How to approach learning Arabic? What’s the best curriculum? What are some strategies?
Talk delivered at Twins of Faith conference in Melbourne, 2018.
Aarij Anwer – Road Map to Learning Arabic
AI: Summary ©
The importance of learning Arabic foregone conclusion is crucial to achieving a better understanding of the language. The language is a large and vast one, and difficult to learn in a short period of time. The importance of active learning and finding a system that suits one's learning style is key to long-term memory and learning to improve writing skills. Visits to the Quran and practicing writing can improve reading and writing skills, and long term memory is crucial for learning to read and understand the process of learning. Practice learning in a context that is not directly related to one's learning experience is key to long-term memory and learning.
AI: Summary ©
hamdulillah salat wa salam ala rasulillah vida and he was happy. He
said, armonico
Thank you all for coming out for this workshop. This is something that the workshop is titled roadmap to learning Arabic, learning Arabic and DJ Arabic is a very
it's an, it's a part of me, it's not just something that I like to do. It's, it's a part of me, because I've done it for so many years. 100. And I myself went through this journey when I was starting off my Slavic studies. And I think it's essential that we have an idea of what this is all about. And once we have an idea, then everybody traverses this path in a different way. So my road to learning Arabic, may not be yours, and yours may not be what your next person, the person sitting next to you, your browser might be totally different. That's okay. But what I'm trying to do here is is trying to lay out a few foundations of what you should keep in mind as you embark on this
journey. charlo. Okay, I think the idea of why learning Arabic is important is it's a foregone conclusion, everybody understands, that's important. What needs to be clarified, in my opinion is a what specific subset of Arabic should you focus on?
Because language, as you know, is really vast, and languages are learned and acquired in many different ways. The goal of learning Arabic, that's what has to be clearly defined. Otherwise, what could end up happening is a person could go in a bunch of different directions, never really finding fulfillment, and never, never really reaching the destination in the first place. So let's define not just like why it's important to learn Arabic, but what exactly do we mean by
should learn Arabic?
So
yes,
please come.
So
the goal of learning Arabic,
is to be able to add it's very basic level, the most basic achievement is to be able to understand the program.
And to be able to understand the two hours that the man makes when they're leading the winter prayer. And is to be able to go to the harem for obrah. And listen to what the Imam is saying in the hopper. And listen to what he has to say in the eyes of his whistle. And understand what he said, Those, in my opinion, are the three check marks, it does not include having a conversation with somebody who is like a guard in the mud of the Prophet system. It does not include speaking to your Egyptian friend in Arabic, it does not include, you know, or English or minor Arabic. doesn't include any of that, in my mind, if you want to see what are the things that I could check off to
achieve a basic level proficiency in Arabic? These are the three things number one is when you listen to the Quran, or when you read the Quran, you're able to understand not the in depth meaning of the words, not the implications, not the route analysis, none of that that is advanced stuff. But you read it and you're like, I know, what does it say, I understand, even if there is a word in the sentence or two words in the sentence, that you're not 100% sure what they mean exactly. But you have an idea of what is being said, for example, you know, like there's different words to listen right in the Quran. While he does a lot of either to Marina. Now you will
remember this ayah because when I first was trying to memorize it, I was like, I don't know what it means. But I knew what I was talking about. And then just by deducing the context, I figured out the meaning could be to listen. And when you look it up, you know,
is to listen carefully to like, you know, if you're doing something and someone's like, Hey, stop that you're able to listen to what they say process what they've said and stop and change your behavior. Okay? So it's a specific type of listening. Now, I didn't know all those details when I first read the ayah. But I knew it's talking about listening because I could deduce that from the context of the ayah. That level of that's like the level of proficiency, okay? That is to be That's the goal. Other level of proficiency is the two hours this is very important because the hours that we read in our or we make in our prayers are all in all important Arabic.
Every dollar the profit I made was in, in Arabic. And it is so vital that we learn those two hours. we memorize those wires, we make those wires in our prayers. When we do that, the quality of the prayer, the humbleness, the devotion, everything goes through the roof, it's at a level that's completely, completely above, when a person is not making the drama compared to two levels, there is no comparison. It's like night and day. It's like, you know, one person's walk up there towards the sky and other persons are grounded on the floor. So the understanding of it to meet them is very, very critical. And it's important student of the prophet to engage with the Quran in that manner.
When the Prophet isop son was reading
the surah in the Quran
shenzi will go ha ha
ha ha
ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha ha ha
ha ha, ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha when he got to that point. I'm not gonna explain the whole tour right now. But he got to the point that mentions the soul and the purification of the soul. But after that happens that the person who is purified the soul has succeeded.
And the one who has not purified, who has polluted has lost. The profit stopped at that point. And he made a Diwan. In his prayer, he said Allahumma artina. See, the Hawa was an anti Roman undervalue from Allah, Allah purify my soul. You are the best of those who purifies and give me
give me taqwa, you are the one who protects my soul. And you are the one who is taking care of it. So the engaging with the Quran through dwyers is, the sooner the profit loss. And the majority of them arrive, so you can do it in any type of prayer as long as you're doing it in Arabic. Good. So this brings us back to our discussion of why it's important to learn Arabic When a person can engage with the Islander Salah in this manner. When you're able to recite and memorize more of the doors of the prophet SAW Selim, when you're able to understand what the Imam is crying about and his prayers when he's making the offer. You know, in the hug Jude and Witter. The spirituality is at an
unprecedented level.
It's completely there's no comparison to the person who doesn't understand those doors. There is no just they're crying, maybe because they're sad, right? They're not crying because what of the content of what's being asked about maybe the crime because of the fear of love, not just like judging them, right? But if you understand exactly what the dog is being asked off, the fear of of lies more. And that those that devotion is better. The third thing of understanding is or the check mark of understanding is the hotel in the heart of Norfolk everywhere, because everywhere it's not, it'll it's not everybody is different. But in the huddle, specifically because people go for camera
and hats, right.
So when you go for Hajj and Umrah the whole bar is designed so that the people who are coming there, they can understand it, it's at a level that is it's actually a scripted football, every word is written previously, the man stands up and reads from the paper, it does not make it up as he's taught as he as he's going. So it's scripted. so that people can understand who are non Arabs, but they have some Arabic proficiency. So the words are clear. And the sentences are, you know, fairly straightforward. It doesn't have anything too complicated in it. It's a very straightforward message, understanding of homework in the hot tub. For aamra during Ramadan during Hajj will meet
that experience so much better. Way better than not understanding it. These are real these are these experiences have a real impact on our worship. That's why I have chosen these three, the Quran, the doors, and the hope. And these are achievable things. These are not like some really difficult targets that a person can't hit, or it will take ages to do so that's not correct. You can do that in a limited number of time. There is a very important a very nice statement from Dr. Schaeffer. He said that
a lot of the day the language is like an ocean that does not have a shore.
Now that's a very beautiful statement that was true because the language has such depth. And there's so many words in so many techniques.
It's it's a, it's a very massive and vast language. That's from the point of view of appreciation. That's not from the point of view of you learning it. When it comes to learning, there's a definitive start and end point.
For a beginner level that checks off the three boxes I just mentioned, it has a clearly defined, you know, start and an end to that. When it comes to vocabulary when it comes to, you know, developing what's called a taste for the language, a vote. They say, like you have a way with the words, when it comes to having mastery over the expressions. That is an ocean. That's an ocean that will take you many years. And that depends if you want to even go there for a month. I example, I have when I was learning Arabic, my journey to have to learn Arabic was very interesting. I had started in Toronto, I was learning Arabic with this teacher from the UK. We found I don't know how to find
found him. But we found him somehow. And then we were learning Arabic with him. It was nice, but we couldn't continue because we were all university students and we were broke. So anyway, so
couldn't afford the guy. Then I started learning from LSU toronto.com lp Toronto. Anybody heard of LP Toronto calm, a hot one, brother. Excellent. You can go check it out. l q toronto.com. m. l Q is an alert to the teacher who's teaching. He is one of my teachers and one of my dearest
mentors and people who is that who's like a father to me really, in many ways.
I did this program, I was in the middle of doing his program. And I was at the opportunity to go to Egypt, presented itself to me. And I was like, You know what, this is great. I think I'll take this opportunity. I'll go to Egypt, I went to Egypt, I took the recordings of my teacher because he had recorded the entire program. I took him with me in DVDs, I took a DVD player, and DVDs. This is before we had the MacBook Air and stuff. People still had DVDs. But I was in my teacher Now sometimes it gives me Oh, we have this new program we made is a DVD, I was like, I don't have a DVD player anymore.
No one has it, put it on YouTube.
So I took all that stuff with me to Egypt. And I was good to the the institute in the morning. I was spending three hours in the class there. And I come home in the evening and I watch my teachers recordings. And those those two things simultaneously I would do.
And that was the first you know, foundation of my of my Arabic studies. Then I found my teacher in Egypt, Sheikh Mohammed Al me. And we studied many, many Arabic texts and books. And that was the second phase, the long vocabulary acquisition phase, the first phase is doable in a short period of time. The second phase takes many years. The first phase for me took about eight months. And I believe it's achievable in like about a year for adding almost everybody.
The second phase took me sec minus a second phase, acquiring Arabic feeling comfortable reading Arabic in a comfortable speaking Arabic, it took me five years of consistent study where I could truly feel comfortable having a real conversation, not
another faith.
Not that okay, like actual conversation where I could read something, and I disagree with my teacher. And I can explain to him why I disagree with him. And then he can explain to me why he disagrees with me and we can have a real conversation. It took me five years to get to that point. And it was a very tough journey.
That's hard that if you have the time and the situation you do it, but that's not what I'm talking about here to the impossible phase one, which is something everybody should try to do achievable inshallah within the year.
That is the things the three checkboxes that we talked about the Quran comprehension, to our comprehension, and comprehension of footwork in the huddle, three things have a real impact on your brother.
Let's talk about why and what exactly is it that we're aiming for correct. Now, let's talk about how, what does it look like? Now, I'm not gonna recommend a curriculum to you even though I told you how to Toronto, you are free to like check it out or do it or not, that's not my concern. Okay. Well we'll talk about is
not the curriculum because in my opinion, the curriculum is not as important. What is more important is the student and the systems the student
has in place or for himself or herself? Okay, what do I mean by the systems that the student has in place? Two things, okay. Number one is the student has to have has to be when they're learning Arabic,
learning from a curriculum, a teacher, a program, where they are actively engaged, what's the word, they're actively engaged. If you go through the best curriculum in the world, from the most masterful teacher, but you are not actively engaged,
you will not learn much.
There's such a large body of work
of research and teaching psychology, about how our brains are structured. And the conclusion by and large is, the way we learn is through active engagement. What you remember from school, if you remember anything.
Those tidbits are tidbits where your brain was, like it was important enough for your brain to remember that incident. And I'll give you an example. Give me two examples. One is when I was in high school, studying physics class, okay, now,
I took physics class afterwards. So the concepts were clear later on. But the thing I remember from the grade 12 physics class, was how seatbelts work, because we were learning the further Newton's laws of motion, right? So that applies, you know, the third law that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. So that's how the seatbelts work, when there's a break in the car is a mechanism that clicks and stops you from going forward. I saw that I was like, Ah, yes, that explains it. That's why there's that jerk. When you're sitting in the car, there's a southern break, because I was my mind was interested in that experience. And my mind felt that that was important enough for
me to remember that. So to this day, many, many years later, still. So remember that and that diagram to this day, I can kind of visualize it. But I close my eyes. That's what's called like active learning. Now, I wish I was actively involved in like anything, I would remember everything that I was doing Chalabi much better. But that's how the brain is. The example of this would be if I was to give you a list of 10 words, I was like, brother, there are 10 words, memorize them?
Would you be able to memorize them?
Probably, would you be able to retain them?
Probably not. You will remember it for a few hours, maybe even a few days that you are really, really that your brain is really wired beautifully. montella. Okay, but it's very difficult for those that list of words to go to your long term memory.
Because that is not important enough for your brain to mark it as something to not forget. Now, if I was to give those 10 words to you in an ayah, Tommy, and I, of course, I had those 10 words, and then, okay, and then we talked about that. And we said something about the ayah. And you're like to ask Pamela, will you remember those words? Yes. Will they go in your long term memory? You bet. That's the idea. It's when you're actively engaged, you will remember things you will not forget it. If you find yourself in a program, where you are not actively engaged, the teachers, steaks,
not literally but you know, the teaching style is no good. The curriculum is very bad. You can understand the terminology. You cannot, it doesn't mesh with you. It happens, right? It happens all the time. That's not for you. You have to find what works for you. It what worked for me may not work for you. That's the point. Because this is acquiring the language. It's different from people to people. I had a friend, I have a friend who's a musty Look, a friend of mine, who was reading the serum in our shoe.
In two years of learning Arabic, it took me six years to like feel comfortable opening them. That's one of the most complicated the yearbooks, if someone if you want to know somebody really knows Arabic, in my opinion, give them the car show. So tell me what you say.
And if he can tell you what he's saying, the man knows Arabic. Because if I'm a natural rock molos and he was a phenomenal writer, but he had very complicated thoughts and would use very complicated speech. And there's a lot of value in that because he talks about stuff in here that very few people talk about and the week sleeves. It's remarkable, but your Arabic has to be like boss Arabic to him.
To understand what he's had to say, it's much By the way, his Arabic is the his style is more difficult than even of poverty, I would say it's easier to read than it is to read him. I'm not sure. It largely makes everything a liar. But by and large, it's my opinion. So my friend in two years, the man was only reading it, he was explaining it to people. I was like, Man, this guy's a genius, Mashallah. But he is a different person, I would not, if he if I tried to learn Arabic the way he learned and I will be a miserable failure.
Anyway, I can do it that way, I need a different approach where I can slowly actively engage in this and grow, you know, in baby steps, he could grow in leaps. I couldn't go in if I needed, like baby steps. But that's how I learned. So find a system where you find yourself to be actively engaged. And sometimes it's not one, sometimes you need to, like I was doing in Egypt, if I only relied on the mahat, the Institute, their system was just like covering a part of what I needed. It didn't cover everything. So sometimes you will need to and when someone goes to Egypt, and they ask my advice, I always tell them two things. The first one is get two teachers to get one teacher for him.
Because one will teach you one curriculum, and another will teach you another curriculum. Right now you don't know what works for you. You have two curriculums, there's a chance that something works like a champ has a higher probability something real quick.
That's the first thing I tell them. And that's the first thing when it comes to learning Arabic the system in place, we have to figure that out for yourself. Okay. The second thing that has to happen for an Arabic student to make the goal that we have outlined the three goals to make them come true, is the has to be a core component to your learning. Okay? And I tell this to anybody who wants to get to educators and get a foreign teacher for your own one on one study, okay.
is
like you said, this is Goal number one, comprehension of the Quran at a level where you read the if you understand what I'm saying, even if you don't know every single word.
It is impossible, in my opinion, for somebody
to be able to understand the Quran. From the Arabic perspective, while we have no ability to read the Quran, the way supposed to be read
with the judgment.
That we by the way, is never the goal of learning to read is not the goal. That's part of the goal of whether we
have as a bit meaner Rasulullah men who get to Allah him it was up to him
while hikma He is the one who sent to the unlettered people who profit from a monster
who recites to them the book or the the art of the book, the verses of the Quran and purifies them and teaches them the Quran, and wisdom for things that's what the prophet of Islam is described in the Quran. His job description, the Quran has four, four bullet points, recite the highest, purify,
teach the book and teach wisdom, right and wisdom is explained as a sort of man what that but you get the idea. This is your number
one number 62 or something, it's the 20 agents you can look it up, okay.
The point is reciting the Quran is part of the rule of the messengers also on them. It's not the entirety of the rule. That read is part of the objectives of a student of Arabic and a student of the sciences of Islam. It is not the entire objective. Do you have people like you have Institute's here that only focus on St. We have here like a lot bigger in Toronto, a lot. And sometimes you go to them and you know, like Miss Miller here, rock manual Rahim. And I got on this meeting that my brother, it's the same thing. Trust me, it's the same.
And the Supers particular, my wife teaches with me so I can see her doing and I'm like, ah,
but it's, it's not that the profession is very important. precision is very important. But that's not the goal, right? That's part of the goal. At the same time, if someone is learning Arabic, and they don't have it as read component in their life, that's a very difficult proposition. Your Arabic is going to be hampered, you are not going to be comfortable. reading those words, applying those concepts. You're just not going to be comfortable. You have to be able to recite the plan correctly.
Now, here is the beauty of the of having a consistent Arabic or other consistent for an studied while having an Arabic study, both things have to go hand in hand. Both of these rivers have to flow in parallel, right together
otherwise the learning will not be maximized. The Quran part is very important because when you read the Quran, and you're attempting to read it with a juried, you will start to notice some stuff that you saw in Arabic class.
And I remember this like I was when I was memorizing suitable for the first job, and I was also taking the classes with the brother from England.
I remember that moment I was walking around the university I was and I was like, Ah,
come on. You are the man even I hadn't
forgotten ferrata. This is the story of the first Sulayman. And how do they write you may know the story. But the point is, as I was reading it, as I was revising my lesson, I noticed a do while you on the money when I didn't have
like, Oh, that's pretty cool, right? immediately. That was something even though I memorized it, I didn't remember I didn't see it when I was memorizing. I didn't see it. When I was reading it. I remembered it or I noticed it when I was revising.
So then I went back to my Arabic lesson, I felt a lot more comfortable with that concept. And then something comes up in Arabic. Like, Ah, that's why the I was like this, I've always wondered why it is in this form, the way it was biloela, you know,
this is just as well.
I can't remember the exact I don't want to misquote it. But it is a particular aspect. You see, you've read it in the Quran. And like, I don't know why that's the case. But then it's explained in the Arabic class. And it's like a light bulb going off. That process has to happen, you know, together, it's like a feedback loop, you know, a feedback loop, right? You do one thing, it helps the other, another thing helps the first again, and then the cycle continues. That's how it's supposed to be the Arabic helps you in the reading of the Quran. And understanding the Quran, memorizing the Quran, the memorizing reading of the Quran helps you with your
and back and forth to go. And that's the growth. That's the growth. And that's also what keeps the goal clearly in your mind. Right. That's what ends up happening. A lot of brothers start studying Arabic, and my formula. You know, God bless their hearts, they start learning Arabic, and then they come back after many years of study. And unfortunately, I know quite a few of these brothers. And they're talking about like, my cost of the shed era and the evolution of the mother haven this or that. I'm like, bro, you can't even read like, sort of Akira correctly.
It is a big problem. You have concentrated so much on film, and food and Hadeeth and macabre and neglected
the most important thing of all,
were even the pronunciation of the words are correct. You know, delivery of the words in the Quran is difficult for you. That's a very that's a gap that should not exist. That's the gap that should not exist. So it's unfortunate reality, you might think that the more I learn Arabic around will be easy. No, it's not. It has to be learned individually independently. And the effort has to go into it. And then you will see the results. Arabic will be good. The Quran will be good to go, we'll be clear.
So both of these things have to go hand in hand. This is how I will recommend you doing fine in a curriculum and a teacher and a system where you are actively engaged in. And number two,
ideally one on one. If you have to sit with like kids to read the sheaf, it's okay man. You can do it. No problem. When I was learning to dream, I was not that old. I was like 21 but everybody else in the class was like five or seven or something. So I felt like I was 16
but that's okay. It doesn't you know, I didn't have a problem with that. And then when I was memorizing Quran, same thing, I was 23 and everybody else was like, you know 1213 but that was okay, that's that's there's no that's actually good. because it reminds you of it all the keeps your goal very clear in your mind. And as I was reading, when I was nearing finishing my head, I saw as I hope there's somebody in the message who's coming every day and it was awesome.
who I mentioned just like a month ago actually have for almost 10 years, he was 63. And he just started memorizing Quran. I was 23 at that time, right. And I don't even know, I thought he was just an uncle on medications. And then when I went to when I went to the masjid, and we have a gold graduation ceremony, and they asked me to come in, you know, host and say something, I saw the uncle's martial Uncle, you finish the plan. Amazing. He was 63 years old when he started. So the age is irrelevant, here, he is irrelevant, it's a matter of putting the systems in place. So super aerobic system for foreign and just go with it.
And the beauty of the religion is, you are not rewarded by the by the final result, you're rewarded by your true intention, right, and how sincere The intention is. Yeah. Because if a person starts on that journey, and they didn't complete that journey, for whatever reason, they will get the reward of the person who has finished that journey. But you have to start it properly. With the correct systems in place. My wife, for example, started memorizing
and learning a little bit of Arabic.
And then what ends ended up happening is that we had our first daughter, and then it was just very difficult for her to continue in that capacity. And he still says to me, I would like to go do it was like just wait a few more years, when they're all in school, you can go back to like the, you know, the Koran class, right, but I cannot be at home with like two babies.
I will get no work done. So that happens, right? Like that's the reality of life. So if, for example, she never wants to do it again, she made the intention and she started to the proper one, she's going everyday, she was doing everything, right. So inshallah it will count as if she did it.
Either the principal, the city hours or something, like a manner of a barrier comes in your way from achieving something, you get the reward Anyway, you made the intention or hunch you went to the airport, something happened, you couldn't go on the flight, you're how'd you get the reward of the how genuine.
So have the intention.
The third, the third thing I'll say here is the journey to learning Arabic
is a it's a labor of love.
The expression means great, it's not fun. It's not fun. If you are looking for like a really fun thing that oh is amazing, sorry, it's not gonna be like that. It's laborious, you are going to be like repeating and studying and repeating. And is this rigorous, you have to do the same thing again, and again, and again. And again, until you're very good at it. It's not as exciting as you know, like listening to a lecture or you know, talking about something or discussing some matter. Those are exciting things, this is not exciting.
So because it is such a long journey, and a laborious journey, you have to learn to enjoy it. Learning to enjoy it. Same thing with reading, it's not fun to dislike, practice, through brew
is hot button, okay. But you have to learn to enjoy that you have to learn and those little victories when you get one thing, right, memorize something, and you're able to recite it with no mistakes. Those are milestones you should enjoy.
Those are not small things. Those are, those are big deals, and enjoying the journey will help you complete the journey.
That's the thing. So when it comes to learning Arabic,
start the journey, learn to enjoy it.
Have an actively engaging curriculum that works for you in place parallel to that have a component and a capacity that you can handle.
And those things together Charla, I think that's the roadmap, right? That's how you get to the destination. What is that when you are finished with one last thing, which is that when you are coming towards the very end, or coming towards a point where now you have gone past the basics, okay, so assume there is like 100 lessons, and you have gone past, you know, lesson number 70. Already, you've completed 70% of the course. Now you are at a point where probably you will not stop, you will probably go all the way to the end, the person who's probably going to stop is maybe by lesson 10 most people will drop out to have to drop off. So if you're at a point where you're
almost like, now the end is in sight, and you're like yeah, I'll get there, right? I'll be I'll be reaching my destination is just a matter of time at that at that point when you know that okay, I'm about to get
Start to incorporate in your learning, listening comprehension. This is very important. This is based on a theory of second language acquisition by a professor named Stephen krashen, who talks about this, how important listening comprehension or comprehensible input is, when it comes to acquiring a second language. If and when it comes to learning Arabic specifically for the reasons that we're talking about. listening comprehension represents a few things. It represents listening to something that you can understand.
But you haven't heard necessarily before. So for example, listening to the Quran, or parts of the Quran that you have not memorized, maybe you read when you were a child. So you can get your, you know, amin party, but you don't remember anything of that. So listening to black part of the Quran, that is part of the listening comprehension, you listening carefully try to understand what's being said, Okay, that's a part that's a process that has to happen. Once you've gotten to a point perhaps where the Quran is no longer like that knew that you have read all of it, or heard all of it, and you have, like this new idea that you've never seen before, right? Like, it's a finite number of if
you can get to that point, right? Then you start doing or listening to say, basic lectures in Arabic. Okay. There are some really good Xu who have very good lectures, very clean Arabic, the one I recommend the most of or everybody else is Dr. Musa, Sharif. Anybody here documents chief error handler. So his lectures are on the lives of the pious people. He has a book on it. He is by professional, by professional, he's a pilot, actually. But he is also a lecturer and then chef, at a very, very, like, I love his Arabic, it's so clean, it's so pristine, Mashallah doesn't use fancy words. And his lectures, Mila reward the brother who did it are subtitled on YouTube. So subtitled
Arabic lectures are excellent listening comprehension tool, because what will happen is that your brain will start to get engaged with this input. And new learning will happen, new connections will be made that were not made before that actually the brain, the neurons will be forming. And, you know, there's a connection that formed within the two neurons, that does not happen unless there is a comprehensible input.
That, but you can start that at the very beginning, it's too much for your brain to handle. Right? It's got to be at a point, in my opinion, once you have reached a level where you know what, I can see the end, I'm getting close to when I think I can handle this now.
That's something you do. And consistently every day five minutes, goes a long way. It goes a massive way. I still to this day, but often times speaking with my teacher, and sometimes I'm like, why am I speaking truthfully, I'm using like, childish Arabic here, what's going on. And then I realized, it's because I haven't heard a lecture in like, a couple of weeks. I haven't listened to an Arabic lecture in a couple of weeks. And the lack of input is affecting my output.
It's so correlated, it's unbelievable. So it never stops. This thing continues. But again, you have to be patient and consistent. And that's one last thing. I'll leave you all with shelter, listening comprehension. That's all it's all for me. The roadmap, I hope is, is generic enough. So it can work for you. But I think hopefully specific where you can add certain things or benefit. And if you have specific questions, I can take them now or any other questions?
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
So writing Arabic, and was called in law, which is dictation, right? is a good it's an important part of learning Arabic When someone is saying something in Arabic and you're writing it down. Because that engages a different part of your brain. that activates your learning in a different way. So as long as there's value in it, you do it. Right. As long as you find this value in that you do it. The moment you're like this is not really valuable. I'm not am I learning anything from this activity? That's the that's the sign that you've reached a point where you know that
No longer engages your mind. So I think writing the out the writing out the verses is very important exercise, especially in the beginning. And you keep doing that until you feel there isn't much value in doing that anymore.
If you don't already know
him, right? Yes. And he go to the class.
In addition, it is good to already know the branch.
Right.
But nobody with the people who is writing the meridian Arabic.
Yes. That way.
All righty. Yeah.
Yeah, for I'm not denying the rule of it, right. Keep in mind, that's a really good point that, you know, the brothers like the one who knows how to write, and then also read Arabic, even without comprehension, the learning of Arabic for comprehension is a lot easier for them. That's a totally valid point. And
that, that goes back to the learning system that you're in a good learning system would incorporate would have incorporated in it some element of writing, especially in the beginning. And a good teacher would spot that, like, this guy is not a right, this is going to be a big barrier, this is going to be a crutch. You cannot like do anything unless you have some basic proficiency of writing, I would even add, like some typing vehicles, a lot of the courses are offered online anyway. So when I see that, for example, I give like students a compliment, like a supplementary book, for writing to get their writing proficiency up to speed, I can't do that in class, it's going to waste
everyone's time because most of not everybody needs that. But the one who needs it, I give them something supplementary to be able to help their writing. So it is 100% true. However, it goes back to the idea of a system that works right. And, and this is something that
hopefully, you've spotted, hopefully the system that you were learning in, has that piece. And if it doesn't, and you feel that this is a barrier for me a crutch for me, then nothing is stopping you from learning it yourself. There's really nice basic Arabic books that you can just like trace and get your fluency and get the you know, the moral skills required to be able to, you know, do that and even take a workshop on Venezuela, like a one day workshop, or a few hours for someone to teach you how to hold the pen to write Arabic properly. And that's the you know, you're you know, you're on your way to Java. So, it goes both ways.
When it comes to memorizing
Arabic,
that definitely helps the memorizing Quran is aided significantly by understanding I could not have memorized the Quran without having a basic understanding of Arabic. Because for me, it was just too difficult. I don't know where it's homework. I was like, This is too much. I can't just remember it. So for me, personally, I had to know the meaning to be able to memorize it. But that's not everybody. That's not the majority, by the way, the majority just do it without thinking about it. That's okay.
It does help. For sure. It helps even more when you're revising. And retaining helps you even more in that. And they for example, sometimes I remember when I was leaving for law, we this was the second time I did it. So I wouldn't be reading and I'm like, I don't know what, you know, I don't know if it's a fat cow Adama. So make a long mud, like calculating in the mind of God. Okay, now I read it in my the man would know what I'm doing to say you forgot
I was calculating. Because you can do that. Right. The footfalls are rule right? That has to be if it cannot be a woman, right? You can eliminate those possibilities. just needs a bit of time so you can find some time to look along but
it definitely helps a lot further questions.
Yes.
A great question. This is one of my favorite questions. 60% of the words or 80% of the words of the operands are in this list for you brother. Okay, and then you like I have taken
Listen, now I will know 80% of the words of the Quran, it goes back to the idea of your brain being actively engaged, right? If I gave you a list of 10 words, would you remember those 10 words after a week? Probably not right? Most people, the vast majority of people will not remember those words, after, like a week. But that's the long term memory takes seven days to go into long term memory. So it's that way, even though statistically might be accurate. It's not the way the brain is set up to learn. So someone thinking that you know what, I just have to memorize these 20 pages, you can memorize this many pages, you probably forget them very soon, and the progress will be made. The
problem is when we read. Now, that doesn't mean that that's not a valuable resource. Sometimes, you know, as a teacher, if I'm like, you know what, I need to find critical vocabulary where they just guys just memorize this. And there's no ifs, ands, or buts that can refer to that, right. And I can figure out vocabulary from that. If I want to make some examples. For my quizzes, I want to use the words that are frequently occurring, right? I don't want to use words that come once or twice in the Quran. So it's a good tool for a teacher, in my opinion, I don't know if it works for a student. Because that's not how the brain learns, or the sound of the brain More precisely, and remembers.
So that's my take on it. But if it does work for somebody, like I said, everybody's different. I had a friend in two years, we're feeling the most difficult of Seabrook. Right. That man is different words for you under law.
But the questions just
get to right.
Yeah.
You're right.
That's a great comment, actually, that there is value in it at a certain point, right. So starting off, you learn those words, and you start to, you know, hear those words in the in, in the citation, where previously you heard no words in the citation. It was just like, sound, some block of sound, right?
And now it starts to break down that sound into like, individual words. Right. So definitely, that's a great, you know, step up a great start. But as he
gets utility depends on house managers, like that's what I'd say. Right? And it's definitely not a replacement for a properly structured Arabic program. Dr.
Phil to definitely continue to push it April. So that's a really nice way of putting it.
But yes.
Mashallah
have
the dilemma?
What do you say? What do you how do you force somebody to do something like that? I do.
I do I do it. So it's
in those shortcuts, okay. So they're not like, how old are you?
14 and you're 17. Okay, so they're clearly not like seven and 10. Right.
And so it's it's a lot
at that point, at that point of their lives, for example, this is something that will happen a part time over the course of many years.
What I would recommend is, I think the,
I think the best option would be to attend a good program consistently. Now, there are many programs you can try, right? But a good program consistently that has value that your kids see value in as well. That's a good start. Now, if they don't see value in it, that's okay. Because they're a part of their life where they perhaps are pursuing University and other things.
You just have to understand that for me, I've tried to learn Arabic for many years, and I failed many times. And I realized why I'm failing not because I'm no good was because I'm too busy with my university studies. And I was about 1819. I wanted to learn Arabic, I just couldn't do it because I had so much schoolwork. So I waited until my last year of university, that's when I could choose my courses. I chose all the easiest courses. I didn't have to go to school at all these children are hungry. So that's when I started to go and full on learner because I had that
The you know the the brain capacity right? Exactly right to be able to do it so sometimes you know with with teenagers and young people you have to you know, let them take their time but child keep motivating and keep learning
I don't know if this is as you're looking forward
but that's what I did feel alone
for coming out was really nice to see you all and hope this was beneficial if you have any questions or comments I'm still here so we can talk about this stuff more inshallah, after the session