As_promised. First off, of all let me make clear that I have a long way to go before I am really “good.” I’ve been studying Arabic for less than 4 years so I am far from an expert, and there are lots of areas where I can significantly improve. However, maybe some people who are just getting started might find some of these tips useful, and others can offer their’s as well. I look forward to hearing them.
And just to be clear, this post didn’t end up as I hoped. My initial enthusiasm wore down a bit; the ideas sounded cool in my head, but I lost a bit of steam trying to get them on paper. Oh well, here it is:
1) Avoid Speaking English At_All Costs
Wherever you go in the Arab world, you will find plenty of opportunities to speak English. Avoid them at all costs.
Refuse to speak anything but Arabic. Occasionally, especially at the early stages, locals might laugh at you, but so be it, it’s a necessary part of the learning process.
To understand why, let’s use a football analogy. To gain the confidence and experience he needs to get good, a young Quarter-Back has to get a certain amount of repetitions; the coach has to give him a certain amount of playing time early on, so he can develop confidence in himself. If he has never gotten his feet wet, and then is suddenly handed the reigns his senior year, he’s not going to be ready to perform at a high level.
Same concept with learning a language. You have to put yourself in a position to make mistakes, in order to learn from them. To know what you’re doing right, you have to know what you’ve done wrong, and the only way to do that is to constantly speak Arabic, in all situations. It’s easy sometimes to revert back to English, especially if the local knows English, but avoid it. You won’t gain anything.
Sometimes I see people who “on paper” are super advanced, meaning they are taking very upper level courses, but orally they sound like a beginner. The reason for this is because they (generally speaking) revert back to English whenever possible, they don’t insist on speaking Arabic at all costs.
But if from an early stage, you’re only speaking Arabic, you’re going to keep building confidence. So the locals laughed at you that one time, who cares. You’ll have that much confidence later on that “this sentence structure is correct” or “that one isn’t” because you’ve made that mistake before. Whereas if you take the easy way out, and habitually revert back to English, you’re not going to know what you don’t know.
4) Learn How to “Pick” Arguments
To really get good at Arabic, you’ve got to rack up thousands of Quality Hours of Arabic Spoken (QHAS). By this I mean the total number of hours you have spent speaking the language. It’s as simple as this: if you’re not constantly gaining a higher QHAS, you’re not going to get better.
As you progress in your studies, however, the quality of your conversation has to get better otherwise you’re not gaining anything. Gradually, your conversations have to become more serious, more rapid-pace; more forcing you to react quickly and think off-the-cuff. It’s not always easy to find these kinds of opportunities but I’ve got a little trick: learn how to provoke “locals” into certain debates.
On certain topics, Egyptians get very emotional very quickly (and I don’t mean this in a bad way). It doesn’t matter if they have a list of 20 critical tasks they have to accomplish that day, if you get them going on a certain topic, they won’t stop until they are convinced that you are convinced of their argument. “Pick” an argument………..
5) Find People who want to talk about serious topics
This is a follow-up to point 4. Gradually, the quality of your conversations has to improve otherwise you will not. It’s like lifting weights; if you bench 135 pounds every day for a year, your body gets used to it, and you’re not improving your muscle mass. Same concept with learning a language.
Talking about where you live might suffice in year 1, but you gain nothing by continuing to have that conversation in year two. You have to go deeper. One way to do this is to find people who are interested in sitting around and discussing intellectual topics. Make friends with people who are perfectly happy to sit around for hours discussing politics. It’s not always easy to find them but they exist.
6) Watch subtitled English films in Arabic
People usually watch foreign films subtitled into their native language. For example, an American might watch a French film subtitled into English.
One thing I find occasionally mentally useful is to do the reverse: watch English films subtitled into Arabic. Any TV that has cable in the Arab world is going to have a few stations, catering to a local audience, that subtitle American films. Try and get to the point where you can read and follow the subtitles in real-time. I find this helpful in helping buildup “Overall Grasp of Language.”
7) Join a Gym
Female readers move on to point 8. By “gym” I don’t mean what this concept entails in America. I mean the kinds of gyms that are scattered throughout working class or “Shaabi” neighborhoods. There is no aerobic equipment, they are complete dumps, and feature nothing but weights. Picture something out of Rocky.
But the purpose is not to work out, although you might do that in the process. The point is to practice speaking and almost certainly you will be one of the few non-locals to frequent the gym, so everyone will want to talk to you. Most of them will be Arnold Schwartzenneger wannabes, complete and total meatheads, and might think the funnest thing in the world is to sit around and tell crude and sexist jokes but to really get good at Arabic, you have to know how to speak to and understand people from all classes and socio-economic backgrounds. Most Arabs who teach foreigners at places like AUC and AUB come from very high and privileged backgrounds and have likely grown up speaking to foreigners their whole lives. They are not representative of 99% of their society. If you can get to the point where you can get any point across to Shaabi Arabic meatheads, explaining some complicated political topic to someone with a PhD from Cairo University becomes a piece of cake.
Also, chances are they’ll invite you to hang out outside of the gym, so that’s another chance to accumulate more QHAS..
9) The Cab Driver is Your Friend
For some reason, the Egyptian cab driver has a bad reputation as dishonest and “out” to rip foreigners off. This is completely untrue.
It’s inevitable that you will sit in alot of traffic, but that doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. Take it as opportunity to accumulates Q.H.A.S. Remember, these guys are bored, they spend all day driving and are thrilled to chat with foreigners. I’ve never met a driver who isn’t happy to chat about movies (like Tito) or football teams. And frequently, especially if they are younger, they might even invite you to have tea or coffee, giving you more chances to accumulate QHAS.
10) Read Transcripts Outloud
This might be one of the most underrated tricks for getting good at Arabic.
Al-Jazeera.net, which posts transcripts and audio of every single TV program, is an excellent resource for this. Do this: find a program that interests you, print out the transcript, listen to the audio and mark down the correct pronunciations, then practice reading the conversation out loud. This is an excellent resources for developing pronunciation but also to develop a “feel” for how to talk about sophisticated topics.
A critical point in developing skills in a foreign language is moving from the point where you have to “think” to the point where you “react.” Let me use another American football analogy to explain what mean. In football, an extremely fast-paced and physical game, if you have to “think” about what to do, you are too slow; you will end up getting smashed into the ground by your opponent. A successful football player is one who instinctively “reacts” to the play. He doesn’t think about what to do.
Same thing with language. You have to get to the point where you are reacting and not thinking and studying and reading these transcripts closely will help you get to that point. If you see over and over how natives say things in a certain situation, you will internalize it…..
This is also useful if you are back in the US without opportunities to practice speaking. Studying a language is a long-term process, so there’s going to be periods when you’re in the US or where-ever, without access to people to practice speaking with, or formal instruction, so you have to find other ways to keep moving forward. One way is through reading transcripts; away from the Arab world you might not progress orally, but there’s no reason you should regress.
11) Watch Arabic movies
Consistently watch Arabic movies. Cinema is big in the Arab world, so you’ll pick up different topics to speak with people about. Who doesn’t like to talk about movies? You can also gain serious street-cred with the locals by picking up and employing certain slang terms.
12) Rack up QHAL
Previously, I mentioned the need to rack us QHAS. To really get good, you’ve also got to rack lots of QHAL (Quality Hours of Arabic ListenedTo). It’s very simple and easy to do this over a long-term period, much easier than racking up QHAS because you can rack up digits whenever you want. Listen to Al.Jazeera.Net or BBC Arabic on the radio half an hour for a day over a long-term basis, you’re going to get to the point where you’re “reacting” orally and not “thinking” orally.
13) Live in “real” local neighborhoods
In any Arab city, there are going to be certain neighborhoods that are more appealing for foreigners to live in. Don’t live in them. Put it this way: if you live in an upscale neighborhood like Zamalek in Cairo, it might be more comfortable, but you’re just another foreigner. If you live in a place like Sayeda Zeinab, you’re exotic; everyone is going to want to talk to you, giving you the chance to accumulate QHAS.
[...] Getting Good at Arabic [...]
Rob,
I love this. I think your technique of printing Al Jazeera transcripts and annotating them while you hear the audio is a fantastic exercise.
Great little compendium.
Thanks! One question: where did points 2 & 3 go?
Hi Rob, I am planning on moving to Egypt but not as a student or worker. Would I be able to rent an apartment in a local neighborhood or would I need some kind of extended visa instead of just renewing a tourist visa.
Thanks for any help
Backstar,
Thanks.
Trey,
I thought it was best to delete them.
Sal,
Yes, you can without any trouble.
Rob
Hi Rob, As expected, my tips simply augment yours. I’ll put them here anyway. Q: Do you live in Sayeda Zeinab? I did for a whole year. Eventually I moved to Heliopolis, God’s garden spot of the universe. My interaction in Arabic with the locals in Arabic did not suffer for it. Also, joining a funky gym is a great idea that I forgot to mention – I did that too. Women can join upscale gyms and still make friends. So the benefit is just as good. My remarks about soap operas apply to films too. Here are my tips:
When studying Arabic, you need to gain proficiency in both modern written Arabic and in a vernacular. Modern written Arabic can be studied almost anywhere, nevertheless, it pays to engage in an intensive summer program in the Arab world; first of all, it will permit you to pay close attention to Arabic without there being other distractions. Secondly, a study-abroad program is also a golden opportunity to acquire and interact with spoken Arabic, which is much harder to do outside of the Arab world. So, if you get the opportunity, enroll in a program that will give you a lot of class time with a spoken vernacular.
Where you study a vernacular depends upon the area of the Arab world that interests you – or wherever you are accepted – or whatever your funding will permit.
Any place you choose has its advantages and disadvantages. Beirut, for example, is very bi-lingual, even tri-lingual. So if you are at one of the central universities, such as AUB, LAU, or San Joseph, you are likely to encounter many people speaking European languages. This is both a blessing and a curse. Even so, it is possible to find a lot of Arabic spoken away from the main university areas, and even in the university neighborhoods, if you shop at the local groceries for example. The other main cities in Lebanon would be better places for studying Arabic. The main advantage of Beirut accrues to women students; they simply do not experience the kind of unwelcome attention they receive in other Arab capitals. And of course the famous nightlife, which students find important. Engaging in the right kind of nightlife can of itself be a proficiency-enhancing enterprise. This may seem frivolous, but if you are spending an entire year in the field, it helps to have some outlet.
The trick to learning a vernacular is to put yourself into an environment in which you are hearing it spoken all the time and must use it.
For passive understanding, you should find some soap opera that you like well enough to follow and watch it almost everyday. There is always some soap opera running, and nowadays you can buy some of the more popular ones—all thirty episodes—on DVD, usually for about $80.00 US. The two big producers are Syria and Egypt, but there are some Gulf soaps too.
For active exposure and obligatory use, join a student club. This is especially easy when you are abroad, but if you are at a university with a large Arab population in your home country, you are likely able to find a club with a large Arab student membership. Even if your student colleagues are at American universities and can and do speak English while on campus, once they begin to plan and implement activities, they lapse into their native language, and then you have to get along. Not only that, but you will easily form friendships and be invited to participate in other non-school activities.
Last term I had a student join the swim team and eventually travel with the team to Egypt to participate in regional finals. His activity in the club as well as all of the socializing helped improve his Arabic immensely. One of his classmates participated in an NGO that provided educational services to Palestinian children in the local camps. By the end of the term, she was speaking Arabic with a great deal of facility – one could basically observe her proficiency improving daily. In the fall term, two students participated in student elections; in the strategy sessions and caucuses, they were obliged to use Arabic. Even though these students’ activities caused them to miss class more than usual, their Arabic improved faster than they could have achieved in class.
Get a colloquial dictionary. Unfortunately, there are not too many good ones available, and those that are often presented in transliteration. They are better than nothing, but they leave much to be desired. Also, they are almost all uni-directional, a peculiarity of Arabic dictionaries in general. A reasonably good one for Levantine Arabic is The Olive Tree, which emphasizes the Palestinian vernacular of Jerusalem. The best colloquial dictionary is A Dictionary of Egyptian Arabic, by El Said Badawy and Martin Hinds, so if you are lucky enough to be learning Egyptian Arabic, by which I mean the Arabic of Cairo, you have a very good resource at hand. It is published by Librairie du Liban, so it is quite reasonably priced.
******
For modern written Arabic, you need to start reading, and reading, and reading. If you don’t have a teacher to keep you busy, set yourself the discipline of reading so much that you won’t have time to look up every word. That is the point; you want to be able to activate the word-attack skills that you should have been learning in class, analysis of roots and patterns, as well as guessing from context and understanding from background knowledge of context. In my experience, students of Arabic are particularly reluctant to do this, but you should.
How to do that successfully? Try to choose topics that you find inherently interesting. Be more concerned with being able to get into the topic as opposed to whether or not the topic is “important.” Read about films, music, literature, poetry, child raising, astronomy, economics, anything you find compelling for itself. Don’t look up every word, and don’t worry about understanding all of them. Absorb meaning from context. Only if you find a word being repeated, which must be a keyword, may you look the word up. It is likely that you will learn the word without having to memorize by this technique.
Use the same technique with reading the newspapers. Don’t start on the front page. Go to the arts, sports, the crime page, gossip, etc. Thumb through the paper everyday, allowing yourself to be attracted by pictures or headlines. Once you find something catching your eye, read it until you have got the message of the piece and then move on, just as you would with a newspaper in your native language. Start with shorter articles and move to longer ones. Save analysis of opinion pieces for later. These are the really interesting parts of the Arabic papers. Once you start them, again, choose the columnists with short columns first, and then move on to the guest editorials, which tend to be longer and more specialized later.
Play an Arabic-language news channel it in the background while you are doing other things. Do this everyday as you clean house, write papers, cook, and so on. News is repetitive, so you will be hearing the same stories over and over again, often day after day.
Make your first active news consumption of the day Arabic. Any television news will do, but start with the news summary broadcasts, which many stations have at the top of the hour many times a day.
Get to know some text(s) really well. A good way to do this is to take a text you find really interesting or important and to translate it with an eye to publication. You will learn a lot of specialist vocabulary this way and you will learn many rhetorical devices and idioms.
I think you’re going to be hearing from the State Dept shortly.
Good work.
Hi Rob:
Thanks a zillions for all those good advice.
I have a few questions though if you, or any other reader have the answers:
1- Do you have in Egypt the possibility to watch and listen to any channel with the arabic closed captions? (also called sometimes deaf and hearing-impaired subtitles)? i find them very useful to learn any foreign language. It helps my brian train to connect the visual with the auditory part of the whole learning process.
2- i am also looking for language Schools/Institutes in Egypt you could recommend that teaches arabic to foreigners. Any suggestion?
3- Finally, i would like to rent an apt there instead of staying at a hotel (cheaper and probably more comfortable for a longer period of stay).
But i’m at a loss when it comes to finding rentals and choosing a neighborhood. Any suggestions/tips? How should i proceed?
I am a little anxious as i was told so many stories of people being scammed and tricked and about eh security situation.
Thank you for your time.
Semi-Expert,
Thanks for adding your insights. I lived in Sayeda Zeinab for a couple months during a previous visit to Cairo.
Bruno,
Thanks for your comments. As for your questions:
1) Do you mean subtitles? Yes, there are several English language tv stations broadcast on Arab Sat that feature subtitles in Arabic.
2) There are several. I think International Language Insitute in Mohandaseen is very good, and is a good deal financially compared to other more formal and expensive places like the American University in Cairo.
3) Its very simple to find an apartment, you shouldnt worry too much. Its possible you might get overcharged if its your first time in Cairo and you dont know the system, but you dont have to worry about more than that. There’s a website called Cairo Scholars (google it and join). People advertise apartments all the time on that.
Rob
Hi Rob:
I meant local Arabic channel with CC (closed captions).
You turn the CC option on your TV set and you can have the arabic transcript of what is said in Arabic. So while you hear arabic, you can at the same time read arabic. It’s a type of subtitle without the translation meant for people who can’t hear but read. (it’s a system mainly used by the hearing-impaired but i used it when i first moved to the US to improve my english. And it did wonder. You also have this option on DVDs)
Hi Rob,
I agree with everything you said which without a doubt was based you reflection over your own experience; and I also agree with the stress made by Semi-Expert on reading. A friend of mine who has been studying for years once told me that reading was like talking. He meant it was like speaking in the sense that you are practicing the language. It is also worth noting that reading gives a registry of vocabulary which is a lot richer than just speaking. So we could emphasize reading enough.
A quick reflection: I don´t know if there are any studies concerning the number of words used in spoken Arabic. This number might differ from country to country. By the same token, the number will also be different if you are speaking in Fusha with your classmates (which was my case) or speaking in a dialect with locals (also my situation). But you can tell whether a person has read or not when speaking.
I think, Rob, in the case of spoken Arabic, your advice is excellent and English speaking students should try to apply it as much as possible. What I think is also important to mention, and it is here we should count on the advice of Semi-Expert, is how to start working on the ability to use dialect when it is necessary and when to use MSA when we must. This takes time and it is closely related to the number of hours acquired when speaking the acronym of which you used (or coined): QHAS.
Now you just have to write a book,
John
P.S. Book = A manual on basic Arabic.
Bruno,
As for good places to study Arabic in Cairo, you are spoiled for choice.
I second Rob’s endorsement of ILI. It used to meet your plane and help with accommodation, sometimes at apts they own. Check the website to see if they still do. Meanwhile, their teaching is as good as anywhere.
An inclusive but not necessarily exhaustive list of the good places are these:
ILI – as mentioned
Kalimaat – founded by teachers from the British Council after it ceased to teach Arabic
Arabic and Translation Studies at AUC downtown campus, about the same price as ILI and Kalimaat (the expensive program is ALI on the new campus); this used to have some of the best teachers around, and I ought to know, because I was the director; but since the move to the new campus, anything left on the old campus has been left without much infrastructure support – some of the instructors from my day are still there… may be worth checking
Fajr Centre – the cheapest of the lot, emphasis on MSA with an Islamic orientation, but they have made concessions to teaching colloquial
The Hedayet Institute – expensive but superior instruction. Nagwa Hedayet used to teach at ALI and she used to teach for me. She hires only the best teachers, whom she culls from the places listed above.
Semi-Expert: I cannot thank you enough for your insight.
And since you have lived in Cairo i wanted to ask you about the city and lodging:
As stated in a previous comment i am a little apprehensive about finding an apt. in Cairo without any prior knowledge of its many neighborhood. It seems from reading Rob’s post that if i go for an exclusive secure neighborhood it would lower my chance of mingling with locals and speaking arabic. But i’m afraid that if i go for a more popular one i might run into some big security issues? Any suggestion or thoughts on that side of my search and recommendation on any neighborhood?
Also, to add my two cents regarding the comments about reading, i found reading out loud amazingly efficient to improve not only my locution and pronunciation but the level of confidence in conversing.
Reading aloud is a skill that is sorely neglected in Arabic classes.
The neighborhoods Rob was talking about are not secure in the sense of being gated communities (there are such things, but they are on the outskirts of town). And in fact they are no more secure – as such – than are the funkier neighborhoods in town. And just about any neighborhood you find to live in will be safer than any neighborhood in large western cities. Everyone will know you and watch out for you. This more so in the less affluent neighborhoods than in the upscale neighborhoods.
Finding a place is as simple as wandering round the neighborhoods you think you might like and asking the doormen if they know of any empty apts. (In the lower scale neighborhoods, there are fewer doormen, but you can ask at stores and other local businesses). You can also seek the services of a an agent (simsar) who will take a percentage of the rent as a fee.
Forgot to mention: all of those places may be found on the web
John, Semi-Expert,
I completely agree with the reading, I forgot to mention that point. Its absolutely critical.
And with reading, its something you can easily control, to develop speaking skills, you have to really find good conversation oppurtunities, people with the inteleect to provide stimulating conversations that allow you to develop as a speaker. That’s not always easy to do.
But with reading, advancing is totally under the control of the student. Just buy a newspaper every day and sit down and read it.
Semi-Expert,
“The best colloquial dictionary is A Dictionary of Egyptian Arabic, by El Said Badawy and Martin Hinds, so if you are lucky enough to be learning Egyptian Arabic, by which I mean the Arabic of Cairo, you have a very good resource at hand. It is published by Librairie du Liban, so it is quite reasonably priced. ”
This is an excellent dictionary, although its fairly expensive. I bought it at the AUC bookstore two years ago for 400 pounds/ 80 USD. Still, I would say its defintely worth it for those serious about studying ECA. What I find useful about it is that if has a sentence (through transliterated) employing every single verb. For me at least, just getting a list of verbs isn’t very helpful, knowing the meaning of a word, isn’t the same thing as knowing the context of how its used in a sentence. The fact that the makers of the book went and came up with at least one sentence for every single verb (usually one for every different context that it would be used in) makes it worth the $80.
Rob,
I should have mentioned that you should always look for dictionaries somewhere else than the AUC bookstore before buying there. The Badawy and Hindsdictionary is cheaper at Abou l-Hool bookstore on Shawarby St, the local rep for Librairie du Liban.
Further to this discussion, for those learning Egyptian Arabic should watch الطبع الاولى on Dream II every week night at 8:30 except Thursdays, when there is a live interview at 7:00. It is repeated the following morning at 8:00.
The host Ahmed El Muslimani gives a roundup of the next day’s headlines and then discusses issues of general interest, speaking what was at one time called “Educated Spoken Arabic”
[...] this place. One day we will buy a new home and pretend we have lived there all our lives." Get Good at Arabic « MediaShack | Good tips on picking up the lingo – this method really works although it means you must be [...]
[...] Get Good at Arabic [...]
Yes, the soaps! Better than films for the newer student, given slower dialogue, continuing storyline and characters that aid in understanding from context.
Ramadan is coming, bringing the year’s best new productions. Anxiously awaited: the period Syrian series about popular resistance in French-occupied Damascus, “Bab al Hara IV” and the long-running Saudi tragicomedy social critique “Tash 16.”
Also, check out the serious Turkish soaps; all are excellently dubbed into Syrian Arabic. You’ll find some on the MBC website, including “La Makan, La Watan” about honor crimes in southern Turkey and “Al Hob wal Harb” about popular resistance to French occupation in post-WWI Aintep.” [However, don't look for new Turkish series during Ramadan. That is only for new Arabic programming.]
Easy Access:
On the Web: The MBC website open archives of several current and past series, all varieties: drama and comedy, talk, music, fashion, sports and religion and choice of several [Eastern] dialects, along with info about the series and audience forums [the latter providing interestesting insights into youth engagement with television and the strange patois they use to express themselves.] “Bab al Hara III” is on the site now, as is “Al Ijtiyah,” about the Israeli invasion of Jenin. It won the International Emmy for best telenovela a while back. FREE!
YouTube: A lot of series. Just surf around a bit to find them. FREE!
JumpTV: A wide variety of packages of Arabic Sat TV channels and individual serials. Paid subscription.
Satellite Service: If you are in the US, and choose Dishnet satellite rather then cable for your regular TV service, you can also choose one of the packages of Arab Sat TV stations.
Good reply, Peri. I love طاش ما طاش and باب الحارة . There are also a couple of good Bedouin series as well الصراع على الرمال which also looks interesting. I remember once helping an American teacher of Arabic who needed class material by sending him a couple of links of طاش ما طاش and telling him how to go over it and how to use it with students. They were intermediate so it was possible to do this activity with them; especially taking into consideration that the link to the episode was one where the talking was less than usual (it was the episode where two buddies on the advice of a third decide to tell their wives they had to go on a trip for business but in reality they were visiting Egypt for a hanky panky holiday. But as they were discussing their plan, the wives overheard them and decided to teach them a lesson. Anyway, it was hysterical.
http://video.ppc2you.com/video/13874/%D8%B7%D8%A7%D8%B4-%D9%85%D8%A7-%D8%B7%D8%A7%D8%B4-14-%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%87%D9%85-%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%87%D9%85-14
Great tips. But as a girl who’s lived in Cairo, I’d say you might consider recommending that women skip the “talking to taxi drivers” strategy as well. It didn’t turn out too well for me, once I learned enough colloquial to figure out what they were saying to me…
…although before I did that, the strategy sure produced some pretty funny instances of myself speaking absolutely incomprehensible fusha to some very bewildered drivers.
I think you’ve made a wonderful observation, Sarah. What an American or Dane might consider normal friendly conversation could be interpreted in the Arab world like a woman flirting and implying something else. Cultural differences are extremely important and should be explained. But in the case of female students sitting down with old ladies, widows, hajjaat, etc (believe me, I’m not being sarcastic) can be an excellent option for taxi drivers. They can also be an excellent source of vocabulary.
“Any TV that has cable in the Arab world is going to have a few stations, catering to a local audience, that subtitle American films”
If you don’t have access to Arabic TV channels, lots of standard DVDs have an Arabic subtitles option.
Mutashakeer Yah Stamboul