Welcome to
 Arabiconline.US
ْاَهْلًاْ وَسَهْلًاْ وَمَرْحَبًاْ بِكِ فِي 
 مَوْقِعِ تَعْلِيْمِ اَلْلُّغَةِ اَلْعَرَبِيَّةِ
Live Online Video Arabic Classes
From Alif to Alfiya & Everything in Between

Arabic online.us provides twenty six specialized Arabic courses both in person and online, it was established to provide quality synchronous Arabic language instruction to students who are not only interested in learning Modern Standard Arabic but also regional dialects. Live approach to learning allows Arabic language students to engage with their instructors in a way that enhances language learning. We have been teaching Arabic in USA since 1989 and in the Middle East since 1969.
All of our classes are taught live online in real time by a native speaker PhD instructor based in USA, they are not "interactive" or pre-recorded audio or video. Classes meeting day and time, which will be determined during registration, are specific and can’t be change, Which means that you will need to log in to an Arabiconline course at certain times.

Textbooks and Course Materials
All courses, required materials, and pricing options are displayed on each course page.
Unless otherwise stated, handouts and the price of some dialects' textbook are included in the tuition and will be available upon enrollment. Registered students will be sent a link to access online PDF and MP3 files of specially prepared materials that they will be able to download and print for themselves before each class.
Arabic Online doesn't use generic, mass market course books. We use our experience and knowledge to create personalized courses which specifically address the needs and level of our classes.  

Tuition 
Tuition for each course is $200 for ten hours of online live instruction.

Syllabi and Course page
If a syllabus is available for a course, you can find them on the course page as soon as instructor provide them. Also they are handed out at the beginning of a course for students.

Technical requirements Live
To participate, all you need to do is download Skype and create a Skype account. Real-time programs on Live require an internet-connected desktop or notebook computer running either the Chrome or Firefox browser., In addition, Live program participants will need headphones (preferably a headset with a built-in microphone), a built-in or external microphone (if not part of a headset), and a built-in or external webcam. Live requires bandwidth of at least 2 Mpbs download and upload speed. 

Teaching Philosophy
The teaching will be communicative, fun and will engage and stretch the students. Although the emphasis will be on speaking and listening, grammar will be included and taught in context.

Arabic Dialect Videos
 Each Arabic dialect page has a video of that dialect at the bottom of the page with a brief description of the topic of discussion, these videos are TV shows, movies or talk shows, they are valuable tool not only to hear the dialect spoken but also to observe body language, facial expression, clothes, emotions and surrounding, and to observe,  if you are fluent in one dialect and studying another, how close are Arabic dialects to each other, you will notice that all spoken Arabic follow certain pattern of speech with different pronunciation or words ( As in an English speaking country, you are expecting to hear the word "congratulation" when you announce a good news; passing an exam for example) all Arabic speech dialects follows predictable patterns, they use the same greetings and answer to greetings, same stock phrases, same proverbs, same idioms and same reaction, they face and talk about the same social issues. The videos are updated frequently and new videos are added to the older ones, their full transcript is available to download and print for enrolled students of that particular dialect free of charge.  

How to register for a class
  1. If you are a beginner student who wants to study MSA you can register directly by clicking on the buy now button of beginners’ class of your choice.
  2. It is recommended if you are not a beginner student to call or text us at 212-882-1235 before enrolling to talk to your professor about your goals and what you want to accomplish by taking our course, and also to ensure you are enrolling in the right course and to determine which level you should enroll in. This call will last about ten minutes.
  3. Course materials are textbooks and handouts, you can buy your textbook directly from us, and we will ship it to you if you prefer or you can pick it up from the school. Handouts are available to download free of charge from the course page. We recommend to buy it directly from us as we offer significant discount to our students. 
  4. If you like to enroll in an Arabic dialect class and but don’t know how to read Arabic or you can’t recognize the letters of the alphabet when they are connected, we strongly recommend taking a beginner course that is listed in the MSA page.
How to Study Arabic Effectively with us in more than a 100 easy to follow steps
Learning Arabic may seem intimidating at first. Words seem strange and reading an alphabet you’ve never even heard of can feel like an impossible task. However, learning Arabic is highly rewarding if you persevere. In this part, I’ll show you how to learn Arabic and provide you with a roadmap so you can get your foot in the door and succeed at learning the language. Learning Arabic will improve your memory, concentration, self-discipline, and ability to think logically.
  1. Use mnemonics, for example when you start learning the Arabic alphabet, making connection between letters and their shapes or look, the letter baa ب has a dot below it, remember it by associate it with the word below, taa ت has two dots on the top, associate it with the word top, the letter thaa ث has the three dots on the top, associate it with three, the letter alif ا , sound like alpha, which the first letter in the Geek alphabet, even the word alphabet sound like saying the first three letters of the Arabic alphabet.  Also some words when you pronounce them back word they are sound like their Arabic equivalent, like the word Shark, Kitab, which is the word for a book in Arabic, in English starts with B and ends with K, in Arabic it is the opposite, it  starts with K and ends with B. We have developed many technique you can use to retain your new Arabic vocabulary, we will discuss it in class.
  2. Develop a skill that connect English and Arabic words that has the same meanings but it is not obvious, for example, the word Risk in English exist in Arab; arrizq الرزق it means Livelihood (a means of securing the necessities of life) and in Spanish arriesgue (the L in al is assimilated because of the sun letters rule), they appear to have no relation in meanings, but if you think about it, people take risk to make a living, that way you can connect the words even though they don’t have the same meaning in modern time English. 
  3. Listen to Quran recitation, many students in order to get acquainted with Arabic sounds watch movies or listen to songs, not good. it is better if you listen to the Muslim holy book, the Quran, being recited, the reciters have the best voice and the reading is slow, but you need to have the written text in front of you so you can see how letters and vowels are pronounced, the reading is slow and the voices are excellent, which is not the case in songs with music background and the voice is full of emotion and exaggeration, eventually you will be able to understand news channels, songs and movies but not now, while you are still learning the Arabic alphabet.
  4. Listen to Arabic as much as you can, even if you dont understand a word keep listening and studying, eventually you will understand everything being said. Easier Arabic to understand or to read revolves around politics, so listen and re-listen to the same topic over and over again. 
  5. To increase intelligibility study Arabic Point of Articulation chart, which we will provide to all Arabic classes, when you master it you will sound like a native speaker, the more you sound like a native speaker, the easier it is for them to understand you. And the easier it is for people to understand you, the more they enjoy talking to you. Which comes in pretty handy, given that you need to talk to people in order to learn their language.
  6. Regardless of your Arabic skill level, you need to have the following down cold as your first priority: Arabic alphabet names, shapes in Naskh script, their sounds; using their point of articulation, with short vowels, tanween, and sukuun. Tanween grammatical functions. Ligatures, Taa marboutah pronunciation and grammatical functions; change masculine into feminine, name of unite of collective nouns, doing the verb one time, noun of appearance, etc. and be able give examples of words that has it and when to pronounce it as a haa and as a taa, Alif maqsuare grammatical function, and be able to give examples of some words that have it, The six letters that you don’t connect, the five letters that look the same in medial or final positon, Emphatic and none-emphatic letters and how they change the pronunciations of letters that follow them. Know the difference in pronunciation between the haa and Haa. Long vowels pronunciations, Hamza writing rules; at initial, medial and final positions, nouns and verbs that has hamzatu al wasl. Active and passive participles of form one verbs. Be able to conjugate regular verbs in the past, and present. And be able to change present tense verbs into imperative. Know the Negative particles. All separate/personal pronouns and all attached pronouns and when to use each one correctly, be able to attach them as suffixes to verbs, preposition and nouns. 12 interrogatives, 8 prepositions, demonstrative pronouns for nearby and distance objects, relative pronouns. Signs that the word is a verb or a noun, be able to do simple Irab, syntax analysis. Shaddah and what it does to the meaning of an Arabic word. Ten verb forms, and their different meanings; not all of them but at least the most likely meaning of each, their active and passive participles and their masdars with the exception of form one, since its masdr is not intuitive . Recognize the Arabic numbers.
  7. if you have a long term goal with Arabic buy The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (English and Arabic Edition)
  8. هـ و ح how to tell sounds apart: Almost all student don’t hear the difference between these two letter, there is a method called minimal pair training, involves listening to a word that has the sound difference you want to learn, deciding which one you think it is, and getting immediate feedback about whether you were right or wrong. After a few sessions, you’ll hear the difference more easily and be able to pronounce them better. You will find this mp3 file on our website. 
  9. Use flashcard, write words or sentences in Arabic on one side and a picture or translation on the other. To learn the words or sentences, you look at one side of the card, see if you can remember what’s on the other side, then turn it over to see if you’d remembered it correctly.
  10. Stay Motivated and be cognizant of of how important this language is, that will give you the motivation to study it, also the number of Americans who studied Arabic from zero as a foreign language and who speak it now fluently is very low, I would say less than a hundred, so there is still a place for you on the top. Arabic widespread language, it is used in the following countries:  Bahrain, Comoros, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestinian National Authority, Israel, Qatar, Western Sahara, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen. together they are about half a billion people plus the billions of Muslims all over the world for theological reasons.
  11. Learning just MSA (this is the name giving to the Arabic language in the western world for Arabic used in media and formal gathering, it stands for Modern Standard Arabic) or a dialect is not sufficient, you need to learn both and never abandoned MSA in the process. 
  12. We taught hundreds of frustrated students who became comfortable using the Arabic that they learnt at their colleges (which is MSA in most cases) so they decided to travel to an Arab country to practice what they have learned, but to their dismay they found that no one talk that version Arabic in the streets among themselves, or even in the Arab neighborhoods in America or anywhere else for that matter, it is no the language of daily communication. Nowadays students are aware of different variants of the Arabic language; MSA, colloquial, Quranic, classical, etc., and how and where each one is used. MSA is not purely spoken and dialect is not commonly written or spoken all the time. An Arabic speaker use a mixture of all varieties subconsciously depending on the situation, their level of education, topic, and the audience. Often Arabs themselves are surprised that many of the words they thought was pure spoken Arabic words turn out to be classic. Therefore it is very important to realize the following facts when you are or starting to study Arabic:
  13. Learning a dialect after MSA will strength your MSA because many of vocabulary of a dialect come from MSA with different degree of pronunciation or meaning.
  14. Never start learning Arabic by learning a dialect first if your goal is to be good in the Arabic language as whole.
  15. Don’t start learning both at the same time, wait until you have a strong understand of basic grammar and enough vocabulary to have a conversation in general topic in MSA to start your study of a dialect.
  16. If you looking for a dialect to learn, Egyptian is your best bet, with more than 100 million native speakers, it dwarfs any other Arab dialect, that in addition to its far reaching culture and political influence among Arabs, it is the most understood dialect among Arab, some Arabs can speak Egyptian with native fluency that is hard to tell that the person is not an Egyptian, the opposite is almost impossible ( Arabs grow up listening to it).
  17. Strong knowledge of a dialect and MSA will enable you to understand most of other dialect without learning them, you will be able to guess by recognizing how certain letters are pronounced or changed to other letter in that particular dialect. An instructor will bring that to your attention, example when the letter Qaf turn in hard G (Geem) as in great.
  18. It is essential to study both to use the language efficiently and grow your Arabic language skills.
  19. Don’t stop learning MSA when you are learning a dialect. 
  20. Many students complain that they can’t find someone to talk Arabic to, so they come to the conclusion that they have to travel to an Arab country to be able to practice, well that is not the optimal solution. Practice with yourself, you don’t need a study or talking partner to practice speaking with, talk to yourself, in an audible voice as if you are talking to someone else, preferably in front of a mirror. 
  21. Start learning Arabic by learning the Arabic alphabet sounds and shapes very well, besides the obvious reason of been able to read, more than any modern language, many Arabic alphabet letters has meaning, some use as pronouns, interrogatives, prepositions, or as a future tens converter. So you need to know them very well. 
  22. Don’t despair when you make mistakes, even repeatedly. Don’t express frustration repeatedly, your professor will stop teaching you what he think, from observing your reaction to his instruction, is too difficult for you to digest, and stick with easy materials, the reason is that some student use profanity when they can’t grasp a topic, your professor doesn’t want to hear the “F” word, rolling of the eyes, sigh of frustration, from a student every five minutes so he will stick with easy topics, again, many topics that students find hard to grasp or hard to rational exists in English, but you dont think about it because you speak it by nature, and everything in Arabic has a reason. We will discuss all of these in class. That remind me of someone goes to the gym but complain that he has to work out or lift weights, so try to enjoy learning it. 
  23. Another reason to refrain from using profanity when learning certain hard to grasp topics in Arabic is that Muslims look at Arabic as a sacred language it is the vehicle that carry the message of God.  
  24. Do you really need to study Arabic grammar? Yes, but don’t spend the majority of your Arabic language learning time memorizing complicated grammar rules. 
  25. Have a conversation with yourself, use the little vocabulary you have to construct sentences even it sound silly, the goal is to train your brain to fetch words from memory and put it quickly in a sentence, if it sounds silly or illogical, use your imagination to construct sentences, for example if you learn a new verb or a noun, try to pair it with its most likely occurrence, say you learn the verb “to drive”, most likely it goes with the word a car. your brain is already an awesome vocabulary learning machine. When you read or listen to something, your brain doesn’t take each word at face value: it’s constantly taking statistics about which words appear together regularly so that it can anticipate what’s coming next and process speech faster. To get better at this, you need to flood your brains with bucket loads of natural content so we can build up a picture or which kinds of words usually appear together. Reading is a great way to do this and there’s lots of research that shows that reading works wonders for your vocabulary skills.
  26. Some older students study Arabic just to stimulate their brain, we encourage that, and most of them end up liking the language and what it did to their new mental sharpness.
  27. If you are a beginner student try to cover or hover you hand over your mouth to free it so it can produce these new sounds of the Arabic language. 
  28. We know you are fluent if you call us over the phone and we can’t tell if you are a native speaker or an American with native fluency.
  29. The importance of the Arabic language will not diminish, unlike other language, so having it as a skill is like having a piece of gold increase in value as you improve it and practice. 
  30. We know some students who, because of their perfect Arabic language skill can write their own paycheck. 
  31. To have a funny glimpse of Arab culture watch Borat or the Dictator by Sacha Noam Baron Cohen
  32. If you wonder what your level is give us a call, we can figure out your level in a minute and a half.
  33. Some student with Dyslexia choose to study Arabic because of its right to left direction, we are not doctors but we find having Dyslexia doesn’t help in studying Arabic for some reasons.
  34. Repetition is the key, we always liken learning Arabic to working out, the more you exercise the better you will get.
  35. Many students when they start reading Arabic refuse help in reading, by saying let me read, what they doing is they are reading every letter with its vowel separately and at the end they try to say them together as a word, we usually let them try that first and when they fail to pronounce a word correctly we explain to them that reading doesn’t involve reading every letter of a word, you just see the outer letters but the medial letters are scrambled up. For example if you reading a long word such as “Mediterranean” you don’t notice every letter only the first couple and glance over the rest this will recall the correct pronunciation that you learn when you first encounter that word. What this means is that when you get used to Arabic words – just like English – you’re not actually spelling the word out anyway, you’re just recognizing the image of the word in a sense by associating the image of that word with sound and meaning.
  36. A common misconceptions is that you have to travel and study or live in an Arabic country to be good at Arabic, not true, look around you, you will see many immigrants who have been in this country for decades and still dont speak English and when you travel abroad to the Middle East,  you will meet people who speak perfect American English but they never been to America, Please read the section below.
  37. Have a goal to accomplish, don’t allot specific time to study Arabic, students often ask how much time I have to study Arabic, knowing that "time" will be interrupted by checking your email and doing other things, we advice students to have a goal, like memorizing the Arabic alphabet or ten words a day, regardless of the time this will take. 
  38. Almost all students and prospective students ask us how long it will take to be fluent/can talk/be able to understand/to master ,etc. Arabic, the answer is it depends on many factors, your commitment, how many hours a day you intended to study, your focus, you linguistic incline, eagerness, age, we can list ten factors that can affect how long it will take, if you have what it takes to succeed, the key to achieve quick results in Arabic is to take intensive course with an excellent professor, that course could be between three to six hours a day meeting everyday for few weeks or months, you also need to have the time to study, the most important factor here is that you have to be DISCIPLINE during the intensive course like your live depends on it, but if you attend a class once a week in the evening after a long day of work and you have no time to study because of work or family, it will take longer time to master Arabic.  
  39. If you are serious total beginner opt for one on one/private tutoring to achieve faster results, many beginner students say they like to be in a class so they can talk with their classmates, these classmates cant talk because they dont know Arabic yet, so a beginner talking to a beginner is like a blind leading the blind. 
  40. Mastering Arabic doesn't ends when the course ends, you have to maintain it and improve it on your own but you dont have to work as hard as when you started. 
  41. Take good notes and read it back to your instructor to make sure nothing is lost and you correctly wrote it, if you dont take notes you will forget what he said in five minutes. 
  42. In order to take good notes you will need to be able to write Arabic fast. Arabic writing is the second most broadly-used script in the world, after the Latin alphabet, so practice writing Arabic whenever you can (it is therapeutic), you dont have to write meaningful words, just connect random letters like this مسنواتعث  and pay attention the most important characteristics of Arabic, how many dots and where and whether or not the letter is connected form both sides. 
  43. another way to practice writing Arabic is to write English words using Arabic alphabet, then show them to an Arab or someone who is fluent, and see if they can recognize it, for example write نيويورك and show it to someone to see if he or she recognize it as New York.
  44. Enable Arabic keyboard on your phone or laptop, you can use that as a way to practice recognizing the letters when they are connected in a word, press each Arabic key three consecutive time without a space to see how the letter change shape when it is initial, medial or final like this haaههه 
  45. use Arabic instructional videos you find on the internet with caution, the same goes for the many applications that teach Arabic you find on Google play and Apple storeو Google translation.
  46. Have good sleep and rest, and cut down on the time you spent online, lack of sleep and constantly checking email and social media have adverse effect your brain ability to learn new skill and memorize new words.
  47. Don’t work out intensely before a class. Cerebral circulation is the blood flow in your brain. It’s important for healthy brain function. Circulating blood supplies your brain with the oxygen and nutrients it needs to function properly. when you work out this blood will go into your muscles not your brain, learning Arabic is exhausting mentally, and you don’t want to add the physical exhaustion to the that, we advise our students to come to class well rested and well fed, because they will burn a lot of calories studying Arabic with us. Also a student can become aggressive after intense work out when faces difficult topics and concepts, 
  48. Overcome your lack of focus and short attention span by turning off your cellphone before the class and cut down on online activities. You can also train your brain to stay focus using certain techniques that we will discuss it during the class.  
  49. Focus on the topic at hand during class, dont ask questions that is not related to it, the reasons is that it delays and interrupts the flow of instruction of your instructor and classmates, and it could related to a topic you need you have background to understand it, Your question will be answered in due time when we cover the topic you are asking about, nothing a student ask we never heard and answered hundred of times, so be patient.
  50. Listen to some Arabic right before you go to sleep, your brain doesn’t sleep when you do, it keeps working on the last task before you sleep subconsciously.
  51. Listen to yourself when you speak Arabic, you can hear the sound of your voice through the bones of your skull, which is called bone conduction.
  52. Let your teacher teach, after teaching thousands of students Arabic we and the students like to reach our goal together, and we know how to achieve it. you might have preference for different methodology of teaching, but listen to us and lets teach you the way that achieve results, you will not be disappointed. 
  53. The majority of plural in Arabic (broken plurals) are not intuitive, some students decided not to learning plurals , their rational is that they’d rather learn new words instead of two versions of the same word. It is your call, would you rather spend the time you have on learning two versions of the same word or two new words?
  54. Try to learn the hidden meaning of Arabic words, the original meaning and the meaning that the word in modern time is used for, for example the word “Kitab” in Arabic means a book, but you need to know why that particular word is used to refers to a book, because the verb KaTaBa is originally means “to gather” as in gathering loos papers or leafs to make a book, by knowing these two meaning you can use it and recognize it with its different derivatives in other context, that double your vocabulary, so you will recognize words such as a book, library, office, desk, writer, which is related to the verb in its “to write” meaning, and also recognize words such as battalion, IPO, underwriting, subscription, prospectus, in its “to gather or collect” meanings.
  55. Respect your teacher, he can dismiss you if you dont, and in this case you will lose your tuition. If you keep annoying him, or he felt disrespected, he simply will not teach you, or he will not work hard in teaching you, also show your enthusiasm in order to give him a reason to work with you to achieve a higher level, remember he is with you to help you and teaching Arabic is not an easy task to start with.   
  56. Not only you should be motivated to learn Arabic, but also you need to motivate your teacher to teach you, by studying hard, showing respect and enthusiasm, by not missing any classes and being punctual and doing your homework.  
  57. Love the language and the culture, we found people who hate it will never be good at it. Many students are surprised at certain opinions and behavior of Arabs, both here and there, try no judge, but understand, and consider it a free culture class. this is a very important topic that need to be address separately, so will write about it soon. 
  58. Don’t wait to practice your Arabic until you find a study or talking partner, practice speaking by talking to yourself loudly. The reason you need to speak loudly is to strength certain muscles that you usually don’t use when speaking English , by forcing certain areas of the mouth to produce these sound, you make them strong, also repetition is the key, similar if you go the gym and always use five pounds dumbbells, you will never strength your muscles.  
  59. One early hurdle you’ll face when learning Arabic is figuring out how to correctly pronounce words and make the sounds of letters not shared with the English alphabet. It can be challenging to learn how to say letters like “qaf” or “ghain,” but it’s very important that you learn them, give your brain time to process them, and even if there is no way to pronounce certain letters, people will understand what you trying to say from the context. In English, a letter can be dropped from a word or pronounced wrong and it likely won’t affect the meaning of the sentence. In Arabic, each word is made up of a three-letter root placed into a pattern. If one of the letters is pronounced incorrectly, a sympathetic listener may be able to understand you, but the average person will just be confused, because the meaning of the entire word will be different. 
  60. There are a few things you can do to help you learn the sounds quickly and correctly. A good first step is to get to know your mouth, nose, and throat very, very well. Think of this exercise as a warm-up before your workout. Open and close your throat, hum and click, move your tongue around, feel where your teeth are. Your mouth and your vocal cords are your instrument, and you should be familiar with them in a conscious way as you learn to shape new sounds. Once you do this, practice saying the letters aloud, repeating them until you have made the correct noise. If you like, write them as you say them, and you will also be able to practice learning the Arabic script. After some time making these noises, the muscles associated with making them will get stronger, and it will feel more natural to use them. 
  61. Another thing you can do to familiarize yourself with the sounds of Arabic is to listen to people speaking or singing. You can find plenty of Arabic music, movies, newscasts, poetry performances, and other materials online. When you listen, try to relax your mind and just hear the sounds clearly and accurately. Try to find the spots in your own mouth that allow you to make those sounds. Don’t worry about understanding—in this way, if you do understand a word it will be natural, and if you don’t, you will still be familiarizing yourself with the way Arabic should sound. 
  62. If you want to take it further than simply sounds, you can try to pick up on the rhythm of how people speak, on the different ways of expressing tone or mood, and even on hand gestures. The purpose of this is to think of Arabic as a real way of communicating with people, and not just something you use in the classroom. 
  63. People often feel they sound silly or they may have anxiety about being wrong when learning these new sounds and letters. As you practice producing these sounds, try to not be intimidated and don’t be embarrassed if it takes you time to get it right. If you are patient with yourself and approach learning with curiosity and humor, you’ll be speaking in no time, and you’ll sound great while doing it. 
  64. Develop a memorization Strategies, if you want to talk in Arabic you need to be able to memorize new Arabic words, the faster you are the more words you will have in your arsenal. 
  65. everything in Arabic is logical and has a reason, but sometimes you will need to memorize rules and words without knowing or understanding why, some students ask "why" every five minutes when we explain a rule or a topic, usually these students will not go far in learning Arabic. There are many aspect of English that you use without knowing Why, so do the same in Arabic, not because we dont know why, but explain it will slow down the class. 
  66. Don’t translate American idioms word for word into Arabic, say you are learning the verb “to drive” , and you already know the word crazy in Arabic, don’t use them in driving someone crazy, in Arabic we have similar idioms but not the same exact words as in English. Same goes for Arabic to English, Conan O’Brian, on his show, was in Jerusalem speaking to a Palestinian tea seller on the street, who try to complement him by saying your heart is like your face, after a little confusion, he understood that having a white face and match a white heart, meaning he has a good heart. 
  67. Master the ten verb forms.
  68. Don’t waste your time as a beginner student listening to songs and watching movies thinking you will learn vocabulary that way, you are not that good yet, memorize new vocabulary words instead, in songs and especially Arabic songs the goal is not to communicate words but also emotion, intent and certain sound quality, as such, sung articulatory gestures ( lip, jaw, and tongue movements) are generally exaggerated, compared to everyday speech. You can listen and watching movies and songs for their cultural value, and observing interaction and body language. 
  69. Tone of voice and body language is very important element of successful communication along your verbal part, few years ago I met professor Christopher Stone, who is the Associate Professor of Arabic and Head of the Arabic Program at Hunter college, I was impressed by his Arabic demeanor and body language, learning to understand and adopt to Arab body language can cover any verbal deficit you may have and it is easier to learn and master, you learn various Arab body language communication in Arab Culture class, and since there are many way Arab can express themselves non verbally this will be a large part of studying of the culture, after than we will focus our attention on American body language that may cause range of feelings from outward hostility to disgusted and try to be aware of it so you won’t use it in an Arab country or whenever you need to be. We will also point out to American body languages that Arab adopt with changes and how it is used by them. After in the class session we should be heading to a place where Arab congregates and watch how they communicate with each other and study their reaction and nonverbal communication and discuss it. in the Arab world gender matter and male and female both has their own body langgue and nonverbal communications that you need to be aware of it is gender usage, you will have the opportunity to watch many tapes and see pictures of these body language posture, believe us if you can master it, it will give you an edge in your communicating that will compensate for any Arabic langue deficiency you might have and it will project the image that you want to convey; regardless of whatever it is. 
  70. Don’t whisper when you are in a class or learning new vocabulary, say the words loudly to strength the muscles that they are producing them, which in some cases you never used these muscles before.
  71. If you don’t know how to say a word say it loud, why compound ignorance with inaudibility. 
  72. When you making a statement or saying a word in Arabic, don’t sound as though you are asking a question.
  73. If you study Arabic in college and you want to get good grade on you oral or written exam, memorize chuck of phrase and idioms that you can fit anywhere in you essay or speech regardless of the topic that you can steer your writing or speaking in a direction where you can use them, we will supply you with them in class. 
  74. Don’t try to practice your Arabic with Arabs working in groceries stores, firstly they are busy serving and working, and most likely your Arabic accent or MSA is not easy for them to understand it immediacy, secondly, they don't want to identify themselves as Arabs; there was incidents, especially after 9/11,  and even as recent as few weeks ago, when they were attacked just because they speak Arabic, one incident happened in NYC, a man walk into a grocery store and ask the clerk if you speaks Arabic, and when the clerk said yes he stabbed him in neck. Remember they are working in the street, working up to 24 hours a day or closing their stores near midnight,  where they are like a sitting duck, vulnerable to robberies and assault, so they don’t want to give potential attackers or robbers another reason to attack them, because of their faith or language, you also read about it in the news when Arabs being kicked out of an airplane because they greeted each other in Arabic. 
  75. The opposite is also true, don’t identify yourself as an American overseas to strangers, the head of the Arabic language department of a New York City college was in Cairo, walking near the US embassy, a man approach him and ask if he is American, the professor said yes, and man attacked him with a knife. So it is even, here and there. In regard to divulging your nationality in potentially hostile environment. 
  76. Be aware that many ordinary Arabs are suspicious of Americans learning Arabic, for them you either a Muslim convert or someone want to cause harm to them; working with the Police, FBI,etc. They also dont understand why someone is learning this difficult language and they don realize how important their language is in today’s global arena, therefore and depending on your situation and surrounding it may be the best not to say that you speak Arabic or learning Arabic.
  77. The same goes for certain types of your Americans colleagues at work, friends or family, they may object/become suspicious, for obvious reasons, that you are studying Arabic, so be ready to defend and educate. 
  78. Don't read Arabic materials or textbooks on airplanes, and dont put them on the dashboard of a car when you are crossing land borders or any where were it is visible. we heard many stories from our students about unfortunate situations because of that, it is not worth it. 
  79. Don’t get your Arabic language advice from ordinary people, your mother, your friend on whatsapp, the Yamani guy working in the grocery store, etc, most of them are uneducated when it come to the Arabic language, they just speak it by nature ( Again, having a teeth doesn’t make you a dentist) and most of them forget half of it if they have been in this country for long time, the reason we mentioned that because heritage speakers students often dispute what you teach them with what they think their mother told them or what they think they heard (see below), therefore get it from us, with half a century of teaching Arabic we believe that we know what we are talking about. Also read below:
  80. Don’t trust your ears when it comes to saying or repeating an Arabic word you heard, that is called phonemic misperception. It is the same problem you having when you say a word to your instructor and he correct you, despite you believing that is exactly how you said it.   
  81. Try not to say the letter ح as خ, your accent is your ID, many Arabs associate this mistake with Israelis' accent, and as you know ...
  82. On the other hand, a good place to practice speaking Arabic is with Arab cabdrivers, you will have a better chance of having a conversation, because they most likely feel a little secured in their cab and they are bored, also, as it happened with many student, you may get a free or reduced ride fare, but expect them to be a little bias toward their own dialect, many students tell us when they say what dialect they study, if the cab driver is from a different county, they will probably advice the student to learn it because no one understand it or other reasons.  
  83. Know some Arabic people' names, both male and female, some students still can’t say the most popular name in the world; Mohammad correctly in Arabic, and also know what they means, many Arabic names are active and passive particles, such as خالد، طارق، عادل، فاطمة ، عائشة , and محمود ، محفوظ so try to associate the name with the grammar you just study. Also know their meanings, that way you increase your vocabulary and drill the grammar in your head with familiar names and strength your pronunciation, in America miss pronounce a person name is a mistake you should apologies for, not much in Arab culture, but it will nice for to spare the person the trouble of saying his name multiple time
  84. Best place to practice your Arabic with Arabs are barber shops in Arabic neighborhood, it is full of people talking to each other and eager to talk to you in Arabic, we took some of our students their and it was fantastic experience, Arabs still ask about them and how they are doing. also your barber is the perfect person to talk to, most of them are loquacious and they want to make you their customer to brag about even Americans come all the way to get their hair cut at their salon, that in addition they are excellent in their craft, you get a lot better hair cut for less money. 
  85. Know the meaning of your name in Arabic, some American names when they are said in Arabic means something, for example Nick when it is written in Arabic means the F word if you write it like this نيك, Tom means garlic, Jeanine means fetus and Paul could means urine (Arabic has no P), all depends on the dialect of the Arab county you are in, it is similar to what in America Egyptian president Sisi or the Saudi prince Turkey means or sound like in American culture.  That is another way to increase your vocabulary. 
  86. Also know the Arabic equivalent of common English names, such as Paul, John, Joseph, May, Benjamin, and how they refer to Jesus, and other prophets’ names. 
  87. A fact you should know that many people LOVE to learn Arabic, carrying an Arabic textbook in Starbucks or on the subway (but not on an airplane) is guarantee to start conversation. Arab believe that Arabic is a divine language, that could be true, and explain why people gravitate towards it, on the other hand, others don’t like other people to learn it, even Arabs themselves, if you tell them that you learning a dialect that is not theirs, they will try to persuade you to learn their dialect instead on the pretext that no one understand the dialect you are learning (not true).
  88. Learn the Arabic terms for grammar, phonetics, etc. in Arabic not in English or whatever language of instruction you are using. Arabic is very logic, there is a reason behind the name they gave to grammar and phonetics terms, they are descriptive words that tell you what this topic or this terms is about, when you know their LETRAL meanings in Arabic, you acquired both a new vocabulary and a precise idea about what that topic you are about to study is about, it also safeguard you against the confusion that that plague Arabic grammar books written English where every writer writes his own English translation of what he think this topic is about or its closest English equivalent. So again, learn them in Arabic. For example you will find the word for grammar in Arabic means “towards” or “approximate” , a vowels is “a movement” a Verb is “ doing”, the object of a verbal sentence is “ someone or something that something has been done to him” ,the word for a letter is “ an edge” even the word for Arabic is “ to express clearly” and the word for a vowel is “ a movement” and the word for infinitive in Arabic means the source, so learn them and also know why they are called these names; very important. 
  89. Listen to Arabs speaking English; To get a feeling of how Arabic sentences and idioms are constructed and expressed, try to listen to Arab speaking English, because they are translating Arabic into English in their heads before they speak, you can identify how their English grammar mistakes are actually how Arabic sentence is constructed, example an Arab will say My name Ahmad, you can conclude that the verb to be is not used in certain situations. Another example when El Sisi, which is by the way is not pronounced correctly by the Arab media ( because the sund letter) was in japan, he asked the PM “ how is THE JAPAN, as some countries in Arabic has the definite article “the” before them. 
  90. strength your native language, no matter what it is, it doesn’t make sense to learn a foreign language while your native language is mediocre, When your native language is strong, all the phonetics quirk and grammar weirdness of Arabic will be easier to understand because it exist in many modern language, but you don’t think about it, countless examples exist, and we will discuss it in class.
  91. if you are a native or have a strong knowledge of Spanish, Persian, Hebrew, Hindi, Turkish, Pashto, Dari,Urdu, Russian (grammar is similar Arabic's) you can increase your vocabulary quickly because Arabic and these languages share many vocabulary words, please let us know if you have strong knowledge of these language so we can use design a curriculum for you.
  92. Don’t judge Arab points of view that is considered not politically correct in your opinion, to be expressed in public, try to understand and learn. 
  93. Don’t study Arabic using children books, Arabic Children books are hard and contain vocabulary you will not use as an adult. 
  94. Be courageous. There shouldn’t be any spaces left for you to be shy while speaking a new language. It’s true that we humans learn by making mistakes, in a repetitive matter. Arabs are the most appreciative people on earth of those who learn/speak their language unlike other nations; with one EXCEPTION:
  95. If you are learning your Arab boyfriend language thinking he will encourage and appreciate your effort, think again, please don’t tell him, do it in secret, because he will most likely breaks up with you, it is not the same with an Arab girlfriend or when the relation is in marriage. Please dont ask us why.
  96. If you are an intermediate Arabic student working on speaking and understanding by listening to Arabic talk shows and movies, choose one talk show host to be your primary source of listening to Arabic and stick with it so you can be familiar with his intonation, sense of humor and everything else about the way he talk and the words he uses, this will eliminate other factor that affect understanding Arabic when you listen to random people. When I came to America I choose Howard Stern, Rush Limbaugh, and Chris Rock, needless to say talking like them got me in a lot of trouble in work places, so choose you initial exposure wisely. 
  97. Learn Latin, if you intended to be able to teach Arabic or to learn other languages as a polyglot. Be familiar with the following:
  98. Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale 
  99. Common European Framework of Reference for Languages 
  100. Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI)
  101. Defense Language Aptitude Battery (DLAB) 
  102. Defense Language Proficiency Tests (DLPT)
  103. MLAT  
  104. Simulated Oral Proficiency Interview (SOPI) 
  105. Diagnosis of a foreign language learning disability (FLLD). 
  106. learn phonetics, it will make producing Arabic sounds much easier.
  107. Apply The Teddy Bear Principle in programming to Arabic
  108. Familiarize yourself with Neuro-linguistic programming.
  109. Before going to the Arab world, try to visit Arab neighborhood if you live in a city that has one. Sit in an Arab café, visit a grocery store, or a mosque, even if you can’t understand what they are saying, observe their body language, and how they interact with one another. 
  110. Security, always learn Arabic as a security tool, the Middle East is still a dangerous place. Make sure you know how to write your name in Arabic and how to describe your surrounding also in Arabic. 
  111. Memorize Al FateHa, which is the first chapter of the Quran. ِAll FBI agents, armed forces and any student of Arabic whose level is high memorize it for security and culture reasons which we will cover soon on this page, even the CIA has a 103 pages document dedicated to it here
  112. it is Very very important to learn how to say (scream out loud) for help in a life or death situation, unfortunately we know of some people who died because they don’t know this word and how to say it. You are not asking someone to help you carrying a bag, you are asking for life-saving help.
  113. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink, no one will work harder to teach you Arabic more than us, we are the best in the world, we have unmatched experience, energy, dedication and patience to make you the best in the Arabic language field, the rest is up to you, you too have to have the commitment and the desire to learn from the best. 
Question: shall you go to the Arab world to learn Arabic?

Short answer is no, We genuinely believe that going to a country is not necessary if you want to learn its language, therefore we don't recommend going abroad to an Arabic-speaking country to learn Arabic, especially if you are a beginner student lacking the fluency and the cultural awareness. If you open any newspaper, you can see that the turmoil within the region has recently ballooned, making the Middle East a dangerous place and restrictive place to travel around for both natives and foreigners. Many traditional destinations for American students seeking Arabic education, such as Syria, Yemen, and Egypt, are now no longer safe. We also find that the quality of Arabic teachers who teach to non-Muslims westerners in many Arab countries Language schools and centers are mediocre. Unfortunately, consequently, but predictably, we found many of our students who went to the Middle East to learn Arabic coming back with less Arabic skills than the one they use to have when they were with us, Arab teachers in the Middle East also tend to lack the English language skills needed to explain difficult concepts to Westerners. These teachers primarily teach formal Arabic to other Arabs, and their techniques may not suit Western students. We also noticed that students who travel to the Arab World to study Arabic came back with less education than they travel with. Sad.
In the West, you can learn Arabic either at a language school or a college. Many language schools/centers employ low-quality teachers, the pay most likely is minimum pay. So they got what they pay for, and these teacher are working there just to supplement their income. Many of them don't have enough knowledge of the Arabic language to teach it correctly, let alone to communicate it to students. As for college courses, you may encounter the same problems or your teacher may be a PhD student / holder who is not a native speaker or a native but his degree is not in Arabic. Fact: Many people who study Arabic at the college level have large gaps in their knowledge. 

Having teeth doesn't makes you a dentist
it is not enough to be a native speaker to able to teach Arabic.
An Arabic teacher becomes an Arabic teacher after many years of preparation, education and experience, by merely been a native speaker of Arabic doesn't qualify a person to teach Arabic in our school because a teacher must be able to straddle the line between Arabic and English grammar, sentence structure, phonetics and other aspect of the languages to be able to effectively communicate these information to students. Therefore, we are confident in our ability to teach any student the Arabic they need to know. Look under the "Evaluations" heading to see what people are saying about us.
Arabs are very supportive of people try to learn their language. 
Arabs don’t expect a foreigner is learning their language unless he intended harm to them or he is a Muslim. They don’t realize the importance of their language in this day and age.
Unlike other nationalities who are condescending and insisting on hearing their language spoken by foreigners in an error free manner, otherwise they pretended they don’t understand. Arabs are very supportive of the Arabic language students and will go of their way to help and show support, judging from free cab rides our students get for speaking to cabdrivers in NYC to offering free drinks and falafel sandwiches from street vendors and their customer a like. We heard many stories attest to that. Hospitality is deeply ingrained in Arab culture which places you in high regard as their guest.

Thank you, we really hope that you will be one of our students, that is for your own success in pursuing Arabic, not because we love to make more money, not at all, but because we know, after teaching Arabic for over half a century and in NYC for over thirty years, and after teaching thousands of students, and hearing their stories about what type of instruction they received in other school, colleges and universities, we are obligated to invite you to join our body of students, Thanks.

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