I believe that if someone hasn't been exposed to Arabic before, they should start by learning a dialect, like Levantine or Gulf Arabic, because it's easier to speak compared to Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). With a dialect, you can quickly start communicating with people, while speaking MSA can feel awkward, especially when mixed with dialect words in conversation. This approach mirrors how children in Arab households first learn to speak a dialect before studying MSA in school. Once comfortable with a dialect, learners can then transition to MSA. This way, they get a more authentic and practical introduction to the language, much like native speakers do.
Thank you very much for your comment. I encourage people to watch Dr. Abdullah Al-Dannan's lectures on MSA... He explains how Arab children struggle when they enter school because they are faced with MSA, which they don't understand... I know that many children do fine but would be interesting to look for statistics. With non-native adult speakers, it all depends on why they're learning Arabic...
I'm a uni professor teaching both msa and dialect. I have been doing that for 20 years. In the beginning I also thought it was better to start with msa but after so many years of teaching and after having gone myself thourhg this learning process of both msa and dialects, I changed my mind. There are many things to say about this but the main point is that acquiring msa first introduces speech habits that are linguistically correct but pragmatically wrong, and learners have a hard time getting rid of them. Also, the learning curve is very different. Many learners struggle years and years with msa and never reach any real functional communicative competence. Had they started with a dialect, things would be completely different. Speakers of Arabic mostly have the same opinion as you, usually because they highly value the standard language and because they perceive the local varieties as corrupted versions of Arabic. When adressing learners needs however, a pragmatic, ideology-free approach is needed. I'll stop here, already too long.
Hi Alhan, good video. Totally agree.
Thanks for your comment, Saleh!
@@AlhanRahimi Hi Alhan, others may believe/think otherwise,
I very much think that starting with MSA is the way to go.
All the best.
I believe that if someone hasn't been exposed to Arabic before, they should start by learning a dialect, like Levantine or Gulf Arabic, because it's easier to speak compared to Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). With a dialect, you can quickly start communicating with people, while speaking MSA can feel awkward, especially when mixed with dialect words in conversation. This approach mirrors how children in Arab households first learn to speak a dialect before studying MSA in school. Once comfortable with a dialect, learners can then transition to MSA. This way, they get a more authentic and practical introduction to the language, much like native speakers do.
Thank you very much for your comment.
I encourage people to watch Dr. Abdullah Al-Dannan's lectures on MSA... He explains how Arab children struggle when they enter school because they are faced with MSA, which they don't understand... I know that many children do fine but would be interesting to look for statistics.
With non-native adult speakers, it all depends on why they're learning Arabic...
I'm a uni professor teaching both msa and dialect. I have been doing that for 20 years. In the beginning I also thought it was better to start with msa but after so many years of teaching and after having gone myself thourhg this learning process of both msa and dialects, I changed my mind. There are many things to say about this but the main point is that acquiring msa first introduces speech habits that are linguistically correct but pragmatically wrong, and learners have a hard time getting rid of them. Also, the learning curve is very different. Many learners struggle years and years with msa and never reach any real functional communicative competence. Had they started with a dialect, things would be completely different. Speakers of Arabic mostly have the same opinion as you, usually because they highly value the standard language and because they perceive the local varieties as corrupted versions of Arabic. When adressing learners needs however, a pragmatic, ideology-free approach is needed. I'll stop here, already too long.
I totally agree with you. Spending years learning MSA then realizing that you can’t even understand a simple conversation is very discouraging.