Now let’s imagine this scenario together. There are 2 different students taking the same Egyptian Arabic class. However, there is a huge difference in confidence between those 2 students. One of them is confident and is not afraid of making the inevitable mistakes when he tries to speak Egyptian Arabic.  It’s an inevitable mistake, since there’s absolutely no way to avoid mistakes when speaking a new language.

Worrying too much about being made fun of when speaking a new language or seeming silly in front of people shouldn’t be on your list of worries at all. On the contrary people mostly would be encouraging and praising you for trying to speak their language. This is very true especially in Egypt. if you try to speak Arabic with Egyptians no matter how simple, they would always complement your efforts and will be very happy that you even tried the language yourself.

Now back to the 2 students. One is confident, so that student always puts himself in situations where he needs to use what he knows to communicate. Therefore, automatically gaining more and more experience and practice.

While the less confident, shy student hasn’t practiced at all yet with people. what’s worse is that even during lessons, which is a safe space to learn and practice the less confident student may be worried about pronouncing the words or even speaking at all during class.

Simple asking questions becomes a chore.

My advice to you is, push past your comfort zone and don’t ever be afraid to speak and make mistakes because that’s the process of learning and when you’ve done it long enough. you will reach a point where you are no longer making those mistakes and you’re actually comfortable speaking your target language.

How to gain confidence?

gaining knowledge can always boost your confidence. The more you know about the language, the more confident you become. However, there’s a fine line between just gaining knowledge and actually putting yourself out there and speaking.

there are many people who just focus on gaining knowledge and we all know a couple of those people in out lives. Your friend who can read and write another language really well but sounds like a train wreck when they try to speak. that’s the result of studying and not applying the knowledge gained. Don’t fall into this cycle ever.

Learn it then use it, to confirm it and move on. Then review it, refine it then add to it.

Good luck with your studies

Your favorite Egyptian Arabic teacher MiMo

The post The Effects of Confidence on Language learning appeared first on Egyptian Mimo.

1- Listen to Songs and watch some short movies and videos while looking at subtitles

2- learn some basic phrases and questions:

•  ezzayyak(m)? /ezzayyik (f)? (How are you?)
• ana kewayyis, wa enta ezayyak? (I am good and how are you?)
• esmak eh? (m) esmik eh? (f) (what is your name?)
• ana esmy ……… (My name is ……)
• enta 3andak kam sana? (m) / enty 3andik kam sana? (f) (How old are you?)
• ana 3andy …………….. sana (I am ………. years old)
• enta/enty mneen? (Where are you from?)
• ana min ………….. (I am from ……….)
• enta btashta8al eh? (What do you do?)
• ana mudarris (I am a teacher)
• enta safirt abl kda? (Have you travelled before?)
• aywa ana safirt abl kda (Yes, I travelled before)
• la2, ana msafirtsh abl kda (No, I didn’t travel before)
• hewayatak eh? (what are your hobbies?)
• hewayaty el safar wa el 3oom (my hobbies are travelling and swimming)
• ma7attit el otobees feen? (Where is the bus station?)
• emshy 3alatool wa ed5ol yemeen (go straight and take a right)
• aklitak el mufaddala eh? (what’s your favorite food?)
• aklity el mufadala heyya el koshary (my favorite food is koshary)

3- Question words:

• what = eh
• why = leh
• when = emta
• where = feen

4- Numbers (listen to them first) 

5 – Days of the week:

7ad, etneen, talat, arba3, 5amees, gom3a, sabt

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday

6- Pronouns: ana, enta, enty, ento, howwa, heyya, e7na, homma

7- Object Pronouns (me = nee, you (m) = ak …..)

8- Common verbs (eat=akol, drink=ashrab, see=ashoof, play=al3ab, walk=amshy, talk=atkallim)

9-Common Nouns (school=maddrasa, home=beet, friend=saa7ib,building=mabna)

10- family members (father=ab, mother=om, brother=a5, sister=o5t )

11- Country names (England=engiltra, Egypt=masr,  Brazil=el barazeel, Italy=etalya, Japan=elyaban)

12-Possessives 

13-How to form a sentence (Subj – Verb – Obj)

I play football = ana bal3ab koora

Take between 2 to 5 weeks to learn all those basics on your own, to have a good start into Egyptian Arabic or just sign up to my free course and learn about all of this in just about 2 hours.

The post How to start teaching yourself before taking a course? appeared first on Egyptian Mimo.

Many people spend 2 to 3 years studying standard Arabic and end up being shocked when they find out that no one speaks that way in Arab countries. Now when it comes to the language spoken in Egypt, it’s basically the Egyptian accent or dialect of Arabic and within Egypt itself there are different accents depending on the region. Southern Egyptian (sa3eedy صعيدي) sound a lot different than the Cairo Accent.

Who understands Egyptian Arabic?

The good news is all Arab countries understand Egyptian Arabic well. Since, it’s very popular amongst the middle east. Egypt is well known for its movies and TV series. To the point where any actors or singer who are from other Arab countries strive for an opportunity in Egypt where if successful would mean a huge leap in their career.

Some differences between Egyptian Arabic and Standard Arabic (MSA)

MSA VS EGP differences video: https://youtu.be/cezMUn3AEK4

1. Letter Pronunciation

2 – Questions words

MSA is mostly used in formal settings such as the news, official documents and international interpretations. Therefore, most Egyptian wouldn’t speak in that manner with their friends and family.

Which dialect to learn and why?

Before answering this question, a target needs to be established. Why are you learning Arabic? Based on my experience as a teacher, over 90% of people learning Egyptian Arabic are learning for personal relationships. It’s either having Egyptian parents who immigrated and haven’t really taught their kids the language or someone who’s in a relationship with an Egyptian and would like to learn to be able to communicate with the family and enjoy Egypt of course.

So if you’re in contact with or are going to be in contact with Egyptians in any way shape or form then you need to learn Egyptian Arabic to be able to understand Egyptians better. Make no mistake Egyptians can understand MSA well without any problems. Depending on their level of education but the problem will be understanding Egyptians since it’s a lot different than MSA as demonstrated above.

However, if your goals are professional. Such as becoming a translator, interpreter, consulate work and so on. Then MSA will be a better choice since you’ll be dealing more with official documents and situations more often.

How to learn Egyptian Arabic?

https://egyptianmimo.com/courses/introduction-to-egyptian-arabic/ introduction to Egyptian Arabic course gives a brief introduction into the world of Egyptian Arabic and how to communicate as quickly as possible. In just about 2 hours you should be able to communicate with Egyptians right away. There are also other courses that help with communication and Arabic writing as well.

Once the basics are covered and there’s a strong grasp of the foundation. It’s time to jump onto more in depth courses on how to form longer and more meaningful sentences. Such as describing your day, work and plans. Talking about the past, the present and future. And lots more.

Other sources to learning Egyptian Arabic:

• LearnEgyptianarabic with mimo Instagram page
• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnKn_OpBA2c1qBWEBr_e-qg
• Egyptian Podcast on spotify for listening practice.
• https://egyptianmimo.com/ Egyptian Arabic website

Some useful Egyptian Arabic expressions

3 = ع

8 = غ

The post What is Egyptian Arabic? Facts and aspects appeared first on Egyptian Mimo.

Now to the main question. What should I do? to improve quickly and communicate faster?

1. Discipline:

You can take all the courses in the world while being the smartest one ever and still achieve almost nothing if you don’t put in consistent effort. 

The first thing is you need to set aside at least 20 minutes daily for the language you’re learning. What should you do in those 20 minutes? Well, that’s up to you, everyone studies differently but here are some suggestions:

– read out loud all the new words you added to your notes ( would be better if you could record yourself and compare it to a native speaker)

– Write sentences using the new words or grammar that you added to your notes. This reveals weaknesses you could work on.

– Challenge yourself to write random sentences for 20 minutes (set a timer)

2nd thing to do is to always assess yourself.  

Go online and find a native speaker to chat with or talk to (if you don’t have someone already) and if that person understands what you’re saying then you’ve made progress. If not then go back to practicing again.

3rd thing to do is be consistent:

You have to challenge yourself to do these study sessions for 30 days in a row. And to compare, record yourself speaking on day 1 then record yourself on day 30. As you’re reading this I’m sure you thought “of course it’s going to be night and day” now imagine doing that for a whole year.

Did you notice how I wrote number 1 is Discipline and number 2 still hasn’t come yet? Well that’s because it’s all about Discipline. 

Good luck 

The post What to expect when learning a new language to feel actual progress appeared first on Egyptian Mimo.

Before jumping into the letters and how they’re written and connected, a foundation needs to be laid in place.

Main Points:

1. Arabic is Written Right to left  <———

2. Arabic letters change shape slightly depending on their position in the word.

3. The letters you learn on their own are what they look like at the end of the word

4. There is a total of 28 Letters plus some special Characters. 22 Letters can be connected from both sides, while 6 can only be connected from the right.

5. When connecting a letter from the right side the shape doesn’t change. only from the left.

6. Arabic letters come in groups, meaning you can see 3 letters that look exactly the same but just have an extra dot above or below.

7. Different dialects may pronounce some of the letters differently compared to the standard.

Of course, just giving listing this information may not be enough to understand or imagine everything that’s going on here. So, let’s take a closer look at each point.

1 – Arabic is Written Right to left <——— : 

In many languages, whenever you open up a book or read something you look to the top left corner. Since, words and sentences start from the left. However, in Arabic it doesn’t work like that.

Arabic is written from right to left. So, an Arabic book is opened from the right side, which is the back side for most non-Arabic speakers. It may also feel awkward when writing since most people are used to writing left to right.

2 – Arabic letters change shape slightly depending on their position in the word.

Arabic words aren’t made of separate letters placed next to each other like in English. The letters are actually connected to one another, Except for 6 letters which don’t get connected on the left side. So, each letter may change shape depending on its position in the word ( beginning, middle, end)

Let me demonstrate by writing the same exact letter 3 times in a row:  ههه 

3 – The letters you learn on their own are what they look like at the end of the word

As usual, the first step to learning the letters is learning each letter separately without connections. and this separate form of the letter is what it would look like at the end of a word. let’s look at an example:

Let’s say the letter is ح   you see how it has a head and a C shaped tail. and this is exactly how it’s going to look at the end of a word ( on the left side).  فتح even though the letter is connected you can clearly see it still looks the same. However, if that same letter is in the beginning or the middle of the word it’s not going to have this C shaped tail anymore.

4 – There is a total of 28 Letters plus some special Characters. 22 Letters can be connected from both sides, while 6 can only be connected from the right.

As shown above there is a total of 28 letters, with 22 of those letters can be connected from both sides. whether a letter proceeds or comes after, it must be connected. However, there are 6 letters that are never connected when a letter comes after them (on the left side). Hopefully, this small table helps demonstrate the point.

5 – When connecting a letter from the right side the shape doesn’t change. only from the left.

this is a really good tip that can help learners avoid memorizing different shapes of the same letter depending on it’s position in the word, by basically understanding when the shape changes and how. and by recognizing the pattern. Connecting the letter from the right side regardless of its position doesn’t change the shape of the letter itself. the shape only changes when it must be connected to the left. let’s demonstrate:

before I showed you this letter حat the end of the word. and this is was connected only from the right not and not from the left. the shape stayed exactly the same. However, if a letter comes after it on the left side we will lose that C shaped tail and it will look like this.

حمد

6 – Arabic letters come in groups, meaning you can see 3 letters that look exactly the same but just have an extra dot above or below. 

Now hearing that there are 28 Arabic letters, students might wonder “ok that’s a long list of new shapes I need to memorize” while it’s not the case at all. It’s just a few main groups. let’s take a look at a couple of the groups.

Group 1:

 ب  ت  ث 

Group 2:

ج  ح  خ 

Notice how they look exactly the same with just different dot positions. and if they look the same, they are connected the same way and follow the same rules.

7 – Different dialects may pronounce some of the letters differently compared to the standard. 

just like any other language in the world, Arabic has many dialects. Each Arabic speaking country has its own way of speaking Arabic. Arabic in Egypt is different than Arabic spoken in Saudi Arabia and so on. this also extends to how we pronounce the letters as well. for Example, the letter ج in Standard Arabic is pronounced like the letter “J” in English. However, in Egypt the same letter is pronounced like “G” in the word “good” and much more.

for example the word for “Beautiful” is جميل. In standard Arabic it’s pronounced “Jameel”. However. in Egyptian Arabic it’s pronounced “Gameel”

I really hope I gave you some useful insight and simple introduction to the world of Arabic letters and writing and hopefully you can learn more by trying to learn Arabic letters and writing in just a week. It may sound impossible but by following a carefully thought out plan you can achieve it. Lots of students have already done, and so can you.

You can watch a small lesson about actually writing the letters here: Writing Arabic Letters

The post Arabic Letters and Writing Basic introduction appeared first on Egyptian Mimo.

When it comes to nouns, especially human nouns. Such as jobs titles, there are different genders of those nouns (Masculine, feminine and Plural). Because a “teacher” could be either a man or a woman.

A similar example to this in English would be “actor and actress”, this applies to all human nouns in Arabic.

Now, let’s make some examples to see how the pronouns and nouns work together:

– I am a teacher (male speaking) / ana Mudarris / أنا مدرس

– I am a teacher (female speaking) / ana Mudarrisa / أنا مدرسة

– You are a teacher (addressing female) / Enty Mudarrisa / إنتي مدرسة

– You are a teacher (addressing male) / Enta Mudarris / أنت مدرس

– You are teachers (addressing plural) / Ento Mudarriseen / انتوا مدرسين

You must be wondering where is “am, is, are” in those sentences. Well in Arabic, verb “to be” isn’t used generally in the present tense. it’s only used in very specific cases.

Based on the examples above, the noun changes its gender depending on the pronoun/person it is describing.

Exercise:

1 – I am an Engineer

2 – You are a student (female)

How would you say those 2 sentences?  let me know in the comments.

The post Egyptian Arabic Nouns الأسماء appeared first on Egyptian Mimo.

Starting a language with pronouns is always a good idea and it’s an even better idea if you just focus on “I and You”. Since they are the most commonly used when speaking. You always talk about yourself and your actions as well as addressing people directly.

Now, when it comes to Arabic. it can be a little bit more detailed. Arabic is gender-based. So, speaking to a male is slightly different than speaking to a female. also speaking to a group has its own pronoun.

Let’s look at Egyptian Arabic pronouns:

Now, if you take a look at Egyptian pronouns, you’ll notice right away that there are less pronouns compared to MSA(Modern Standard Arabic). which means you’re lucky. you don’t need to worry about Duals and gendered plurals and all of that. hooray.

What to do?

– Make sure you listen to the pronunciation carefully and practice

– Focus on I and you (all 3 variations). once you know them well, you can move on to the rest.

– Don’t stop there and make sure you add some Adjectives and nouns to the mix ( check the next blog.

Listen to the Audio:

The post Egyptian Arabic Pronouns الضمائر المصرية appeared first on Egyptian Mimo.