th grade, I went to Dagestan for the summer holidays. Usually you are constantly surrounded by relatives there. But one day I was left in Makhachkala, left to my own devices. And he went for a walk around the city. This was probably my first independent walk through a foreign city. I walked along Gamidov Avenue towards the mountains. And, suddenly, I saw a sign “Islamic shop”. No matter how strange it may seem, my first acquisition in Dagestan was an Arabic script.
Arriving at my uncle's house, I opened it. There were all types of writing letters and their pronunciation was explained in relation to the Dagestan alphabet “The letter ع approximately corresponds to the Arabic gI”, “The letter ح is similar to the Avar xI”. Together with ظ, these were the most difficult letters for me, because... it was hard to imagine how to pronounce them, and the others were mostly in my language. So I began to learn to read Arabic on my own. An ordinary Russian teenager, far from religion. Then I went to my grandfather’s mountain village. It was a time filled with the events of adolescence, when you try a lot for the first time. Along with all this, I tried to learn Arabic. What moved me when I bought this recipe is still mystical for me.
I recently found my first attempts to write in Arabic, which I began just that summer in the village with my grandfather.
Over the summer I learned to read. But then I abandoned this business for many years and remained stuck on this knowledge. The Arabic language seemed something unusually distant and incomprehensible. And my lifestyle was far from learning this language.
Then, already in my 4th year at university, I started doing namaz, started going to the mosque, and met Muslims. One Friday in the mosque I said hello to one of my friends:
- Assalamu alaikum! How are you? What are you doing?
- Wa alaikumu piss! Alhamdulillah. Here, I’m studying Arabic.
- How do you study? Are there any courses?
- No, on your own, using the textbook “Learn to read the Koran in Arabic.”
Then this brother went to Kazan to study and there he got new textbooks, and he sold Lebedev’s books “Learn to Read the Koran in Arabic” to me for 500 rubles when he returned from Kazan on his first vacation.
I worked as a night security guard in a store and took this book with me on duty. I started reading it in my free moments between the fights of the local drunks and until I fell asleep. As soon as I started reading the book, I thought, “Subhanallah, this Arabic language is so easy to learn.”
For so many years I was stupidly able to read and had difficulty memorizing the verses of the Koran - and now I began to understand the logic of the entire language!
My delight knew no bounds. I finished the first book in a month. I didn’t even memorize the words there - I just carefully studied the new rules and read the exercises for them.
Then I got my hands on a textbook" First Arabic lessons ". I began to simply learn a lesson a day (they are very small there). I simply learned new words in the morning - and then repeated them all day (on the bus, while walking, etc.). After a couple of months I already knew almost 60 lessons by heart - all the words and figures of speech that were found in them.
After 2 months of classes, I was visiting an Arab and was surprised to discover that I could communicate in Arabic without speaking a word in Russian!!! It started out as a joke. I said hello in Arabic and my friend answered. Then I asked something else and he answered in Arabic again. And when the dialogue began, it was as if there was no turning back. It was as if we didn’t know Russian. My knees were shaking with happiness.
Previously, I needed to learn the Koran “photographically” - stupidly remember the order of all the letters in words. For example, it took me several days to memorize Surah An-Nas. And after I have learned the basics of grammar, I can read Krachkovsky’s translation and the Arabic text of the verse once (matching the translation to each Arabic word), repeat it a couple of times - and the verse is remembered. If you go through a small surah like this (like An-Naba “The Message”). After half an hour of studying, I can look at Krachkovsky’s translation and read the sura in Arabic (essentially from memory). The most difficult thing is usually to remember the order of the verses.
My tragedy is that having learned to read (it took about two months on my own and unsystematically), I simply did not imagine that it was possible to spend the same amount of time learning the basics of grammar and, if you make an effort and develop an active vocabulary, you can speak Arabic very soon.
The biggest problem for many people is that they think of language as an impregnable fortress that will take many years to storm and siege. And only after that you will master it. In fact, learning a language is better thought of as a small cottage that you build piece by piece. Having studied basic grammar (changing verbs by persons and tenses, changing cases, etc. - this is a brochure of 40 pages in length) - consider that you have laid the foundation. Next, an opportunity arose - we built a room where we could live and moved there. Then - the kitchen. Then they built a living room, a nursery, and all the other rooms. I saw how houses were built in this way in Dagestan. Instead of renting an apartment, they buy an inexpensive plot of land, pour the foundation and build at least one room where they move. And then, as far as possible, they continue to build the house on the already poured foundation.
If suddenly someone wants to follow my path, which I consider optimal for those who do it mainly on their own, for example, in their free time from their main studies or work, I have prepared a selection of materials (now they have become more accessible and better).
1. Learn to read and write
→ Talking textbook (a self-instruction manual on reading and writing with voiceover of each word and many tips)
2. Basics of grammar.To study grammar, it is better to arm yourself with many books and choose the one that suits you best. The same rule can be given in different words in different books - so that incomprehensible moments can be considered from different angles. Start with one book and download others as needed.
→ Lebedev. Learn to read the Quran in Arabic — an unobtrusive explanation of the basics of grammar using the example of verses from the Koran (I personally went through the first volume. I hated studying foreign languages all my life, but I read this book as fiction, and I realized that Arabic is my language).
→ Yashukov. Arabic grammar tutorial — a compressed volume of 40 pages gives all the basics (a brief summary of any textbook).
→ Khaibullin. Arabic grammar . A new thorough textbook, containing the basics of grammar with numerous examples, as well as the basics of morphology. Very accessible language and sparing volume.
→ Rules of the Arabic language in a simplified and simplified form . (I haven’t tried it myself, but I’ve heard reviews from friends).
→ Kovalev, Sharbatov. Arabic textbook . (A classic of the genre. It is usually used as a reference book where you can find any grammar question).
I think these books should be enough to spare. If you are not satisfied, google also Kuzmina, Ibragimov, Frolova and others.
3. Develop an active vocabulary
→ First Arabic lessons . - read the preface to this book carefully and you will understand everything. I actually lived with this book for several months until I learned 100 lessons. If you repeat “my feat,” you will feel close to the Arab world—jokes aside.
4. Language practice
→ Get to know the Arabs, try to communicate with them. For example, you can look for students in the mosque who have just arrived in Russia and speak Russian poorly. If you are hospitable and not intrusive, you can develop very warm and friendly relations. You can learn the language directly from a native speaker. ). This way you can Google materials that interest you, your favorite nasheeds on YouTube, etc. You will be able to plunge into the Arabic Internet, participate in their forums, discussions, make friends on FaceBook, etc.
Which is gaining popularity every year. Learning Arabic has its own characteristics, which are related to the structure of the language itself, as well as pronunciation and writing. This must be taken into account when choosing a training program.
Prevalence
Arabic belongs to the Semitic group. In terms of the number of native speakers, Arabic ranks second in the world after Chinese.
Arabic is spoken by about 350 million people in 23 countries where the language is considered an official language. These countries include Egypt, Algeria, Iraq, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Palestine and many others. Also, the language is one of the official ones in Israel. Taking this factor into account, learning Arabic involves a preliminary selection of the dialect that will be used in a particular country, since, despite many similar elements, the language has its own distinctive features in different countries.
Dialects
Modern Arabic can be divided into 5 large groups of dialects, which from a linguistic point of view can practically be called different languages. The fact is that the lexical and grammatical differences in languages are so great that people speaking different dialects and not knowing the literary language practically cannot understand each other. The following groups of dialects are distinguished:
- Maghreb.
- Egyptian-Sudanese.
- Syro-Mesopotamian.
- Arabian.
- Central Asian.
A separate niche is occupied by modern standard Arabic, which, however, is practically not used in colloquial speech.
Features of the study
Learning Arabic from scratch is not an easy task, since after Chinese it is considered one of the most difficult in the world. Mastering Arabic takes much longer than learning any European language. This applies to both classes with teachers.
Studying Arabic on your own is a difficult path, which is best avoided at first. This is due to several factors. Firstly, the letter is very complex, which is not similar to either the Latin or Cyrillic alphabet, which is written from right to left, and also does not involve the use of vowels. Secondly, the structure of language itself, in particular morphology and grammar, is complex.
What should you pay attention to before you start studying?
A program for learning Arabic should be built taking into account the following factors:
- Having enough time. Learning a language takes several times longer than learning other languages.
- Opportunities for independent work, as well as for classes in a group or with a private teacher. Studying Arabic in Moscow gives you the opportunity to combine different options.
- Inclusion in the learning process of different aspects: writing, reading, listening and, of course, speaking.
We must not forget that you need to decide on the choice of a specific dialect. Learning Arabic varies depending on this factor. In particular, the dialects in Egypt and Iraq are so different that their speakers cannot always understand each other. A way out of the situation may be to study the Arabic literary language, which has a more complex structure, but is understandable in all countries of the Arab world, since dialects traditionally have a more simplified form. Despite this, this option also has its negative sides. Although the literary language is understood by all countries, it is practically not spoken. A situation may arise that a person who speaks a literary language will not be able to understand people who speak a certain dialect. In this case, the choice depends on the purposes of the study. If you want to use a language in different countries, then the choice should be made towards the literary version. If a language is studied for work in a specific Arab country, preference should be given to the corresponding dialect.
Vocabulary of the language
Learning Arabic is impossible without using words and phrases, which in this case have characteristic differences in comparison with European languages. This is due to the fact that in Europe languages intertwined and strongly influenced each other, due to which they have many common lexical units. Almost all the vocabulary of the Arabic language has its original origin, which practically cannot be associated with others. The number of borrowings from other languages is present, but it takes up no more than one percent of the dictionary.
The difficulty of learning also lies in the fact that the Arabic language is characterized by the presence of synonyms, homonyms and polysemantic words, which can seriously confuse people who are starting to learn the language. In Arabic, both newer words and very old ones are intertwined, which do not have specific connections with each other, but denote almost identical objects and phenomena.
Phonetics and pronunciation
Literary Arabic and its numerous dialects are characterized by the presence of a very developed phonetic system, in particular with regard to consonants: glottal, interdental and emphatic. Difficulty in learning is also represented by all sorts of combinatorial possibilities of pronunciation.
Many Arab countries are trying to bring the spoken pronunciation of words closer to the literary language. This is primarily due to the religious context, in particular to the correct reading of the Koran. Despite this, at the moment there is no single point of view on how to correctly read certain endings, since ancient texts do not have vowels - signs to indicate vowel sounds, which does not allow us to correctly state how exactly this or that word should be pronounced.
Arabic is one of the most widely spoken and also one of the most difficult languages to learn in the world. The difficulty lies in the special letter without vowels, multi-level morphology and grammar, as well as special pronunciation. An important factor when learning a language is also the choice of dialect, since Arabic sounds very differently in different countries.
Congratulations on such an important decision! You are determined to learn Arabic, but how to choose a method? Which book should you choose to study and how can you start “speaking” as quickly as possible? We have prepared a guide for you on modern courses and methods of learning Arabic.
First, decide on the goal for which you need to learn Arabic. Do you want to study works on Sharia sciences without waiting for translation? Understand the Koran in the original? Or maybe you are planning to visit an Arabic-speaking country? Are you planning to attract new partners to your business?
It’s one thing if you need to learn a language for simple everyday situations in order to communicate at the airport, in a store or hotel, and another if you plan to read books by early scientists in the original.
Defining your end goal is a very important step in making your training as effective as possible. Learning a language is a long and challenging journey, and having a clear understanding of your motivations for learning a language will help you avoid giving up midway.
Arabic alphabet
Whatever goal you set for yourself, start by learning the alphabet. Many people try to skip this step, relying on the transliteration of Arabic words. But sooner or later you still have to return to this step, and you will also have to relearn the words that you have already memorized. It's better to start right away with the basics. At first, when learning the alphabet, difficulties may arise, but then you will see that it will not take much time. Also, do not forget about developing your writing skills, buy or print copybooks and try to study them regularly and write as many Arabic words as possible. It is reading syllables and writing that will help you learn letters in different positions. Of course, it will be bad at first, and it will take time for you to get used to the writing method, but with a little effort you will learn to write Arabic text.
Practice pronouncing letters more, even in a whisper. Our articulatory system needs to get used to new positions, and the more you repeat, the faster you will learn.
Choosing to Study Islamic Sciences
To prepare for understanding and reading Arabic-language literature, and Sharia books in particular, in addition to vocabulary, it is necessary to master the grammar of the language. A good choice would be Dr. AbdurRahim's Medina course. Despite the fact that there is little vocabulary, the course is very global and systematic in terms of grammar and provides gradual learning for the student. The main advantage of the Medina course is a clear system of presenting material without dry formal statements of rules. “Ajurrumia” is practically dissolved in it and, with stable training, by the end of the second volume you will have half of the basic grammar in your head.
But the Medina course requires additional effort to gain vocabulary. There are many additional materials for it - like taabir or qiraa (small reading aids), and any aids for strengthening vocabulary or listening skills. For the most effective learning, the Medina course should be taken comprehensively, or additionally take a course that is aimed at developing reading and speech, such as Al-Arabiya Bayna Yadeyk.
Choice for spoken language
To develop communication skills, a good choice would be the Al-Arabiya Bayna Yadeik or Ummul-Qura (al-Kitab ul-Asasiy) course. The study of Al-Arabiya Bayna Yadeyk is more widespread, the emphasis in the course is on conversational practice. The big advantage is that from the very first lessons you can learn the phrases necessary for simple communication and practice the pronunciation of letters. Particular attention is paid to listening. This course was written for foreigners who came to work in Saudi Arabia, and is designed in such a way that the student can “painlessly” gain vocabulary and speak Arabic. Having completed the first volume, you will be able to speak correctly on simple everyday topics, distinguish Arabic speech by ear, and write.
In the future, when studying these courses, you must additionally take grammar. For example, after finishing the second volume, you can additionally take the Ajurumia course.
How to replenish your vocabulary
One of the problems that students of any foreign language face is insufficient vocabulary. There are many ways to learn new words, and they are also effective for Arabic. Of course, the best way to learn words is to memorize them in context. Read more books in Arabic, and at the initial stage, short stories and dialogues, underlining and highlighting new words. They can be written out and posted around the house, they can be entered into special applications that allow you to learn words anywhere (such as Memrise), or simply written down in a dictionary. In any case, set aside at least 30 minutes to repeat the words.
When pronouncing a word, imagine it in the most colorful way, or use illustration cards - this way you will use several parts of the brain at once. Describe the word for yourself, draw parallels and create logical chains - the more connections your brain creates, the faster the word will be remembered.
Use the words you have learned in conversation. This is the most effective method, and the most natural. Make up sentences with new words, pronounce them as often as possible, and of course, don’t forget to repeat recently learned words.
Developing auditory skills
Particular attention should be paid to developing the ability to understand Arabic speech by ear. Do not neglect listening, practice shows that many people can read and understand, but not everyone can understand what the interlocutor said. To do this, no matter how trivial it may sound, you need to listen to more audio materials. On the Internet you can find quite a few short stories, stories and dialogues in Arabic, many of them supported by text or subtitles. Many resources offer you a short test at the end to check how much you understand what you read.
Listen to it as many times as necessary, over and over again, and you will notice that you will understand more and more each time. Try to understand the meaning of unfamiliar words from the context, and then check the meaning of the words in a dictionary. Don’t forget to write down new words in order to learn them in the future. The more vocabulary you have, the easier it will be for you to understand speech.
What to do if almost nothing is clear? Perhaps you took too difficult material. Start with the simplest, no need to immediately take complex audios, which are intended more for those who are fluent in the language. Choose speakers who speak clearly and clearly, in simple literary language.
Consistency is important in developing listening skills. You need to study more and not despair, even if it seems that you understand almost nothing. With the addition of your vocabulary and constant practice, you will begin to distinguish words more and more, and then understand Arabic speech in the original.
Let's start talking
You need to start talking as early as possible. You shouldn’t wait until you have a fairly large vocabulary; you can start building the simplest dialogues after the first lessons. Let them be banal, but do not neglect the development of speaking skills and diction. Chat with your relatives and classmates on various topics. Didn't find your partner? You can talk to yourself in front of the mirror, the main thing is to introduce new learned words into your speech, transfer them from the “passive” vocabulary to the “active” one. Learn common expressions and try to use them as often as possible.
Additionally, take tongue twisters; pronouncing them is an excellent simple method of improving diction. What is this for? Our speech organs are accustomed to pronouncing native sounds, and the Arabic language has many specifics. Therefore, a good solution would be, along with measured reading and conversational practice, to practice pronouncing Arabic tongue twisters from time to time. As a nice bonus, this will help you get rid of your accent faster.
Letter
The further you go in learning Arabic, the more you will have to write. For example, already in the second volume of the Medina course, there are up to 20 assignments in a lesson, 10-15 pages long. By practicing in a timely manner, you will greatly facilitate your learning process in the future. Write down every day what you have learned, all new words and sentences. Prescribe even those exercises that are assigned for reading or oral performance. If your vocabulary and basic knowledge of grammar allow, describe what happened to you during the day, invent and write down new dialogues.
By developing these skills, you approach learning Arabic from all angles - and this is the most effective method. Don't forget about constant learning and diligence on your part. Even the most advanced methods do not work on their own. To learn a language you just need to study. Of course, there are more and less effective methods - for example, by learning a language with a native speaker, especially in an Arab country, you will begin to speak faster, because such classes take place with complete immersion in the language environment. But by studying at home, choosing the most effective methods that have been developed over the years, you can achieve good results.
