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Some hints for learning Arabic: Those who attempt to learn Arabic are probably familiar with the specific challenges associated with learning this language. One of the greatest challenges that students of Arabic are faced with has to do with the script. The Arabic language has an alphabet that contains 28 letters. Most students find that it does not take long to learn the Arabic alphabet. However, each letter has four different forms. The form that is used depends on whether the letter comes at the beginning, middle, or end of a word. Learning the different letter variations can be a challenge for students. Another characteristic of Arabic that may confound students at first has to do with how books are written and read. In Arabic, books are read from the right to the left. When a book is opened, it is opened from the left. One of the greatest challenges that most students face as the learn Arabic is the fact that most vowels are not used when writing. In beginning textbooks, the missing vowels are indicated by little marks that are placed above and below the words. However, more advanced texts and most reading materials do not contain these helping marks. Yet another challenge involves the special "noises" that one must learn in the study of Arabic. Learning Arabic involves learning many new sounds that are not used by most Westerners. Perhaps the most infamous of these is the sound that is described as emitting air from the back of your throat, as if trying to put out a candle by blowing air from the throat. This sound can be difficult for new students to learn and to use fluidly during conversation. Finally, learning new vocabulary poses a special challenge for those who seek to learn Arabic. For Westerners, studying European languages seems easier for students because they tend to recognized vocabulary words. The language "feels" more familiar, and thus does not seem to represent such a challenge. Although there are special challenges to learning Arabic, the effort is definitely worth it. Arabic is the language of a large part of our planet. It is the main language in 22 countries, spoken by more than 250 million people. It is also the second language in many Islamic countries because It is considered the spiritual language of Islam -one of the world's major religions- (we're talking here about more than 1 billion people). It is one of the permanent languages in the United Nations. Another reason is that Arabic is one of the oldest living languages in the world, and it is the origin of many languages, in fact there is a theory that says "Arabic is the origin of languages" and those who adopt this theory depend on the fact that Arabs are able to pronounce any sound in any language in the world very easily, on the other hand lots of non-Arabs have a very hard time pronouncing some Arabic letters which are not available in their native language. Source: Social studies site Arabic Language Course (Fadi's Free Arabic Language Tutorial) - Introduction See portions of this program below... Why should you learn Arabic? Arabic is the language of a large part of our planet. Whether you are interested in learning Arabic for educational or cultural reasons or simply because you want to impress a friend or have a tattoo of your name in Arabic, it is easier than you may think. It is the official language in 22 countries, spoken by more than 250 million people. It is also the second language in many Islamic countries because It is considered the spiritual language of Islam -one of the world's major religions- (we're talking here about more than 1 billion people). It is one of the permanent languages in the United Nations. Another reason is that Arabic is one of the oldest living languages in the world, and it is the origin of many languages. It has heavily influenced languages such as Spanish, Portuguese, Persian, Hindustani, Turkish, Malay, Urdu, Indonesian, Kurdish, Pashto, Swahili, Berber, Bengali and many others. Arguably it is said that Arabic is one key origin of modern day languages. An indication of this is the fact that most Arabic native speakers are easily able to pronounce almost any sound in any language in the world, on the other hand many non-Arabic natives have a hard time pronouncing some Arabic letters and sounds which are not available in their native languages (for example the letter Dhad in Arabic is not used in any other language in the world, and the Arabic language is sometimes called the language of the Dhad). For thousands of years minor changes were made to the Arabic language and it was appropriate for every era throughout the countless civilizations that used it as their native language. In fact, Arabic has a great influence in most of the languages in our present times. Maybe, the most obvious contribution of Arabic is developing and passing on the "Arabic numerals" (0,1,2,3..) to humanity, not to mention the numerous words with Arabic origins which are used today in most languages (Algorithm, Algebra, Alcohol, Coffee, Zero, Sugar and the list goes on.) Arabic was the international language of science, mathematics, culture, and philosophy during the Middle Ages. Its contribution to the Western civilization as an infrastructure for development of science and medicine is enormous. Why did it stay alive through thousands of years when other languages didn't? The main reason for that is that Arabic is a literary language and the liturgical language of Islam and the Qur'an, and that kept it the main language through the 1400+ years of the Islamic civilization. Marrakech, Morocco