Arabic and All Its Forms

Arabic and All Its Forms

As the name suggests, Arabic originates from the Arabian peninsula in the Middle East. It is a term used for several Semitic languages ​​(the other two are Hebrew, and Aramaic). Arabic has 300 million speakers spread throughout the world, mostly in the Arab world, and is one of the 5 languages ​​most widely spoken in the whole world. Arabic can arouse certain curiosity because of its distinctive sounds, phonetics and pronunciation patterns, especially its unique letterforms and diverse vocabulary. However, the substantial differences between spoken Arabic and written Arabic will usually be very confusing for beginners. Literary Arabic, also known as Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), refers to written Arabic. This type of Arabic has its own meaning among Muslims because it is used by God in his word in the form of the Koran which was delivered to the Prophet Muhammad. Written Arabic is different from spoken Arabic. Each country in the Middle East and North Africa has its own dialect. That is, whether Egyptian Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, Lebanese Arabic or Palestinian Arabic are very different. The difference is not only in terms of speech or everyday expressions, but also in terms of grammar, vocabulary, and phrases used. So, if you want to be able to speak Arabic, you have to know which dialect best suits your needs. In this article, we will focus on Literary Arabic as used in the Quran, without discussing the dialects of Bedouins and sub-Saharan Africa!

Arabic for Kids

In recent years, learning Arabic has experienced a steady increase as the desire to understand other cultures and pursue a career on an international scale has increased. After all, Arabic is also widely spoken and is the official language in 26 countries around the world, for example Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt and Syria. In fact, currently elementary school students can choose Arabic as the foreign language they will study as well as European languages ​​and Chinese. However, this opportunity is still quite rare, considering that there is not as much Arabic teaching as in countries around Spain.

However, linguists and experts in other fields know very well that children can learn foreign languages ​​more easily than adults. Therefore, parents who want their children to learn Arabic as a second language should build their children's interest in Arabic classes. So, learning Arabic must be entrusted to a third party such as a teacher or tutor, unless all (at least part) of the family uses Arabic in their daily life. If schools cannot fulfill this role, parents will need to rely on private educational resources with the guidance of Modern Standard Arabic tutors. With this, the learning process can be more intensive, but it also costs money. You can do an Internet search to find out where to find Arabic lessons in Jakarta. Ideally, private tutors have two advantages:

Not placing too many demands on young students,

Have the same mastery of Indonesian so that students do not get confused and change languages.

With this, it is never too early for your child to start learning Arabic, perhaps the same as having two mother tongues, as is the case for some children whose father and mother have different languages. This is the best way to become bilingual in Arabic and Indonesia. So that young students do not reject Arabic learning, be sure to provide additional educational materials that are fun and interactive, as well as practice questions and evaluation. In this regard, modern technology will certainly be of great help and often, it costs you nothing: you can find dozens of Arabic cartoons such as The Story of a Thousand and One Malang just by doing a quick search via Google. Another, more classical means of learning is music, which is very useful in terms of providing basic linguistic knowledge to children, especially by singing. As in other languages, there are also a number of fun children's songs in Arabic:

"Mama Zamanha Gaya"

"Doha Yes Doha"

"Barboori Rye Harye A"

You should also provide board games, video games and other applications in Arabic ... However, you should be careful introducing some tools that use electronic screens to children as these are not really recommended.

How to Learn Arabic Letters

Language is a combination of sounds and written transcriptions that represent these sounds. Therefore, a language cannot exist without an alphabet, at least implicitly.