Need some help with learning Arabic.

[Gaius I. Caesar]

Salaam alaikum, 

I been looking at Arabic books for learning and studying. Plus, could any Arabs tell me if learning Fusha is worth it or should I focus on a dialect? I think if I were chose, I would focus on getting more proficient with Lebnaani before moving on to Fusha or Modern Standard Arabic. Is this a wise choice?  I mainly want to speak and hold a conversation with confidence and be able to read a book or newspaper with ease.

[Hassan-]

Problem with Arabic is it's so complex and hard that even me as an Arab I'm still not perfect with it. Every Arab country has there own Arabic language, but the universal Arabic language is the Quran Arabic. Lebanese and Syrian Arabic are very similar and probably the easiest to learn.

[YAli]

6 hours ago, Gaius I. Caesar said:

Salaam alaikum, 

I been looking at Arabic books for learning and studying. Plus, could any Arabs tell me if learning Fusha is worth it or should I focus on a dialect? I think if I were chose, I would focus on getting more proficient with Lebnaani before moving on to Fusha or Modern Standard Arabic. Is this a wise choice?  I mainly want to speak and hold a conversation with confidence and be able to read a book or newspaper with ease.

I began learning with a native arabic teacher. If you want to speak and hold a conversation definitely learn the spoken dialect first. Choose whatever dialect you want, levant, gulf (Saudi, Kuwaiti, etc.), Morrocon, Egypt and so on. (I wouldn't advise on the Morrocon or Maghrebi so much because they sound very foreign to middle eastern, they almost have some French mixed in!). 

After you have a grip on the dialect and can hold a basic conversation, and know the grammar, then start delving into MSA if you want. To hold a conversation you will need learn dialect, but to read a newspaper or watch Arab TV/News then your MSA will come in handy (virtually all Arab media use the formal MSA as language). 

[Ali_Hussain]

wa 'alaykum assalam,

If you want to speak with people, you should see what kind of Arabs live in your area and learn that dialect.

However MSA would generally be more beneficial and as it is the foundation upon which dialect are built, would probably make learning dialect easier (the same way as they say that having a grasp of Latin makes it easier to learn Latin languages).

[guest050817]

8 hours ago, Gaius I. Caesar said:

Salaam alaikum, 

I been looking at Arabic books for learning and studying. Plus, could any Arabs tell me if learning Fusha is worth it or should I focus on a dialect? I think if I were chose, I would focus on getting more proficient with Lebnaani before moving on to Fusha or Modern Standard Arabic. Is this a wise choice?  I mainly want to speak and hold a conversation with confidence and be able to read a book or newspaper with ease.

This is a great endeavour and pursuit brother, and i am also on the path to inshAllah learn arabic.  May Allah purify our hearts and intentions and open our hearts to learn this language, ultimately for this sake.

Firstly, i would state that Modern Standard Arabic, which is pretty much though not absolutely Fusah [but for our purposes we just learn Modern Standard] is the one to learn for a variety of reasons:

1. All Arab news outlets and professional and formal talks, speeches, newspapers, and books are spoken and written in Modern Standard Arabic / Fusah Arabic. Therefore, to be able to begin to understand the Quran, read the ahadith, the various lectures in arabic, read almost any arabic book, watch the news, read the newspaper, understand talks , and even many childrens programs [though not so much anymore] it's Modern Standard / Fusah Arabic.

2. Dialect is more the spoken form in a sort of informal setting. But you're restricted to watching movies and drama's often in Egyptian Dialect [as egypt is the 'hollywood' of the ME]. 

Furthermore, the resources for Modern Standard Arabic / Fusah are enormous online and the best thing is, it's free! 

 

The books i am currently using are the Medina Arabic Series, as well as a number of other resources:

You can follow the lecture's from number one, but to me, that's very long. I did that for the first book, but have now decided to self-teach myself. What i essentially do is go through the English Key in each book, and then use the sources on iqtoronto to find answers to the exercises, as well as use the resources on lqtoronto to get the 'handouts' which summarise the grammar.

There are a number of dictionaries here, as well as books made purely compiling Quranic words etc:

Al-Mawrid Arabic English Dictionary - http://www.kalamullah.com/Books/alMawrid.pdf

Heins Weir Dictionary- http://www.kalamullah.com/Books/Hans-Wehr.pdf

Vocabulary of the Holy Quran - http://www.kalamullah.com/vocabulary-of-quran.html

Although the above books may or may not have been copyrighted[unlike the material in the OP which was published for free], i think the fatwah by ay.sistani(h) says we can view something someone else has copied, if we did not copy ourselves. But best to double check.

 

 

[Ali_]

Salam, my friend i recommend you to learn fusha and not arabic accents

[Gaius I. Caesar]

Thanks @Hassan Y @uponthesunnah and the others. 

Ok, now anyone has actually used Alif Baa and/or Al Kitab fii ta'allum Al Arabbiyya. I plan to use them with maybe the Madinah Arabic Series as a supplements. Can any Arabs or Arabic learners tell me what to avoid for learning? 

Would you recommend learning from Alif Baa or Al Kitab fii ta'allum Al Arabbiyya?  Or do you know of a better way?