If you’re on board with the slow and steady approach that I recommend for learning pronouns, then you’ll probably want to know where you should start. After all, there’s a lot to master, so you need a good jumping off point that will give you and your kids a strong foundational understanding, but also not … Read more
Read the following sentence: I walks to the store. If you’re a native English speaker, the mistake probably jumped right out at you. If you’re not, you may have not even noticed the mistake. When you learn pronouns as a kid, you have lots of chances to practice and make mistakes. The key to learning … Read more
We just wrapped up a new Arabic reading series on Instagram. We learned how to read place names without vowels. If you’re new to learning Arabic, the idea of reading without vowels can be pretty scary. Hopefully, this post will help you to see how easy it can be. Understanding Root Words Think of the … Read more
It’s completely normal for beginners to struggle with Arabic words. Actually, it’s completely normal for advanced speakers to struggle with Arabic words. Here are 3 easy steps that can help you get over that awkward phase of Arabic learning where you feel like you’re stumbling over every other word. Repetition You probably knew this advice … Read more
Before you read this, please read my post on the importance of figuring out why you want to learn Arabic. Have you ever thought to yourself “I’m studying, but I feel like I’m just not getting anywhere with Arabic.” I have heard this a lot from beginner students. Arabic takes a long time to master, … Read more
Most people start their Arabic studies with the past tense. In English, the standard form for verbs is present tense. Think of a word like “write” it’s present tense and you can change it to make it past, future, or any of the other 87 tenses that we have in English. Think of words like … Read more
The first time someone gave me a book in Arabic I thought, um… does she know I can’t read Arabic. I didn’t realize at the time that reading Arabic is just like speaking Arabic. The only way to learn how to read Arabic is to start reading Arabic. The other day, I saw a post … Read more
So by now, you should be able to command your kids one by one. If you’re like me, you really need to get them ALL on board with your directions most of the time. Today, we’ll learn how to command them as a group. تَحَابُّوا Love each other. Now we’re talking to all of the … Read more
Let’s talk grammar. Don’t be scared. We won’t be forcing you to learn any grammar in this post, but let’s just talk about it. In most classes that I’ve been in, grammar is what holds students back. They memorize the words, they can read a little, write a little, but they just can’t get their … Read more
This was my daughter’s question to her Arabic teacher when we were discussing “Ameeya” words vs. Fusha words. The teacher and I burst out laughing. The sentence is the local way of saying ‘What is local Arabic?” At the time, my daughter only knew ‘Ameeya. She had been going to a Quran school here and … Read more