Looking to Study Arabic Any Idea of the Best Way

Looking to Study Arabic Any Idea of the Best Way Learning to Speak Arabic: What to Study? ChaptersWhat Is Linguistic Immersion?The Arab World.Learning Arabic through ImmersionAiding Memory Through Arabic ImmersionThe Other Benefits of Learning Arabic AbroadThe 'Year Abroad': Going to the Arabic-Speaking World with University.The 'Home-Stay': Learning Arabic Locally.The 'Private Tutorial': Get Your Own Arabic Tutor.The 'Conversation Class': Join an Arabic Class - or Set One Up Yourself.The 'Self-Taught' Learner: Can You Learn Arabic by Yourself?What, then, Are You Waiting For?“Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardour and attended to with diligence.” - Abigail AdamsLearning Arabic, like any other language, often happens in the same way if you learn in a school. You’ll learn some words, practise reading and writing, and it can be painfully dull at times.There are 22 different Arabic-speaking countries who are also members of the Arabic league.In 2014, the Arab League covered 13.5 million km ² and is home to 378 million Arabic speakers.What better place to learn how to speak in Arabic?In this article, we’re going to look at what linguistic immersion is, how you can use it to learn a language, how immersion aids memory and the benefits of learning a language abroad through immersion.But we're also going to look at some of the other ways to learn the language - those same ones that can be painfully dull, those that might help you get to where you need to be before you go abroad, and those that you can fit around your schedule seamlessly.University of Cambridge: - at Cambridge, you can do as you please for your year abroad - obviously within reason. Their students have travelled to Palestine, Oman, Lebanon, and Egypt, and usually return pretty satisfied with their experience.University of Edinburgh: - in a similar way, Edinburgh has no fixed destination to which you will travel, but, over the thirty weeks you will be required to spend abroad, the university will make sure that you keep working and improving with your la nguage.School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London: - on an Arabic course at SOAS, you can take a year abroad at one of three institutions: the Qasid Institute in Amman; the Alif Institute in Fez; or the Alexandria School of Languages, in Egypt.Years abroad are a fabulous way to hone your language skills - and it is the reason language degrees are usually an extra year long. And these years make these extra years well worth it.The 'Home-Stay': Learning Arabic Locally.One of the most rewarding options available to those seeking an Arabic language immersion programme is the home stay. If you haven't heard about these before, they sort of do as they say on the tin: you stay in an individual or family's home, and learn the language whilst you are experiencing local habits, ways of life, food, and routines.People who do something like this usually say it is one of the best experiences of their life - and it is the peak of that contemporary buzzword that drives travelers these days: authentic.There are many organisations offering these experiences these days, with options available in Oman, Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and more. The prices vary dramatically by region and by organisation, but you could be paying as little as $60 a week and as much as $1000 a week too!If you want to bypass the organisation and get a cheaper rate, you can go direct to your host. However, this can be something of a risk, as the organisations both accredit the host and insure against any risk.The 'Private Tutorial': Get Your Own Arabic Tutor.If you're interested in learning how to speak Arabic, then private tutorials are a great option. On Superprof, you can get one on one private tutorials, online tutorials, or group tutorials.Private tutorials are the most effective and also the most costly. This is because your tutor will tailor the lessons to you, your strengths and weaknesses, and your preferred learning style. This means you'll get a bespoke service from them.S uperprof is a great place to find yourself an Arabic tutor, with over 800 available across the world. They charge an average of £17 an hour, and you can find native speakers, graduates, university students, and even academics available to give you tuition.They are qualified, experienced, and friendly, and they will have you speaking, reading, and listening effectively in no time.This is the best option for those of you who don't fancy traveling abroad just yet, or who don't have a sufficient grasp of Arabic for immersion to be productive. As, sometimes, it's helpful to have a basic understanding of the language before you dive in.Online Arabic Tutors.Online tutorials are similar but are cheaper because the tutor doesn't have to factor the cost of travelling to you into their rates. They'll deliver their private tutorials via webcam using a programme such as Skype.And honestly, these days, such technologies can facilitate as productive and helpful conversations as those had face-to- face. Talk to your heart's content - whilst you will be set up with homework, writing tasks, and solo research to do in your own time.If you are not in an area well-served by Arabic tutors, you can find - through Superprof again - and connect with more tutors than you could possibly imagine. Technology is awesome these days.So, if you are travelling to Morocco and want to polish your Moroccan Arabic, or if you are going to the Levant and want to brush the cobwebs off your Levantine, then connect with a tutor there who speaks the dialect, and you'll be talking away immediately.The 'Conversation Class': Join an Arabic Class - or Set One Up Yourself.Finally, it's worth mentioning that group tutorials have the advantage of being the cheapest per hour. This is because the hourly rate is shared by all the students in attendance.This also means that you won't get the same amount of attention from the tutor and the class won't be designed with just you in mind. But, that needn't be such an issue. The thing here is that people often learn better in group environments - building on different people's mistakes, hearing questions that they hadn't necessarily considered themselves, and enjoying the social element added to it.If there aren't any group classes or conversational classes in Arabic available in your home town, why not set one up? Get in touch with a Superprof tutor and see whether they are available and willing. It won't be good just for your language skills - but for your social life and your wallet too.The 'Self-Taught' Learner: Can You Learn Arabic by Yourself?This is a question that people often ask about learning languages:  can I learn it by myself?It's also a method that people think would be best, as they can study in their own time, at their own pace.It might even be possible with a language that is a little more similar to English - a language that shares the alphabet, that shares a few words, that has similar phonological patterns. Even then, with no -one to talk to or to ask questions, it's still pretty tough.With Arabic, you aren't going to enjoy any of the similarities that a language like Italian or German has with English. With Arabic, the alphabet, the sounds are incredibly dissimilar to English, and it is one that you may not have come into much contact with before.Sure, with all the resources available online and in books it might be  possible.  But it is far from preferable, and the challenge might prove too much.What, then, Are You Waiting For?If you are committed to learning Arabic, the last thing to say is, what exactly are you waiting for? The language is not going to learn itself!