Is Arabic Hard to Learn?
Is Arabic Hard to Learn?
If you want to learn Arabic or are just getting started, this is likely one of the first questions you will have. I can’t blame you. In terms of difficulty, Arabic is widely regarded as one of the most difficult languages to learn, rivaled only by a few languages such as Japanese.
Furthermore, it is said to be even more difficult if you are a native speaker of English or a romance language. Now for the answer to your question: Arabic is not easy, but it is not nearly as difficult as many people believe.
And I’ll explain why in this post. I’ll concentrate on Egyptian Arabic in this article because it’s the most widely spoken and popular dialect to learn. Don’t worry, the main points we cover here are applicable regardless of which Arabic dialect you are learning.
Egyptian Arabic Is Easier Than Standard Arabic
Let’s start with the elephant in the room: Egyptian Arabic vs. Standard Arabic / Modern Standard Arabic / Fus7a (yes, with a “7”). These two languages are not at all the same. The older “original” language is standard Arabic.
It is essentially the language spoken by Prophet Muhammad and is far more “formal” than Egyptian Arabic. Egyptian Arabic, on the other hand, is a dialect. It’s one of more than 30 Arabic dialects spoken today (depending on how you define “dialect”).
While Standard Arabic is beautiful, it isn’t very useful if you want to communicate with Egyptians. In fact, when I first arrived in Cairo, it became clear that my three years of Fus7a were not going to get me very far.
Standard Arabic is primarily used in religious contexts, books, and official news programs. You are speaking a dialect if you speak Arabic the way Arabs actually speak.
Why am I bringing it up?
If you want to know if Egyptian Arabic is difficult to learn, you must first understand the differences between the dialect and Standard Arabic. And here’s the thing: most people find Egyptian Arabic much easier to learn than Standard Arabic.
That was certainly my intention. Experience, and the experience of many foreigners I knew in Cairo. Let’s move on to some specifics.
Arabic in general is difficult… But it’s also not particularly difficult.
This is especially true if you speak English as your first language. This applies to both Standard Arabic and Arabic dialects. For starters, the pronunciation is noticeably different. Your mouth must become accustomed to making sounds it has never made before.
While this is true for any language, Arabic has sounds that European languages do not. The somewhat guttural, back of the throat “3een” is a good example. This is a letter that took me (no joke) over two years to properly pronounce. Even now, I have not mastered it.
This is especially true if you speak English as your first language. This applies to both Standard Arabic and Arabic dialects. For starters, the pronunciation is noticeably different. Your mouth must become accustomed to making sounds it has never made before.
While this is true for any language, Arabic has sounds that European languages do not. The somewhat guttural, back of the throat “3een” is a good example. This is a letter that took me (no joke) over two years to properly pronounce. Even now, I have not mastered it.
The Arabic Writing Method(Is Arabic Hard to Learn?)
The perceived complexity of the Arabic writing system is another factor that discourages people from learning Arabic dialects. I say “perceived” because, well….it’s not hard! It only appears to be that way. The Arabic alphabet is made up of 28 letters, and the majority of them change shape depending on where they are in the word.
This, like anything else, simply takes time to master. Writing from right to left (a fun feature of Arabic) is, of course, strange if you’ve never done it before. Even this, however, becomes “normal” after about a week. Even though Arabic letters are difficult to pronounce, they are simple to write!
Arabic Grammar Can Be tricky (Is Arabic Hard to Learn?)
However, more than pronunciation or the alphabet, Arabic grammar can be difficult to grasp. This is not so much an opinion as it is a fact: Egyptian Arabic differs from most Indo-European languages. As a result, the grammar appears to be difficult at first glance.
Whether it’s the famous “dual” for two objects or the gender of nouns (which many languages have), Arabic grammar can be difficult for many students to grasp. Especially at the start.
The disparity of plurals is a good example. In English, you always add a “s” to the end of a singular noun. And presto, you have a plural. While Arabic (both Standard and dialects) has this simplicity with many nouns, such many nouns is a completely different story.
It’s the kind of thing where you have to memorize singular and plural nouns right away. Otherwise, guessing is difficult.
However, grammar is one area where Standard Arabic clearly outperforms Egyptian Arabic. The verb conjugations in Standard Arabic are particularly well-known. Any serious student of the language will probably just roll their eyes at this.
It can take some time to learn how to conjugate a verb in Arabic and then add an object. However, Egyptian Arabic is distinct. For whatever reason, the Egyptian dialect is much more relaxed when it comes to grammar rules. And the rules that it does have…
This was my experience, as well as the experience of many other foreigners I met in Egypt. The stacks of Arabic grammar text books discouraged them…until Egyptian Arabic came along and provided a breath of fresh air.
Why Grammar Isn’t Necessary
This is not to suggest that Egyptian Arabic grammar is simple. Just a lot easier to manage than Standard. Plus, I have to say it: grammar isn’t all that important. Yes, I did say it. Please bear with me. What I mean isn’t that grammar isn’t important.
After all, you can’t properly use a language if you don’t understand its grammar. What I mean is that explicit or direct STUDY of grammar is unnecessary.
Because after a certain amount of exposure to a new language (whether through videos, books, or sessions with conversation partners), you begin to understand how the grammar works. It isn’t magic, and it isn’t some “secret” of language learning geniuses.
Your brain takes in information, begins to make sense of how things work, and fills in the blanks.
Do you want to know how many formal Egyptian Arabic grammar classes I took?
Zero. And, while I am far from a native speaker of Egyptian Arabic… I’m pretty good. If you are exposed to enough Egyptian Arabic material, you will naturally learn how the language works. Grammar is no longer intimidating!
Arabic dialects have fewer resources.
If you want to know if Egyptian Arabic is difficult, you must also ask yourself a very real, “logistical” question that has little to do with the language itself.
And the question is, how easy is it to locate study resources?
It makes no difference how simple a language is….if you have nothing to study it with! This is where things get tricky with Egyptian Arabic.
If you want to learn a more popular language, such as French or Spanish, you can choose from a wide range of study materials. You’ll never run out of new and exciting study material, whether it’s books, movies, YouTube videos, or podcasts.
This is not the case with Egyptian Arabic. Standard Arabic will be used for the majority of formal study materials. What is available in Egyptian Arabic is frequently outdated, uninteresting, overly difficult, or inapplicable to everyday situations.
So… Is Arabic Hard to Learn?
So, in conclusion, is Egyptian Arabic difficult to learn? Both yes and no. As you can see, learning Egyptian Arabic is not an easy task. You must learn a new alphabet, new sounds, and strange grammatical rules.
Nonetheless, Egyptian Arabic is easier than Standard Arabic, and people overestimate the difficulty of Arabic dialects in general.
Furthermore, whether you want to travel to Egypt or hire an online tutor, getting some speaking practice is simple!
Finally, the answer to the question “Is Egyptian Arabic difficult to learn?”
is largely determined by how much effort you are willing to put in. But you were already aware of that!
Is Arabic Difficult to Learn? You can read also
