Tips for Learning Levantine Arabic

Once Arabic learners reach an intermediate phase, it's common that they find they have plateaued in their language progress. In this episode, Jenn offers many practical strategies for effective Arabic learning in the intermediate phase.

When learning a second language, many people feel they need to memorize lists of vocabulary words. Linguistic experts, however, have a different opinion.

In this episode, Jennifer addresses this issue. She notes that when we treat words like islands, disconnected from the words around them, we lose a significant portion of the meaning those words carry.

So how should Arabic learners acquire new vocabulary? That's what this episode is about.

In this episode, Jenn addresses the differences between the Levantine Arabic usage of بصير (biṣīr) and بكون (bikūn). These verbs are often challenging for Arabic students to sort out when they begin speaking. If you're learning Arabic and don't quite know how to use these verbs, listen to this episode.

Over her years of coaching Levantine Arabic language learners, Jenn has noticed a tendency for many people to drop the verb بكون (bikūn). However, knowing when and how to use بكون will make Arabic learners more confident in their speaking ability and sound more natural to native Arabic speakers.

In this episode, Jenn addresses 5 ways بكون (bikūn) is used by native Levantine Arabic speakers. These include:

1. Place and time.
2. When used with descriptives ("When I am...") As well as after لَمَّا (connected to a cause and effect).
3. When in conjunction with the notions of usually, typically, always, everyday, most of the time.
4. When talking about people (relationship to one another, job, etc).
5. When referring to something someone has (using بكون with عندي or معي).

Example sentences with native Levantine Arabic speakers are included in the episode.

Shababeek's experiential approach to learning Levantine Arabic is divided into 5 phases, with each phase having an estimated amount of time needed in Arabic learning sessions to be ready to move on to higher phases:

• Phase 1, "foundations", is roughly 100 hours.
• Phase 2, "visual story telling" is around 200 hours.
• Phase 3, "shared stories" is 300 hours.
• Phase 4, "deep understanding" is 500+ hours.
• Phase 5, "Arab discourse" is also 500+ hours.

It's the "+" that comes after the 500 hours in phase 5 that Jenn addresses in this episode.

*There are 2 acronyms that Jenn uses here, L1 and ACTFL.

L1 is someone's first language, native language, or mother tongue.

ACTFL is the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. ACTFL assessments are commonly used to assess a person's language proficiency in a second language.

Most Arabic learners use the verb love (جب) much more frequently than they use the verb like (عجب). While these words are often interchangeable, the reason most people who learn Levantine Arabic don't use like is because it operates a bit differently in a sentence than the more straightforward use of love. In this episode, Jenn explains the challenge of using عجب for non-native Arabic speakers as well as provides language exercises to do in your Arabic session or class to help strengthen the way عجب is used in sentences. Anwar provides example sentences of using عجب in Levantine Arabic.

Here are some example sentence of how to use عجب in Levantine Arabic (some of which are interspersed throughout this episode):

عجب 

عجبتني القهوة

عجبني الشاي 

الاواعي عجبوني 

الكرسي عجبني 

الكنبايات عجبوني 

البنطلون عجبني 

البلوزة عجبتني 

اواعي أختي عجبوني 

بحب هاد المطعم كتير والاكل العربي عنده بعجبني 

بحب زوجي وبتعجبني تصرفاته 

بحب زوجي بس ما بتعجبني طريقة حكييه 

بحب الأكل العربي بس مش كل اشي بعجبني 

شو بعجبك بالأردن؟ العلاقات بين الناس بتعجبني كتير 

شو عجبك بالحياة بالأردن؟ الثقافة عجبتني 

شو بعجبك بشبابيك؟ كل اشي بعجبني هون ما فيه اشي ما  بعجبني 

شو أكتر اشي عجبك بالأكل؟ ورق العنب اكتر اشي عجبني

This week Jenn reflects on the indispensable value of empathy when interacting with people from another culture or religious tradition. When we listen empathetically, we not only allow space for the other to continue to open up and tell their stories and share with us their experiences, we also make space within ourselves to be transformed. Cultivating the skill of empathetic listening is invaluable to language learners, especially those learning Levantine Arabic.

Many Arabic learners want to know how many hours a week they should commit to learning the Levantine Arabic dialect. The answer depends on what Arabic learning phase you find yourself in. In this week's tip to learning Levantine Arabic, Jenn breaks down the amount of hours Arabic learners should spend in sessions/class compared to time spent in relationships with Arabic speakers.

Learning Arabic grammar can seem daunting; and it often is in traditional classroom settings. Instead of calling it "grammar", we use the phrase "patterns of speech." This helps us be aware that what we are learning on patterns to the ways people naturally speak, and not necessarily a list of rules Arabic learners need to memorize. In this tip for learning Levantine Arabic, Jenn shares some ways that learners can work on their patterns of speech. 

Most people learn a language so they can interact with other humans who speak that language. However, building cross-cultural relationships in a new language can be quite challenging. Check out this week's tip on ideas for forming relationships and how to prepare for those relationships as you're learning Levantine Arabic.

Moving towards something without the pressure to get there is actually really good for us. 

Some Arabic learners put so much pressure on themselves to acquire the language that they get burnt out in the process. Others may hurt relationships or hinder cultural understanding in their striving to become Arabic speakers. In this episode, Jenn discusses some hazards to be aware of as language learners strive to learn. 

Some words just don't seem to stick. That can be incredibly frustrating for beginning Arabic learners. In this episode, Jenn offers some helpful coaching advice on how to help get those words to stick, and take the pressure off language learners as well. 

This is our (overdue) introduction in which you'll hear from Jenn about what is offered each week in the Tips for Learning Levantine Arabic podcast. 

We all know that Arabic is a challenging language to learn. But sometimes knowing the difficulty of learning the language can cause Arabic learners to impose limitations on themselves. Not only do these self-imposed limitations act as additional hurdles to overcome, they can also manifest as self-fulfilling prophecies. 

In this episode, Jenn discusses the limitations Arabic learners put on themselves, and offers helpful advice on how to overcome them.