What Should I Know About This Dive?

Congrats! You are thinking about pursuing (or continuing your pursuit of) Arabic! Awesome you!

Arabic is the official language in 25 countries, and many people learn it as a second language in order to assist with traveling, career progression, business, entrepreneurship, customer service, and more. Arabic is also the language of the Quran, so many Muslims learn Arabic to dive deeper into their faith.

There are many different dialects of Arabic. The most popular are: Modern Standard Arabic (MSA, a.k.a. Fosha), Egyptian Arabic, Gulf Arabic (Khaliji), Levantine Arabic (Shami), and Darija.

MSA is used in the Quran, textbooks, newspapers and news channels. Egyptian Arabic is spoken in Egypt. Gulf Arabic is spoken in the Gulf countries (Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Iran, UAE, and Oman). Levantine Arabic is spoken in the Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, and Israel). Darija is spoken in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Western Sahara, and Mauritania.  

When beginning your Arabic studies, it is important to choose one dialect to focus on, as this will make it easier to reach fluency. If you want to be understood by anyone you meet, it is recommended to learn Egyptian Arabic, as Egyptian Arabic has been popularized in the Arab world by Egyptian movies. You could also learn MSA, but it is mostly used for the news. 

We are proud to share with you this completely free online compendium of resources to help you get started with, improve, and ultimately master the Arabic language.

To that end, on the pages to come, you will find a bunch of truly helpful Arabic language resources, each answering a key question you need the answer to. We also provide a list of resources, broken down by level: beginner, intermediate, and advanced, to ensure you get the support you need, no matter at what level you may find yourself.

Where do the resources come from? Our members and staff. We individually screen every resource prior to posting to ensure high quality, and to verify the authenticity of each. If it's listed, it means a) one of our Break Diving members has used the resource and highly recommends it, and b) the listed resource has in some way supported the growth of Break Diving and believes in our mission (or at the very least, has not actively refused to support our mission). You can trust that each resource we list is legitimate, and has our Break Diving seal of approval. If you have any issues with any of the resources listed, please reach out and let us know!

That all being said, it's time to take a deep dive into Arabic. Ready?