Useful tips to learn Arabic (or any other language)

The Arabic is like the Chinese, it is very difficult to learn, people says, It is the language of people who lives in the desert, so it is very difficult, as water in the desert.
How long does one need to learn it?

Two years are enough to learn it almost perfectly.
Six months are enough to learn to read, understand and write it quite well.
Don’t you agree? You think that six months are not enough?

I would say; six months listening without translation!

Yes, you can learn it in six months without translating the meanings towards your mother tongue.
Why I’m sure?

And how could you do this?
Well, you can do it for many reasons;
First:
If you're reading these lines that means that you haven’t a year old for sure.
Second:
because my little daughter, who is one year old, when she will be two years old, she would have already learned the Arabic quite well.

Let’s make a comparison between you and my little daughter!

• She is one year old.
• She has no native language to translate meanings towards it 
• She has only to look, listen, feel, think and conclude.

• You have more than one year old for sure.
• If you aren’t able to understand something you can translate it.
• You can look, the same, and feel, think, and conclude, but you would do it better if you want.

How children could learn?
A child has no mother tongue, born as a white paper, knows nothing, does not know who is he or who is the other, does not know where he begins or where the other ends, he nothing knows.

Allah Subhanahu wa ta-a-la (God) says in the Qur'an, in verse 16 (verse of the Bees) Aya 78:
« When God brought you out of your mothers wombs, you knew nothing. He gave you ears, eyes, and hearts so that perhaps you would give Him thanks ».

Translation made by Cheik (Muhammad Sarwar)

« And Allah has extracted you from the wombs of your mothers not knowing a thing, and He made for you hearing and vision and intellect that perhaps you would be grateful.»

Translation « Sahih International »

As you see, it seems that a child has not too much material to learn, but after about three years, he will be able to speak any language in the world!
 
How can he do that?
He does it only with these little things, that all people have, and unfortunately, they do not value;
Hearing and sight and intellect, and NO translator!
He has only ears, eyes and intellect.
With these “tools”, I would say, a child learns everything!

People always try to return to their native language, to know the meaning of new words, doing so, they could never learn...
They should “burn the ships” of their native language
A few years ago, I had an English teacher..
He spoke to us, pure English, from the first day!

He didn’t say ANY WORD  in French or Arabic along two years!
Even though, for us, English was a new language, and the only words that we learned were "Hello, yes, no."

To say the truth, we also learned the phrase "Your sister", which was an offense, as you know, children like to learn prohibited things.

Many times I was thinking that  this teacher was the worst, because he doesn’t bother himself to explain in Arabic, or at least in French, always we were waiting for that he explain to us in Arabic but this never happened.

After a month or so, we realized that the teacher has burned the ships, and that there was no way to return to our native language.

Step by step we stopped thinking about the meanings in Arabic, and we were trying to know the meanings of words according to the expression, according to the text, according to the teacher's actions, according to the time, according to the place, according to the mood of the teacher.
 
Former, we used to treat every word separately and expect that the teacher give us an equivalent word in Arabic, but later we learned how to listen, observe and conclude.

That teacher was - and still- a wonderful teacher, few years later I realized that , he was a perfect teacher.

Do not treat words separately, treat them according to the text, the time or the humor, treat words in all circumstances. This is the power that you had when you were a kid and you lost it as adult.

For example if I say:
eight o’clock in the morning I leave my house and I get on in  “hafila” to go to my work in the downtown
My house is about 1700 meters far from my work

Do you imagine that “hafila” is a boat?
Do not tell me that please! You know, I live in Djelfa, and it is about 300km far from the sea and there are no rivers here!
So what is “hafila” then ?
Is it a plane?
You think that I'll go in a plane to cross those 1700 meters that I often cross them on my feet?
Is it my car? oh my God , do not say that please! I didn't say "My hafila".

Do not stop learning, always think that you have learned something
did you happen to see that a child stopped learning? I can’t imagine that my daughter someday will tell me this:
"Dad .. I do not want to learn Arabic anymore ... it is very difficult!  ): "
With that elementary head, she can learn a lot, because in fact, she already has the best way to learn.

To learn a new language, always try to be a child, without native language

Drown yourself with listening to much, with reading, get away from your native language
Try to write your ideas early in the language you learn
I hope my tips will serve you
Essalam alaykum (peace be with you)

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