Arab Academy

I think it’s time for another Arabic Study Materials post. I’ll probably try and do a few more after this as I don’t think I’ll be doing any while in Yemen.

I hadn’t studied Arabic since I left the Defense Language Institute in December 1989. Last spring my wife suggested I take an Arabic class at the Washington Academy of Language.

Their Arabic I class was based on the Alif Baa book, which I think is a good book for somebody that has no knowledge of Arabic but that wasn’t my case. Even worse, I was told by the instructor that the Arabic II class was also supposed to use the Alif Baa book. Doing some fuzzy math, the cost for taking both classes would have been almost $800 for learning the Arabic alphabet and a few words. That’s 10 weeks: two classes a week, five class hours per week – and that’s sad.

At least that’s an option available to somebody in Seattle wanting to study Arabic but in other cities, people don’t even have that option. And those are the people for whom this post pertains; although, I think that anybody interested in learning Arabic will find this an interesting post.

This post is about the Arab Academy. Arab Academy is probably the best way to study Arabic short of studying at a university or going to the Middle East. I’ve had this site listed in my links section since I started posting but never commented on it. I’m not sure why as I use it myself and I wholly recommend it.

The Arab Academy is actually that, an academy. It has a physical presence in Cairo and it is designed to take you from having no knowledge of Arabic to advanced levels of Arabic. It does have some drawbacks but its benefits far outweigh any negatives. Speaking classes are also offered as well as Quranic Arabic and Stories of the Prophet for those that are interested in Arabic from an Islamic perspective.

The Arab Academy begins with Arabic 100 continues with Arabic 101-103, 201-203, 301-303, 401-403 and ends with Arabic 501. Arab Academy has also recently added speaking courses. It is a self-study course that is well structured and easy to follow. Although it lacks the benefit of face to face contact with an instructor, you can easily post questions via a message board system and have your questions quickly answered.

There have been some recent changes to the class structure, but each class is broken up into four units with seven lessons in each unit. Each unit revolves around a theme and there are literally hundreds of online exercises designed to reinforce what you are learning in each unit. Even if complete all the exercises you can just do them again. It is so much better than anything I’ve encountered.

I’m not the only one banging the Arab Academy drum. Their online program is being utilized by both high schools and universities in the U.S. It provides a level of interaction that takes it beyond learning from a book or even a place like the Washington Academy of Languages. This is something that even students studying Arabic at the college level can use to provide a more complete learning experience.

Honestly the only problem I have with Arab Academy is that there is no emphasis on writing Arabic. This is because being a computer based program; its input is all done via keyboard. You learn how to spell the words but typing the word isn’t the same as writing. I don’t feel that this is too big of a problem but enough of one to warrant mention.

The prices charged for their courses are very reasonable. Although after your period of study is complete (it’s a very generous amount of time), you lose access to that particular class, Arab Academy allows you to download each unit’s material in PDF format for future study.

As sycophantic as this post may sound, it really doesn’t do Arab Academy justice.Whether you’re a beginner looking to get started learning Arabic, or somebody looking to improve on what you’ve are learning/learned, or to supplement a college based course, or an advanced student of the language looking for speaking practice, you’ll find what you’re looking for at Arabic Academy.

Here is a link to a review of the Arab Academy, provided by the National Foreign Language Center which does a more professional evaluation.