Arabic-Speaking World

Arabic (الْعَرَبيّة al-ʿarabiyyah or just عَرَبيْ ʿarabī) is the largest living member of the Semitic language family in terms of speakers. It is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. Modern Standard Arabic, widely studied and known throughout the Islamic world, derives from Classical Arabic, the only surviving member of the Old North Arabian dialect group.

Arabic has lent many words to other languages of the Islamic world, as Latin has contributed to most European languages. And in turn, it has also borrowed from those languages, as well as Persian and Sanskrit from early contacts with their affiliated regions.

During the Middle Ages, Arabic was a major vehicle of culture, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy, with the result that many European languages have also borrowed numerous words from it, especially Spanish and Portuguese due to both the proximity of European and Arab civilization and 700 years of Arab governance of the Iberian peninsula.

Arabic Learning Resources

• Arabic
  • Learn Arabic
    • Abjad Consonant Alphabet about Arabic Script with Images, Example Text and Audio
    • Arabic Language Course for Arabic Learners Familiar with Arabic Script
    • BBC News in Arabic
    • DigitalDialects.com Arabic Language-Learning Games and Activities
    • Download Free FSI Arabic Language Courses
    • Free Gulf Arabic Language Resources
    • FSI Foreign Service Institute Arabic Courses
    • Learn Arabic at Speak7
    • Learn Arabic Language Wikibook
    • Learning Arabic from Didactiques Langues Publications
    • LLHQ Arabic CLass Podcast
    • Madinah Arabic Beginner Language and Reading Course
    • Rosetta Stone Learn Arabic Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)
    • Syrian Arabic Free Illustrated Textbook with Audio Download
    • The Arabic PodClass
    • UK India Learn to Read Arabic Resources
    • University of Chicago Arabic Circle Lectures Podcast

Podcasts for Arabic Learners

Podcasts are a great way to learn languages. You can use Free Language to check the vitality of available Arabic language-learning podcasts by viewing their feed page. Click on any podcast below to view general info followed by the latest items from it's feed. You can tell if the feed has been updated lately, and it'll save you some time in choosing which podcasts to subscribe to.

• Podcasts for Students of Arabic
  • LLHQ Arabic Class Podcast
  • The Arabic Circle Podcast
  • The Arabic PodClass

News in Arabic

News feeds from around the Arabic-speaking world provide language exposure and practice joined with current events, culture, politics, science, sports and more. At Free Language, you can view summaries of these feeds and jump to view full articles when your interest is piqued.

• News in Arabic
  • BBC News in Arabic

I am currently working on getting Arabic text to display properly on the site.

Arabic Internet TV

Watching people speak Arabic is a good way to gain exposure to the language in a non-study environment. This is great for folks who aren't living where the language is spoken and especially those already proficient in listening comprehension. If you don't understand anything, it's cool to "vegg out" for a while, but it's not the most productive thing you can do to learn. Try to find something with subtitles, and you're on the way. ;)

If you do get into Internet TV, I highly recommend Miro, a free and open source media player with multimedia RSS capability that supports Linux, Mac and Windows. Hey, "because open media matters."

At any rate, below you'll find resources with literally thousands of Internet TV stations in a wide variety of languages. Amongst them you'll find plenty in Standard Arabic. Enjoy!

• Global Internet TV Gateway Portal with Web TV in World Languages
• NetTVDB Free Database of Internet/Web TV Stations in Multiple Languages and Countries

Helpful Resources and Tools for Arabic

FoxLingo Free Firefox Browser Extension Software for Translating Web Pages
Online Flashcard Exchange Community
Foreign Language Translation Extensions/Tools/Plugins/Add-Ons for the Firefox Web Browser
PhraseBase.com Multi-Lingual Conversational Phrase Database Resource
Word2Word.com Website

Make Friends Learning Arabic

Social language learning has become incredibly popular on the web as it has transcended language barriers in previously impossible ways. Right now someone in an Arabic-speaking country could be interested in teaching you Arabic in exchange for your English skills. If you speak other languages, the odds are even better that you'll find someone interested in a language exchange.

Note that not all networks below support Arabic. Collectively, though, they support pretty much every language.

• Social
  • Social Language Learning
    • Babbel.com Virtual Flash Card Language Share Site w/English, French, German, Italian, Spanish Tools
    • ECPod.com ECPod English Chinese Video Podcasts Uploaded By and For the Community
    • expatriates.com Free International Multilingual Language Exchange Partner Classifieds
    • italki.com Free Skype VoIP and IM Language Partner Community
    • Language-Exchanges.org Mixxer Free Skype Language Exchange Community
    • Lingopass.com Free Global Language Exchange Community
    • LiveMocha.com Live Mocha Social Language Learning Course and Networking Website
    • MyHappyPlanet.com My Happy Planet Private Social Language-Learning Community
    • Palabea.net Palabea the Speaking World Social Language Exchange Network
    • VoxSwap.com VoxSwap Online IM and Voice Social Foreign Language Exchange
    • Worldia.net Worldia International Community to Learn and Teach Foreign Languages

Arabic Top 9 Categories

Expatriates Learning Arabic
Free Arabic Lessons Online
Online Social Language Learning Networks
Online Arabic Dictionary Websites
Podcasts for Learning Arabic
Arabic Language Exchange Communities
Arabic Lessons for Travelers
Speak Better Arabic
Video Podcasts for Learning Arabic

Popular Tags for Arabic

adults age group budget goals individuals studying arabic learn arabic learn arabic free learning environment learning methods level self-taught method skill enhancement

Recommended Arabic Software

When it comes to easy software for learning Arabic quickly and effectively, Rosetta Stone has placed itself at the top of the list.

Rosetta Stone Arabic With over 3500 real-life images and phrases in 92 lessons, Arabic, Personal Edition provides up to 250 hours of mastery instruction in Listening Comprehension, Reading, Speaking, and Writing. Systematic structure teaches vocabulary and grammar naturally, without lists and drills. Previews, exercises and tests accompany every lesson with automated tutorials throughout the program. Level 1, Personal Edition provides instruction in such categories as People and Talking; Directions; Food, Eating and Drinking; Family Relationships; Telling Time; Numbers to One Hundred; Clothing and Dress; Vehicles, Furniture and Instruments; Shapes, Colors and Location; And Much More. Arabic, Personal Edition comes complete with an illustrated User's Guide and a Curriculum Text book.

Subscribe to Arabic Updates

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Don't know what RSS is? Click here and it could save you plenty of time. And perhaps revolutionize your web experience.

Arabic Aggregator

Free Language aggregates (brings together) web feeds in about about the Arabic language for the purpose of exposing users to content in this language. Not only that, users interested in getting this dynamic combo of Arabic feeds in on single RSS feed can click here and sit back. :)

Best of Luck!

I wish you the best of luck in your language-learning endeavors! Please send me suggestions about resources and improving this website.

If you are interested in more than just Arabic, below is a list of all currently-available languages on the site:

Afrikaans, Arabic, Bahasa, Bengali, Cantonese, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, English, Farsi, Filipino, French, German, Greek, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Ukranian and Vietnamese

Soon Come

Arabic Study Abroad Courses, Official Arabic Language Academies and more!