i have 10 volumes of tafsir ibn kathir
so the whole quran,
its easy to read & understand because its in good english but it is very very detailed and goes of on tangents alot and i find myself lost with alot of information its kind of hard to process, so inshallah i will be beginning to learn arabic with a tutor soon & will be able to go through it at a slower pace & i cant wait it will help alot as i find it hard to study alone & to understand things if its just me talking it through helpppps remember and make sense of it all. will be a challenge still but inshallah the more chalenging the more motivated i will be.

There was a time when I learnt enougha rabic that I could understand some.

Then I forgot it.

i can speak german and spanish the basics quite well on the areas we've studied at school and my tutors are kinds ambitous when it comes to me, so when we get exchange students or assitans from spain o germany its like come tlak to them, & i don't do badly, sometimes yes its abit confusing or i jsut wont get certian words, but i don't think you need to be in the country to learn it, i guess to be fluent yes & it would help of course but not neccessary.

Lilly wrote:

its hard to find a good teacher you get along with and who doesnt tax you by the amount of words she pronounces

Sometimes you have to travel for knowledge. I travel to another borough to study even though there are plenty of institutes in my local area but problem with them is that they're expensive and/or the level of teaching is not good enough. If you live in London I could direct you to a good institute for sisters.

Lilly wrote:

I've come to a point in my life where i would be ashamed to say how many years i've studied and which level im at right now. in england i've mainly used the madinah books and then with a new teacher started the Arabic Gateways (number 5).

You've studied abroad?

We also use Madinah book, it's very good. However we also have different modules/books for Arabic so we'll also study sarf, nahw alongside other Arabic books.

Don't be ashamed, we all mistakes....so how many years have you been studying?
Have you been memorising rules (sarf/nahw) and vocabs or learning purely through understanding?

Have you read any book on adab? There are many things which can help whilst studying. I've got an excellent book in PDF about adab if you want it.

Lilly wrote:

What's the difference?... I'm assuming you are talking about fusha.

maybe the difficulty is just for me. i just find it easier to understand something when its written/i read it. as i can analyze it longer and take my time on it. whereas when someone is speaking they a)might speak fast b) not pronounce all the letters clearly c) have an accent. which i find more difficult for my understanding. maybe its because im more of a visual learner...

Oh, I thought you were talking about the difference in sentence structure or words or something.

Yeah, I also find it easier to understand something visually then verbally.

Lilly wrote:

What do you guys think of online courses?

i feel the only way to learn a language properly is to just GO in a country where they speak that language and live there for a while

They are good, however I personally prefer to learn with a teacher face-to-face. If you're unable to do that then go ahead.

When choosing a teacher, make sure they don't just know Arabic because it's their mother tongue - they should know the rules of grammar aswell.

And yes, going to an Arab country is the best way to learn Arabic. But most people would be unable to do that.

Exception wrote:

i will be beginning to learn arabic with a tutor soon & will be able to go through it at a slower pace & i cant wait it will help alot as i find it hard to study alone & to understand things if its just me talking it through helpppps remember and make sense of it all.

Do you know the books you will be studying?

Are you leaning online or face-to-face with a teacher?

There have been instances where I've spent ages trying to understand something and couldn't, but I understood it properly after the teacher had explained it within a minute.

assalamu alaikum,

i also studied Arabic via the madinah book series for a few years, then i got married and the rest is history. It is possible to go through those books alone, but i would suggest audio to go with it because hearing how the words sound is essential. But it's always better to have a tutor at hand.

Also did gateway series in conjunction with the madina series like Lilly. I agree with lilly a person can study arabic in academic setting or alone for years and still not grasp it. The only real and easy way is to live in the country where ppl speak the language on an everyday basis. Even if this means hearing modern arabic, rather than classical it would help a great deal. Learning just from books will give a person the skill to maybe read basic books in that language, but verbal skills and reading a more intensive book would be very difficult if not impossible.

my arabic teacher used to encourage me and my brother to speak to each other in arabic as much as possible i.e where are you going, what are you doing today, can you shut the door please, get in the kitchen lol. It did help a lot. So if you have a friend or sibling who's taking the course with you at the same time that can help heaps.

Oo Salaam!
I completed an Adult Education Course which was great, I had an Arab teacher teaching me Modern Standard Arabic (the formal style) and she helped me with proper pronunciations too (books can't give you this - although some do try to spell out the sounds!)
Overall learnt topics like the family, colours, numbers, grammer etc mainly at a basic level which will help me if the plan to continue abroad works out (InshaAllah)

Oh and I found this wonderful visual dictionary, I would defo recommend it:
Bilingual Visual Dictionary, DK (Dorling Kindersley)

Just in case someone does want to try it, the link below is just to show you a picture of the book - by all means search online for a bargain!

http://www.amazon.com/Arabic-English-Bilingual-Visual-Dictionary/dp/0756...

Ma' Asalaama!

Exactly! I thought I knew the fundamentals like the Alphabet but it turned out I was saying a lot of them wrong! alif, ba, ta, tha NOT aleeef, baaa, taaa, saaa =S

It's such a rich language - kinda overwhelming actually, it feels like there is SO much to learn but so little time.

Lol the language is a explosion of ideas in itself! But yep your right, one baby step at a time!

Lilly wrote:

you're using big words? Sarf?? Nawh, is that grammar? yeah i did a LOT of grammar.. well it seems my learning has not being as structured as yours

Instead of like studying Arabic as a whole, it is broken down so sarf deals mainly with verbs and its different formation and rules. Nahw deals mainly with nouns and prepositions and the rules related to it. We use madinah book and qasas-un-nabiyyin for learning vocabs and practicing rules. The secular example would be instead of studying science as a whole, it is broken into physics, biology and chemistry.

Lilly wrote:

The thing is, the first madrassah i went to, it was great, but we never reaslied that they taught arabic not for speaking but for understand quran and ahadiths. SO there were no recent vocab like (im not joking) BED or AIRPORT. But we were BIG on grammar.

The place I go to also emphasis on reading, memorising, understanding and writing than speaking. However we have loads of vocabs to learn. Seems strange not to learn any vocabs.

Also check your PM.

قبل ايام كثيرة كثيرة جدا

Try and put the i'raabs on this, and then state why you did so for each word - its taken from the first line from stories of the prophets so it should be fairly easy for you.

Just use transliteration in English.

Lilly wrote:

i cant remember how to say gold though..

ذهب

Lilly wrote:

nope never heard of sarf, is it like fi'l marfoo' , fi'l mansoob etc..?

Yep, that's part of it.

sarf is word syntax I think - how the words are formed from the root word.

Nahv is etymology, how sentences are constructed (verb subject object or something like that).

Lilly wrote:

qabla: maf'oul feehi? mudaf
iyyamin: mudaf ilayh
kathiratin: na't?

im thinking the second kathiratin is some type of emphasize, and i dont think i learnt that..

jiddan would be..no idea

Ayyamin is mudaf ilay
kathirathin x 2 - are na't/sifaat of ayyamin.
jiddan (very) is used for emphasis

The word qablu is mabni on dhamma, so it should be qablu and not qabla - what made you say qabla?

i did a arabic course once, for like 6 months.

forgot everything.

Lilly wrote:

qablu? well i dont know... tiredness maybe? or lack of practise...
But whats Qablu's function? Mubtada?

You were right, it is qabla. I was just trying to confuse you

It is only mabni when its mudaf ilay is not mentioned but however is intended. Because the mudaf ilay has been mentioned (ayyameen) then qablu will no longer be mabni and will therefore be murab - so qabla.

As its joomla khabariyya, its not fi'liyya so it must be ismiyyah, I would also say mubtada.

Lilly wrote:

So what do you say doc? am i a lost case?

Need to brush up abit but not bad.

Lilly wrote:

what catergory goes the work gabla fall under?

Under madbi, look for mabni 'alal dhamma then look under ghayaath.

Lilly wrote:

But hey, i done this work when i was still a one-digit age!

If that's the case then your memorisation of the grammar rules must be really good, even if the understanding isn't there. It's easier to memorise things at a young age.

The teachers stick can have a good effect when memorising at a young age.