Learn Arabic on your own from scratch. Secrets of self-study Arabic

Which is gaining popularity every year. The study of the Arabic language has its own characteristics, which is associated with the structure of the language itself, as well as with pronunciation and writing. This must be taken into account when choosing a program for training.

Prevalence

Arabic belongs to the Semitic group. In terms of the number of native speakers for whom it is native, Arabic ranks second in the world after Chinese.

Arabic is spoken by about 350 million people in 23 countries where the language is considered official. These countries include Egypt, Algeria, Iraq, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Palestine and many others. Also, the language is one of the official in Israel. Given this factor, the study of the Arabic language involves a preliminary choice of the dialect that will be used in a particular country, since, despite many similar elements, the language has its own distinctive features in different countries.

Dialects

Modern Arabic can be divided into 5 large groups of dialects, which, from a linguistic point of view, can practically be called different languages. The fact is that the lexical and grammatical differences in languages ​​are so great that people who speak different dialects and do not know the literary language can hardly understand each other. There are the following groups of dialects:

• Magribskaya.
• Egyptian-Sudanese.
• Syro-Mesopotamian.
• Arabian.
• Central Asian.

A separate niche is occupied by modern standard Arabic, which, however, is practically not used in colloquial speech.

Features of the study

Learning Arabic from scratch is not an easy task, because after Chinese, it is considered one of the most difficult in the world. It takes much longer to master Arabic than to learn any European language. This also applies to classes with teachers.

Independent study of the Arabic language is a difficult path, which is better to refuse at first. This is due to several factors. First, writing is very complex, which does not look like either Latin or Cyrillic, which is written from right to left, and also does not provide for the use of vowels. Secondly, the very structure of the language, in particular morphology and grammar, differs in complexity.

What to look for before starting the study?

The program for studying the Arabic language should be built taking into account the following factors:

• Having enough time. It takes several times more time to learn a language than to learn other languages.
• Opportunities for both independent work and for classes in a group or with a private teacher. Learning Arabic in Moscow gives you the opportunity to combine different options.
• Inclusion in the learning process of different aspects: writing, reading, listening and, of course, speaking.

We must not forget that you need to decide on the choice of a particular dialect. Learning Arabic is different depending on this factor. In particular, the dialects in Egypt and Iraq are so different that their speakers cannot always understand each other. The way out of the situation may be to study the Arabic literary language, which has a more complex structure, but is understandable in all countries of the Arab world, since dialects traditionally have a more simplified form. Despite this, this option has its negative sides. Although the literary language is understood by all countries, it is practically not spoken. It may happen that a person who speaks a literary language will not be able to understand people who speak a certain dialect. In this case, the choice depends on the purpose of the study. If there is a desire to use the language in different countries, then the choice must be made towards the literary version. If the language is studied for work in a particular Arab country, but preference should be given to the corresponding dialect.

Vocabulary

The study of the Arabic language is impossible without the use of words and phrases, which in this case have characteristic differences in comparison with European languages. This is due to the fact that in Europe the languages ​​intertwined and strongly influenced each other, due to which they have many common lexical units. Almost all vocabulary of the Arabic language has its original origin, which practically cannot be connected with others. The number of borrowings from other languages ​​is present, but it occupies no more than one percent of the dictionary.

The complexity of learning also lies in the fact that the Arabic language is characterized by the presence of synonyms, homonyms and polysemantic words, which can seriously confuse people who begin to learn the language. In Arabic, both newer words and very old ones are intertwined, which, at the same time, do not have definite connections with each other, however, they denote almost identical objects and phenomena.

Phonetics and pronunciation

Literary Arabic and its numerous dialects are characterized by the presence of a very developed phonetic system, in particular, this applies to consonants: guttural, interdental and emphatic. The complexity of the study is also represented by all sorts of combinatorial possibilities of pronunciation.

Many Arab countries are trying to bring the spoken pronunciation of words closer to the literary language. This is connected primarily with the religious context, in particular with the correct reading of the Koran. Despite this, at the moment there is no single point of view on how to correctly read certain endings, since the ancient texts do not have vowels - signs for denoting vowel sounds, which does not allow one to correctly state how exactly one or another word should be pronounced.

Arabic is one of the most widely spoken and also one of the most difficult languages ​​to learn in the world. The difficulty lies in a special writing without the presence of vowels, multi-level morphology and grammar, as well as a special pronunciation. An important factor in learning a language is also the choice of dialect, since the Arabic language sounds very different in different countries.

The Arabic language historically began to flourish in the world thanks to the development and spread of Islam as one of the largest world religions. Arabic is known to be the language of the Quran, the Holy Book of Islam. It is the main language of Muslims.

What is interesting to know for everyone who is going to learn Arabic for beginners

1. Where Arabic is spoken

Arabic is the official language of 22 countries and is the mother tongue of over 200 million people geographically from southeast Asia to northwest Africa, better known as the Arab world.

"Classical" Arabic, known as the language of the Qur'an, is the language in which the Qur'an is written and is the base language for the syntactic and grammatical norms of modern Arabic. It is this classical Arabic that is taught in religious schools and in all Arabic schools around the world.

"Modern Standard" Arabic is similar to classical, but easier and simpler. It is understood by most Arabs and is broadcast on TV, it is spoken by politicians, it is studied by foreigners. Most Arabic newspapers and modern literature use Modern Standard Arabic.
Arabic spoken language has many different dialects. So, for example, a native Iraqi will hardly understand a local Algerian and vice versa, as they speak completely different dialects. But both of them will be able to communicate with each other if they use modern standard Arabic.

2. What any of us already know about the Arabic language

• A lot of words came to us from Arabic, and we all know them, for example:

قطن, coton
سكر, sugar
غزال, gazelle
قيثارة, guitar
الكحول , alcohol
صحراء , Sahara
قيراط , carat
ليمون , lemon

• Arabic uses the same punctuation as any other foreign language, such as English, but Arabic has slightly different punctuation marks, such as a reversed comma (،) or a mirrored question mark (؟).

3. How difficult is it to learn Arabic

• Difficulties in pronunciation

Many sounds in Arabic are pronounced in a throaty way, as if they are formed deep inside the throat - therefore, practice is required to learn how to pronounce them correctly.

• Order of words in a sentence

Any sentence in Arabic begins with a verb, so to say "the boy eats an apple" you need to say "the boy eats an apple":
اكل الولد التفاحة .

• Adjectives are placed after the noun:

السيارة الحمراء - red car

• Sentences are written from right to left, so the first page of the book, for us Europeans, will be considered the last.

4. How Arabic for beginners can help in the future

• Arabic belongs to the Semitic group of languages, therefore it has much in common with languages ​​such as Amharic, Hebrew. Therefore, for those who can learn Arabic, other languages ​​​​of the Semitic group will be more understandable.
• Languages ​​such as Persian/Farsi, Urdu, Kurdish and others use the Arabic alphabet which is used in the writing of their own languages. Therefore, those who comprehend Arabic from scratch will be able to read the written words and sentences of any of these languages, but not understand the meaning.

1. Determine exactly what your goals are for learning Arabic for beginners.

As we wrote above, there are several types of Arabic: Modern Standard, Classical and Colloquial Arabic. Each type is responsible for its own goals.

2. Master the Arabic alphabet

At first glance, the alphabet seems to be the most difficult and incomprehensible moment for those who decide to take up the Arabic language. Some even try to avoid studying it and memorize only the pronunciation or transliteration of Arabic words. This method will bring many problems in the future. It would be much more useful, on the contrary, to ignore the transcription, and to learn the spelling of words. Therefore, to learn Arabic for beginners quickly, learn the alphabet.

3. Learn to use Arabic vocabulary.

Using an Arabic dictionary is very difficult at first, but after clarifying the main points and some practice, it will not be difficult.
First, it must be taken into account that all words in the dictionary are used in their original forms, while in texts they occur in derived forms.
Secondly, the dictionary structure itself has a root system, that is, the root of the word is considered as the search word. The roots in the dictionary are in alphabetical order. That is, to find the word istiqbaal (registrar), you need to know the three-letter root of this word - q-b-l, that is, this word will be in the dictionary under the letter q.

4. We study Arabic constantly.

In order to quickly learn Arabic, you need to study it constantly. If you have internet, then you can learn Arabic online. There are many resources online for self-learning Arabic. You can buy textbooks with audio recordings, listening to which you will be imbued with the language and absorb the pronunciation. Many tutorials like learning Arabic from scratch offer interesting mnemonics for memorizing Arabic words.

5. Ask a tutor for help.

Presentation plan.
Added ... edited ...
If someone after that can read the Koran - the author is not to blame.
He had other goals, but - Good luck!

Different people have different thinking, therefore, for example, engineers and philologists must be taught foreign languages ​​in different ways. But in all textbooks of a foreign language, one can feel one and the "condo" German approach: unnecessary thoroughness, an abundance at the start of unnecessary, stupid, unstructured information, tediousness that kills mood and motivation after 5 pages and puts you to sleep after ten.

That is, it is often not the student who is to blame, but the teaching system that “goes wrong”.
As if someone put a filter - from the "unworthy" of this language.
And so the "cut-off" is carried out ...
But why was a book written for such a purpose, why was it called a "textbook"
and why did they "pump" you with "crap" of little use for training ??,

And maybe then we should call such books - not textbooks, but "turnstiles",
like, you made your way - you will go, you didn’t make your way - sit-smoke-bamboo ...

Existing textbooks are poorly designed for the thinking of a normal Russian person.
modern, not "obsolete" version. When you are told obvious platitudes, obviously rewritten over the past 100 years, the feeling that you have hit ...

The idea that you are smarter than your teacher, and the teacher "acts out" - interferes with learning.

Perhaps philologists wrote textbooks - for people with a different background,
Perhaps the "background" of the average student has grown in 100 years
Or the methods are outdated.
Maybe people who do not know anything useful except languages ​​increase the value of their knowledge by spreading show-offs and meaningful snot - where everything can be explained easier, on the fingers and faster and more interesting.

Can a teacher be a bore?
After all, language is a means of communication.
He already has a "loan" from a student who bought and picked up a textbook.
And if the author - does not "pull out" - maybe because he is a bad teacher?

Let's take Arabic.
Most of the fears about learning Arabic are due to its writing,
Which the textbook teaches in such a way that ... you begin to understand the Inquisition ...

Often in textbooks, emphasis is placed either on layers of language - from Islam and the Koran.
On the experience of building communism. For what??

Or rather aggressive imposition of alien (for Russian) person archetypes of behavior.
Orthodox and atheists do not need to immediately give words meaning "prayer" and "Akbar".

That is, these words must be present, but then, where their presence will be justified by the logic of teaching, and not just by the desire of the teacher - immediately "convert" the student to his faith. The student came for another. And the market says that you should respect your consumer.

The Arabic language - it is the Russian and Orthodox Christian that gives the opportunity to touch the Biblical texts - in a different coordinate system. And to understand the hidden meanings, which (alas) disappeared without a trace in Russian translations - from Greek translations.

Eg. King Herod - turns out to be the "king of the Earth". Ard and Herod (earth) are spelled the same.
Bethlehem - (beit lahm) - turns out to be a house of sheep, a barn.
The Queen of England "Bloody Mary" (Bloody Mary) - turns out to be the "Mother of the State".
Pharisees - turn out to be ordinary Persians or horsemen. Sadukkei - friends of the Pharisees,
Pharaohs - turn out to be simply the chiefs of these riders.

It becomes clear the possible meaning of the "new spelling" of the name Jesus (the appearance of the second letter "and") during the Great Schism of the 17th century - precisely as a result of the translation of Arabic texts - into "Cyrillic". the stroke under the consonant "and" is the second "and", which is written but not necessarily read. And the main dispute of the split - acquires a different logic and harmony.

2) Motivation.

There is such an "Old Belarusian language". This is a language in which ordinary text in Old Russian is written in Arabic letters. Agree, it's nice when, in the process of learning one modern language, you find yourself "in the load" as a carrier of another, moreover, ancient one.
The laws of "Freebies" (sweetness - in Arabic) have not been canceled.
And the learning process turns out to be effective if you lead the student "from freebie to freebie".))

So, to convey information - you need to write Arabic letters - from right to left.
consonants and long (stressed) vowels are written.
- in the Arabic alphabet there is no letter "p", the Arabs use the letter "b"
- the letter "g" - similar to Russian.
- twice the letter "and". Once at the end of a word, another in the middle. It can be seen from two points below it. The spelling is different, but - these two points give it away.
Two times the letter "c". Its spelling is anywhere (at the beginning in the middle, at the end - the same)

Vocalization rule
There are only 28 letters in the Arabic alphabet.
Strictly speaking, they are all consonants. Vowel sounds, and there are three of them, are transmitted by special icons that are placed above or below the letter, called "vowels".
The vowels "a", "i", "y" are called "Fatha, kesra, damma"
A - a stroke above the consonant from above
"and" - stroke from below,
"u" - comma above,
"without a vowel" - a circle, "sukkun",
"an" - two strokes
shadda "w" - doubling the consonant.

So the previous sentence "let's talk" -
will look like "Old Belarusian" with vowels.

In most cases, in Arabic books and media, you will not find texts with vowels. Why? Because the Arabs perfectly read and understand these texts without vowels. This is comparable to when we meet the letter "Yo" without dots in Russian, but we understand that this is exactly "Yo". It is experience and skill.

Vocalizations were developed by medieval philologists. One theory of their origin is as follows: in those days, a large number of people accepted Islam - without knowing the language. And so that "fresh" Muslims could read the Koran without errors, a system of vocalizations was adopted. Now vowels can be found mainly in textbooks, in sacred texts (Quran, Bible), in reference books and dictionaries. But rotating in this environment, anyone begins to read and understand texts without vowels at all.

Arabic writing allows you to better understand the speakers of the Turkic, Iranian and Caucasian languages. And due to the fact that Moscow is already the largest Tajik, Tatar and Azerbaijani city. And the second in the world - in terms of the number of Uzbeks, Jews and Chechens - it is advisable to have this just in case, let it be ... Because this writing allows you to better understand the grammar of the language. After all, doubling, transferring vowels - there was historically justified by "Vyaz", and when written in Latin or Cyrillic - the logic turns out to be a little more complicated.

(show strokes - and their mirror reflection in calligraphy.
Examples of abbreviations are based on Arabic script.)
The main thing is not to be afraid and to understand that the rejection of the Arabic language in the Russian cultural field may not always have been. It can be found that someone really deliberately destroyed "Semitisms" (Arabisms) in Russian culture. It can be seen that many principles of Russian cursive writing/stenography amusingly repeat the laws of Arabic calligraphy (of course, in their mirror image).

Russian endings (for example, for adjectives) in Arabic are written not in 2-3 letters that do not carry information (th, -th, -th, -th), but are made in one short stroke. After all, Slavic ancestors were not masochists when they left themselves in the language - endings, which sometimes turned out to be longer than the word itself. In a word, the experience of the Arabic language is just an opportunity to regain what your ancestors had.

By the way, all European languages ​​can have such an "Arabic" experience. It is known that the most ancient documents of the Afrikaans language (and this, excuse me, the language of the Dutch settlers of the 17th-18th centuries in Africa) were written in Arabic script. It is known that in the 20th century there were translations of writing into Cyrillic and Latin, after which ALL documents written in script were destroyed on the territory of Russia and Turkey.
That is, perhaps it is necessary not so much to "teach", but rather to try to "wake up" the subconscious.

Arabic script is not at all complicated, but it surprisingly helps to "uncover" different ways of thinking in a person: analogue, creative, composite...

On the right in the figure - you can see the Russian letter - "h".
There is no such letter in Arabic.
It is in Persian, and "h" means when it has three dots at the bottom.
Arabic has this letter with a dot on top,
with a dot below
and no point at all.

If this letter is written at the end of a word, then it looks like "h", but if it is in the middle of a word, there is no lower "tail".

That is, this letter with a dot on top - means a hard "x",
with a dot below - "j" (In Egypt, for some reason, this letter is pronounced "gh", like the Ukrainian "g"),
without a dot - a light "x".
three dots below - "h" and not in Arabic, but in Persian.

The main thing in this letter is the tail on top. a letter can be written in different handwriting, in different ways, but it is given out by the "Tail".

Although - once teaching the basics of economics to managers in one Bank, I discovered that top management does not understand the scheme at all, but can only read sequential text. That is, evolution has passed - by washing out people with abstract thinking. Well ... by the way, the bank is still quite afloat, although ... I don’t keep a penny there ... I don’t trust the “Managers”, whose only advantage is the ability to “be shit” ...

So if you are going to work with such a category of people - drop your language in general and this method - in particular, otherwise you will then have to stupidly hide a third of the brain in order to match the "environment" and especially the bosses.

In the end, when a crowd of Caucasian youth stops you in a dark alley, as a rule, this does not mean anything bad, except that there is an occasion to drink together. And you need to know how to see this occasion. And how to properly develop it.

The picture below shows two three-letter Arabic words.
Of course, since we are learning Old Belarusian, it might have been worth writing exactly the Old Belarusian word of three letters, but - whoever needs it, by the end of the lesson, he will write it himself ...
three letters are three troughs. Dots above the letter - show that the first word is "BIT", the second is BNT"

As already mentioned, even without vocalizations, the Arab will guess
that these are the words Bayt - house (hamsa and two sukkun - in vowels),
and Bint - a girl (kesra and two sukkun).
With vowels - two words will look like this.

I draw in Adobe with a mouse, if you don't like it, draw it yourself.
Pencil, paper, sharpener - go ahead.
Beautiful handwriting for many is a sufficient aesthetic satisfaction,
to practice Arabic. But we are here - about the harmony of the language as a whole,
not so much his handwriting.

4) No need to complex because of your insufficient knowledge of the Arabic language - in front of today's carriers of Arabic culture.

Firstly, all the Arabs you are interested in (for one reason or another) speak Russian or English. And English for them will objectively be more comfortable to explain the terms of European culture. The Arabic language is an opportunity to touch the Arab culture - in general, and not to a specific person in particular.

Secondly, one must understand that the Arab culture of the Middle East is, after all, rather a young culture. Its renaissance in the Middle East only arose at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. And when you get acquainted with the works of German and Russian Arabists (four-volume Krachkovsky), you see and understand that at the end of the 19th century the centers for studying the Arabic language and the Koran were Berlin, Kazan, St. Petersburg ... And not Cairo and Damascus . And they began to consider Jerusalem and Riyadh as the historical center of Arab culture only in the second half of the 20th century ... and before that, an ordinary Arab in the desert washed himself with camel urine in the morning, jumped on a camel - and wandered to a neighboring oasis. And for higher manifestations of culture - the harsh desert life then left no room and resources. It's not good not bad. Walk through museums in Arab countries to understand the meager and dreary life of nomads - half a century ago.

My teacher, a KGB officer, once gave very appropriate advice in that situation - do not try to translate your life into Arabic. University, cinema and clubs are images of another culture, for which another language is better suited.

It's more useful to come up with an "image" of an Arab - and tell from him. This is the language of nomadic peasants, it has 70 words for camel and 5 verbs for "think". No need to complicate...
Let me be 5 brothers and 6 sisters,
your father has three wives and three houses.
It is easier to learn from an authentic map than to suck it out of your finger, how to more delicately call the "landing troops", "potatoes", "privatization" and "investment banking business" that are absent in Arab culture.

So, the first principle of memorizing letters is "Shemakhansky".
As the hero of Pushkin's fairy tale said: "Reign lying on your side" ...
Many Arabic characters - you can memorize by tilting your head to the right - or to the left.
For example, the "European" numbers 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 are frankly of Arabic origin. It's just that someone "screwed up" and recorded them, sitting "too left" - from the source.

Some letters are also recognized - for example, the letter "sod", "that", "fa".

The second principle is the difference between syllables with vowels "a" and "o".
Arabs consider "a" and "o" as one vowel,
They differ in the consonants with which the syllables "sa" and "so" begin.
Because they have two consonants - where we have - one.
And there are two different letters - "t", "s", "d", "th", "h". One of them is "front" - after it is heard "a",
and the other is back, after it you hear "o".

The difference between them is colossal.
Kalb and Kyalb are almost imperceptible for the Russian ear, but for the Arab - "heart" or "dog". Compliment or insult. They always call one well-known Israeli politician "Kyalb-wa-ibn-al-kalb" (Dog - and the son of a dog).
And if you mess up ... somehow it will not turn out beautifully ...

A letter that simply means a short sound "o" - they convey through a special letter "ayn", means a throat "semi-wheezing" and which in the recording looks like a "non-Russian" letter "b", as in the word "B-b- lgaria"

with the letter "mim" - a caveat: the circle is drawn so that the logic of the appearance of the letter is clear.
However, the Arabs always draw "circles" in letters in a clockwise direction.

The third principle is schematism.
many Russian letters are obtained by inscribing the key elements of Arabic letters - in a square shape.
"ba", "ta", "tha", "r", "h",
dal, thal, tire,
"v", "f".
"mim", "nun", "lam", kaf"
show on the board how the Cyrillic letters are derived from the ligature.

More than 90% of the alphabet - have obvious parallels with Cyrillic.
There are a couple of letters where the connections are not so obvious, and there are still letters where the connections are repeated.

It would be useful to state the obvious:
Cyril and Methodius stole ideas - not from the Greeks (or not only from the Greeks).
But for some reason it was forbidden to see the Semitic roots in the Russian Empire.
That is, one could see the roots - from the language of 3 thousand years ago.
But relatively "young" Arabs do not have "Arab" roots.

Fifth rule: there are Persian and Urdu strokes that are not Arabic, but are part of this culture.
How to find in these languages ​​\u200b\u200b- an analogue for the letters "h", "p", "g", "ng".
show how the Russian letter "ch" is derived from Persian.

Sixth rule.
Learning a language takes practice.
beautiful handwriting - in itself, a reason for pride.
After 10 conscious spellings, a person automatically remembers everything.
Paper, pencil, sharpener - and as in childhood - through prescription.

Seventh rule:
What frightens in Arabic studies is the plurality of writing the same letter. initial, final, middle, separate. But - these are just the principles of adding a letter.

As in a Georgian joke:
Fork - bottle - is written without a soft sign,
salt beans - with soft
it’s impossible to understand - you need to believe in it ...

Here it is worth telling an anecdote that all Russians who have lived in Arab countries for a long time know about.
When "another Arab" decides to learn Russian, he learns the Russian alphabet for several days, in the process of learning which he gets everyone around him. Who can hardly stand his senseless tediousness. we know that the Russian language must be taught differently. And those who change the way they study are successful in it. But - Arabic really needs to be learned, starting with letters - and going from the roots of words - to more complex meanings.

And to the oral language - it is advisable to go through the written one.
sometimes you think that those who developed methods for teaching children English and French went through "torture with Semitic languages." Because you can see the "ears" of other methods, poorly suitable for European languages.

Eighth rule:

Three-letter roots - and uniform rules of word formation in the language. On the example of KTB (?)
Articles (as in Latin and Spanish)
kataba - he wrote.
yaktub - he writes
maktub - office,
kaAtib is a writer.

How to find "Roman roots" in the words Murom, Murmansk, Army, Perm, Kostroma - according to what rules.
How can these rules be used in real life?

Tell about Morocco and the Maghreb dialect...

Whether you want to dedicate your life to the study of Muslim customs, do business in the United Arab Emirates, or want to visit Jerusalem for tourism purposes, in any case, knowledge of the Arabic language will come in handy.

Arabic alphabet. Video lessons

Arabic for beginners and advanced. Visitors will find grammar lessons, stress and conjugation rules on the channel. There is an online dictionary and video tutorials with the Arabic alphabet, tips for learning the language. The founders of the page did not disdain entertaining methods of learning the language, so you can find videos with subtitled poems and the like on the channel. A lot of informative information: among the videos you can even find the translation of Russian names into Arabic.

On the pages of the youtube channel, the student will find materials for conquering the Egyptian dialect of the Arabic language, online tests. It is convenient that the comments of the hosts are in Russian - a Russian-speaking user does not need to know another foreign language in order to learn Arabic. The channel will help you learn Arabic for business and teach competent business communication.

Arabic at Shams School Irada Mersalskaya

Arabic at the School of Arabic Language

Arabic with "Brothers and Sisters"

Arabic by Daniyar Chormoshev

Arabic with Ummanews

Arabic with Arablegko portal channel

"Arabic no problem!"

Arabic with Shammus Sunshine

Arabic with Speakit (Prologmedia)

Arabic with Ahmed

Arabic with Irada of Mersal

Arabic grammar

After graduating from the 10th grade, I went to Dagestan for the summer holidays. Usually there you are constantly surrounded by relatives. But one day I stayed in Makhachkala, left to my own devices. And went for a walk around the city. This was probably my first independent walk in a foreign city. I walked along Hamidov Avenue towards the mountains. And, suddenly, I saw a sign "Islamic shop". No matter how strange it may seem, but my first acquisition in Dagestan was the Arabic script.

Arriving at my uncle's house, I opened it. There were all types of writing letters and their pronunciation was explained in relation to the Dagestan alphabet “The letter ع approximately corresponds to the Arabic gI”, “The letter ح is similar to the Avar xI”. Together with ظ, these were the most difficult letters for me, because it was hard to imagine how to pronounce them, and the others were mostly in my language. So I started learning to read Arabic on my own. An ordinary Russian teenager, far from religion. Then I went to the mountain village of my grandfather. It was a time filled with events of transitional age, when you try a lot for the first time. Along with all this, I tried and learn Arabic. What motivated me when I bought this recipe then is still mystical for me.

Recently I found my first attempts to write in Arabic, which I started just that summer in my grandfather's village.
Over the summer I learned to read. But then he abandoned this business for many years and stalled on this knowledge. The Arabic language seemed to be something extraordinarily distant and incomprehensible. Yes, and my lifestyle was far from learning this language.

Then, already in the 4th year of university, I began to pray, began to go to the mosque, and met Muslims. One Friday in the mosque, I said hello to one of my friends:

- Assalamu alaikum! How are you? What are you doing?
- Wa alaikum ssalam! Alhamdulillah. Here, I study Arabic.
— How do you study? Are there any courses?
- No, on your own, according to the textbook "Learn to read the Quran in Arabic."

Then this brother went to Kazan to study and there he got new textbooks, and he sold Lebedev's books "Learn to read the Koran in Arabic" to me for 500 rubles when he returned from Kazan for his first vacation.

I worked part-time as a night security guard in a store and took this book with me on duty. I started reading it in my free moments between the fights of the local drunkards and until I was cut down by sleep. It was worth starting to get acquainted with the book, as I thought - "Subhanallah, this Arabic language is so easy to learn."

For so many years I stupidly knew how to read and memorized the verses of the Koran with difficulty - and now I began to understand the logic of the entire language!

My delight knew no bounds. I finished the first book in a month. I didn’t even memorize the words there - I just carefully studied the new rules and read the exercises for them.

Then the textbook came into my hands First Arabic lessons ". I began to trite to teach a lesson a day (they are very small there). I just memorized new words in the morning - and then repeated them all day (on the bus, when walking, etc.). After a couple of months, I already knew almost 60 lessons by heart - all the words and turns of speech that were found in them.

After 2 months of classes, I was visiting an Arab and was surprised to find that I can communicate in Arabic without speaking a word in Russian!!! It started out as a joke. I said hello in Arabic and my friend answered. Then I asked something else and he answered again in Arabic. And when the dialogue began, as if there was no turning back. As if we did not know Russian. My knees were trembling with happiness.

Previously, I needed to learn the Koran “photographically” - stupidly remembering the order of all the letters in words. For example, it took me several days to memorize Surah An-Nas. And after I have mastered the basics of grammar, you can read the translation of Krachkovsky and the Arabic text of the verse once (comparing the translation to each Arabic word), repeat a couple of times - and the verse is remembered. If so, walk through a small sura (like An-Naba "News"). After half an hour of study, I can look at the translation of Krachkovsky and read the sura in Arabic (essentially from memory). The most difficult thing is usually to remember the order of the verses.

My tragedy is that having learned to read (it took about two months on my own and unsystematic), I simply did not imagine that it was possible to study the basics of grammar by spending the same amount of time and, if you make an effort and develop an active vocabulary, you can speak Arabic very soon.

The biggest problem for many people is that they imagine the language as an impregnable fortress, which will take many years to assault and siege. And only after that you will master it. In fact, learning a language is better thought of as a small cottage that you build piece by piece. Having studied the basic grammar (changing verbs by person and tense, changing cases, etc. - in terms of volume this is a 40-page brochure) - consider that you have poured the foundation. Further, an opportunity arose - they built a room where you can already live and moved there. Then the kitchen. Then they built a living room, a nursery, and all the other rooms. I saw how they build houses in Dagestan in this way. Instead of renting an apartment, they buy an inexpensive plot, pour the foundation and build at least one room, where they move. And then, as far as possible, they continue to build a house on an already filled foundation.

If suddenly someone wants to repeat my path, which I consider optimal for those who do it mostly on their own, for example, in their free time from their main studies or work, I have prepared a selection of materials (now they have become more accessible, and better).

1. Learn to read and write

→ Talking Tutorial (self-study on reading and writing with the voice acting of each word and many tips)

2. Fundamentals of grammar.To study grammar, it is better to arm yourself with many books and choose the one that suits you best. The same rule can be given in different words in different books - so that incomprehensible moments can be considered from different angles. Start with one book, and download the rest as needed.

→ Lebedev. Learn to read the Quran in Arabic - an unobtrusive explanation of the basics of grammar using the example of verses from the Koran (I personally went through the first volume. I hated studying foreign language all my life, but I read this book as fiction, and realized that Arabic is mine).

→ Yashukov. Arabic grammar manual - a compressed volume of 40 pages gives all the basics (a short summary of any textbook).

→ Khaibullin. Arabic grammar . A new solid textbook, contains the basics of grammar with numerous examples, as well as the basics of morphology. Very accessible language and sparing volume.

→ Rules of the Arabic language in a light and simplified form . (I didn’t pass it myself, but I heard reviews from friends).

→ Kovalev, Sharbatov. Arabic textbook . (A classic of the genre. Usually it is used as a reference where you can find any question on grammar).

I think these books should be enough with a margin. If you don’t like it, google Kuzmin, Ibragimov, Frolova and others.

3. Build an active vocabulary

→ First Arabic lessons . Read the preface to this book carefully and you will understand everything. I really lived with this book for several months until I learned 100 lessons. If you repeat "my feat", feel your closeness to the Arab world - no kidding.

4. Practice the language

→ Get to know the Arabs, try to communicate with them. For example, you can search the mosque for students who have just arrived in Russia and do not speak Russian well. If you are hospitable and not intrusive, then you can establish very warm friendly relations. You will be able to learn the language directly from the native speaker. ). So you can google materials that are interesting to you, your favorite nasheeds on YouTube, etc. You will be able to immerse yourself in the Arabic Internet, participate in their forums, discussions, make friends on FaceBook, etc.