How long does it take to learn Arabic?

How long does it take to learn Arabic fluently?

A question that many people ask, with many reasons behind the question. Some people want to learn Arabic because of their love of learning new languages. Some seek learning Arabic because they want to understand the Quran and be able to recite Quran without facing any obstacles. Whatever your reason is, the first question that will come to your mind is the million dollar Question, how long does it take to learn Arabic? That’s what we will answer in this article, so let’s get started. We always hear that Arabic is one of the most difficult languages to learn, and that’s true. So before you go asking how to learn Arabic fast you should first decide if you are ready to commit to learning it. The answer to that question actually depends on you, are you motivated? How much of your time are you ready to commit to learning Arabic. So first of all, here is what you should do.

What are your goals of learning to read Arabic?

In order to achieve your learning Arabic goal you should clearly define your goals and how are you willing to achieve those goals. Here are some questions you should ask yourself:

• Why are you willing to learn Arabic?
• Does Arabic culture and history interest you?
• Do you want to meet people from Arabic countries or Muslim cultures?
• What is your motivation? Do you want to learn Arabic for religious goals, or because you like the language and you want to learn how to write in Arabic in keyboard, and read Arabic books?
• Do you just want to learn Arabic for fun and you want to be able to communicate with people on your travels?

After you answer those questions you will know your goals of learning Arabic.

How long does it take to learn Arabic?

Learning Arabic might be hard and needs your commitment and dedication, like any other language does. If you want to learn Arabic fast you should start by taking courses, or watch Arabic learning series. However, you should know that it will still take a couple of weeks or months. You can’t learn a complete language in a week or less. If you are ready to commit to learning Arabic you should know that you will have to study every day.  So that your brain starts to deal with Arabic and its culture as if it's a regular thing. Studying new words every day and practicing them daily will make them stick into your brain, and Arabic will become your second language faster. According to estimation, if you’re an English speaker and you want to learn Arabic it will take from you about 2200 hours of Arabic classes and courses. This means more than 80 weeks of consistent language study. The hardness of learning Arabic language is similar to learning Chinese or Japanese. Whilst some languages like French will only take 23 weeks of classes to master. About 500 to 600 hours of French classes. To know how much time you will spend learning Arabic here are two questions for you to answer.

• How much time are you ready to spend each day to learn Arabic?
• Are you willing to continue? and, for how many weeks or months will you keep up learning? Are you ready to spare for Arabic learning?
• For the first question, the answer really depends on you, your motivation, commitment, and are you really willing to learn Arabic? Additionally, how much time can you spend on learning?

Although the answer to the second question depends on the answer to the first question, however, you should keep in mind that it is impossible to learn a language in just a few weeks. If you want to learn it in just a few weeks you will end up knowing some Arabic expressions but you want to be able to understand Arabic and translate it. It will be a disaster, so there is no need for you to force yourself to learn Arabic fast.

How long does it take to learn to read Arabic?

• Here we will try to answer the question a little bit simpler based on research and studies, instead of letting you wonder how much it will take from you to learn Arabic. If you already know some Arabic and you want to know which level you are at, here are tools that will help you.
• There is a tool called The FSI Rating Scale that measures the mastery level of the language. To give you your rating, trained testers will interview you from ten to twenty minutes.
• They will test your pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. Then they will give you a rating between 1 to 5. Here are the meaning of each level:
• Elementary proficiency: The person is able to satisfy basic travel needs and minimum courtesy requirements.
•  Limited working proficiency: The person is able to satisfy routine social demands and limited work requirements.
• Minimum professional proficiency: The person can speak the language with sufficient structural accuracy and vocabulary to participate effectively in most formal and informal conversations on practical, social, and professional topics.
•  Full professional proficiency: The person uses the language fluently and accurately on all levels normally pertinent to professional needs.
• Native or bilingual proficiency: The person has speaking proficiency equivalent to that of an educated native speaker.
• If you’re an English speaker and you want to learn Arabic it will take from you about 2200 hours of Arabic classes and courses to be fluent in Arabic. This means more than 80 weeks of consistent language study.

How long does it take to learn Quranic Arabic?

If you already learned Arabic then learning Quranic Arabic will not be hard for you, it will be rather easy. And you could always get the help of a tafseer to the words that you don’t understand. So learning Quranic Arabic is no different than learning the general Arabic language. If you would like to test yourself then you could start reading the short surahs first, starting from the end of the holy book, Quran. You could always start testing yourself by reading easy stuff like newspapers, children stories or Arabic blogs. Learning any new language depends on you, if you train really well and hard without letting anything come in your way and without stopping it might take a year and a half, or maybe less, who knows?