Prior to the Tower of Babel event known as the “confusion of tongues” (confusio linguarum), religious scholars and historians believe that the world only spoke one language. Whether this is true or not is not known for certain, but what linguists are sure of is the fact that thousands of languages have come into existence ever since the creation of that first language. Quite a...
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Did you know that learning another language can help you make more money? It’s true! With the recent COVID 19 outbreak and subsequent quarantine of cities and towns all across the world, millions of people are going to be struggling to find full-time work again once the world starts opening back up; however, there is good news to come out of this, and the good news is...
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The 22 Arabic speaking countries of the Middle East and North Africa have a bountiful past that goes all the way back to the beginning of human civilization. The language they speak also has a rich history all its own that dates back centuries. Today, the region is home to over 315 million native Arabic speakers and the language recently moved into the fourth position...
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Many people have called Morocco home for hundreds of years and you’ll notice this in their local culture. Along with the native Berbers, the country has hosted a diversity of cultures including Phoenicians, Arabs, Sub-Saharan Africans, Romans and Spaniards. Most people who live there today, however, identify as Berber or Arab or a mix of the two. Modern Standard Arabic and the Amazigh languages including Tashelheit...
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To fully appreciate the Arab people and their culture, you need to also understand the Arabic language as both are fundamentally connected to each other. Just as Arab culture is very rich and complex, so Arabic is also a very rich language with a history as complex as the history of the Arabic speaking countries that use the language. Today’s article will explore the history...
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Since the advent of the internet, one of the easiest and most convenient ways that Arabic language learners can improve their listening comprehension and expand their vocabulary over time is by listening to audio of Levantine Arabic such as Arabic podcasts on Spotify or Arabic news with transcripts. A plethora of resources such as radio shows and podcasts can be found with a simple search...
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Go to the magazine rack at your local bookshop or newsstand and you’ll see there’s a magazine for just about any topic you can think of. It’s not any different in the Arab world either where you can also find an Arabic magazine for just about everything, which is a good thing if you want to practice and learn how to read Arabic fluently. You see,...
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Despite its name, Islamic art is not the art of a specific religion, nor is it art of a specific time, place, nor of a single medium. What it is, however, is art that covers a period of some 1400 years – art that comes from many lands and peoples, and art that includes architecture, calligraphy, painting, glass, ceramics, and textiles, among others. Islamic art doesn’t...
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By now, you’ve probably heard all of the horror stories about how difficult Arabic is to learn: “Arabic letters look like hieroglyphics.” “There are too many strange sounds. It makes learning to speak it impossible.” “Arabic has an enormous vocabulary; I mean, c’mon! 400 words for a camel, and 200 for a lion?” “Arabic grammar is too complicated.” Indeed, when it comes to learning languages, Arabic gets a bad...
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Among the questions we get asked most frequently at Kaleela are questions like: “Is 1,000 words enough to speak a language?” or “How many foreign words can you learn in a day to speak fluently?” If we gave you an answer, you’d probably ask surprisingly, “It takes how many vocabulary words to be fluent in Arabic?” The truth is, however, because everybody has a different...
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