Learn Arabic

Whether it's the Arabian Nights, the Bayan, the Kitab-i-Iqan or the works of the Sufi poets, reading some of the world's best literature in its original Arabic can be a deeply rewarding experience. More than that reward, you might even find a way to bridge current misunderstandings by you knowledge of spoken Arabic in the world today!

Arabic today can be classified into two major, practical spoken groups: Classical Arabic and All Other Dialects. There are minor variants and anomalies creeping into Classical Arabic, but it is this Arabic which is taught as the standard in all Islamic nations, this language which is spoken by nearly all communications media, and this language which Arabic speaking people from, say, Libya and Syria would use to communicate with each other, as Libyan dialect and Syrian dialect, while officially and linguistically 'Arabic', are nearly mutually unintelligible. Hence the reliance on the standard, Classical Arabic.

With Arabic-language films and videos now available, learning Arabic gives you an entree to the world of souks, bazaars and traders of the world's most expensive and exotic commodities. Arabic served as the lingua franca and as the language of science and medicine through much of the world during the Middle Ages of Europe.

Still, what is your desired goal? WHY do you want to learn this ancient, modern language? Is it friends you want to speak with on THEIR terms? Do you have a job waiting next year IF you can pick up a few hundred phrases with something more than minimal fluency? Or have you longed for years to drink deeply of the mysteries of Arabic literature, in Arabic, and someone else's translations just won't do it any more?

Regardless which goal or outcome is yours, you have available today an impressive array of language learning tools to help you learn Arabic. Today, unlike the first 1260 years of Islamo-Arabic learning, you have electronic learnin aids available in various forms, from tape cassettes and record-players (remember them?) to CDs and DVDs, with their massive data-collections of vocabulary, audio, video and contextual clues and cues which, woven together by linguists and programmers, provide you with the warp and weft of a well-made study program to learn Arabic.

Today there are Arabic-speaking people in virtually every western nation in the world. Although they seek to honor their own tribal and national traditions, most of them are eagerly learning English and the technical, financial, medical and research skills (and the concomitant incomes) that come with such cultural and linguistic acquisitions.

You can find these people and with minimal effort locate bilingual teachers who will gladly help you study their esteemed Arabic. Be careful NOT TO OFFER money, unless you are sure the person you're speaking with is a professional teacher, comfortable with receiving a fair fee for his time and help. There are many Arabic speakers who will help you for the sheer joy of leading you to an enhanced comprehension of their language. One student I know simply lined up 4 different teachers and rotated through them once a week. None of them wanted any monetary reward.

So now it's up to you. Are you going to learn a right-to-left-reading language of Semitic origin? Are you ready for the Kitab-i-Aqdas (The Book of Laws)? If so, step solemnly into classical Arabic and learn Arabic now!