Brace yourselves, Arabic is coming.
We're out of Beta!
After 459 days in phase 2, today on the 11th of August 2015, the English course for Arabic speakers graduates from Beta. The report rates witnessed a sudden decrement upon the release of the course on smart-phones. That decrement was stabilized and further sustained by the actual stability of the course.
Reports curve for the past two weeks
What does that mean?
A course graduating from beta is always a cause for celebration, but in the case of our course, it is also a huge step towards the long-awaited Arabic for English speakers course.
You will see Arabic hatching anytime soon.
Which variant?
The English for Arabic speakers uses the Modern Standard Arabic MSA, and we are willing to stick with it for the reverse one as well.
Why MSA?
We chose to use MSA because it is the most understood, well-documented and widely-taught variant of Arabic. It is the official language in the countries across the Middle East and North Africa.
It is also the variant speakers of different distant dialects use to understand each other.
bonus skills for the dialects are in our plan - We are already planning for the bonus skills, that's how excited we are.
What should I do?
Your suggestions and ideas are most welcome. If you are qualified for the mission, feel free to apply for it.
TeamArabic.
223 Comments
Great news!!
I'd love to apply for it :) Does the team have any idea about when will the course join the incubator?
Masallah! This'll be great. I have many old students from Saudi Arabia who still text me, and it'll be awesome to be able to text them back in Arabic.
YAY ! Finally !! :D Arabic ... wait for us ! We're going to learn u XD Arabic <3 It must be Arabic passion , isn't it XD
Woohoo with Russian almost ready this will give me something new to look forward to :)
YESSSSSSSS! I'm going to be doing Arabic starting next fall, so this course will be a huge help to supplement that class.
Oh wow, this is a day I've been waiting for, but even more I'm waiting for the day when it appears on the Incubator and when the Beta is launched. In the meanwhile I'll continue studying my Complete Colloquial Egyptian Arabic before this MSA course comes to Duolingo.
Will someone please correct me if I am wrong: MSA IS the official language of a lot of Middle Eastern countries, but as far as I know, it is not the language that is used on the streets. This corresponds to the dialects, which one must learn separately to be able to speak to locals in every country. However, MSA is used for formal interviews (as a formal type of language) and in written Arabic. Thus MSA is more useful for business and political interests. Anyone want to add or correct something?
The distinguish is not that sharp, one can catch up the dialect if he learned MSA and interacted with Arabs
Curious: what about radio and television? I would expect local stations to broadcast in dialect, but are there broadcasters that use MSA? Like Al Jazeera maybe?
Of course, of course, but am I right when I say that you would regularly hear international politicians and businessmen talking MSA, as well as on TV, while you hear the dialect on the street?
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This is more true for politicians than for businessmen, and more likely to happen in very formal occasions than in simple TV interviews. And even in occasions when a person is supposed to speak in MSA, there is a tendency to slip a few dialect terms and expressions while speaking, unless the occasion is super formal or the speech has already been prepared beforehand. You can listen to plenty of MSA when listening to the news, however, not all broadcasters use absolute 'pure' MSA even there. It is hard to use just MSA to describe a constantly evolving world. The good news however, is that once you know MSA, picking up the more popular dialects is just a matter of being exposed to them. It's not that hard. We as natives Arabic speakers pick up other dialects from satellite TV as well, so there is no reason for you not to do the same!
Maybe eventually have separate courses for MSA and local dialects such as Levantine Arabic?
Hey Richard,
Here ya go...
LEVANTINE ARABIC
http://www.thearabicstudent.com/2009/09/introduction-to-levantine-arabic.html
http://www.thearabicstudent.com/2011/11/list-of-best-levantine-dialect-lessons.html
https://www.mangolanguages.com/available-languages/learn-levantine-arabic/
http://www.memrise.com/courses/english/levantine-arabic/
(see the 2nd section here): https://www.livelingua.com/fsi-arabic-course.php
"YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY" (lol):
https://www.youtube.com/user/LearnArabicwithMaha
https://www.busuu.com/learn-arabic-online
http://nmelrc.org/syrian-colloquial-arabic-course
PEACE CORPS
https://www.livelingua.com/peace-corps-tunisian-arabic-course.php
https://www.livelingua.com/peace-corps-moroccan-arabic-course.php
https://www.livelingua.com/peace-corps-hassaniya-arabic-course.php
https://www.livelingua.com/peace-corps-jordanian-arabic-course.php
https://www.livelingua.com/peace-corps-chadian-arabic-course.php
DLI -- DEFENSE LANGUAGE INSTITUTE
https://www.livelingua.com/dli-arabic-syrian-course.php
https://www.livelingua.com/dli-arabic-course.php
https://www.livelingua.com/dli-arabic-egyptian-course.php
https://www.livelingua.com/dli-arabic-iraqi-course.php
LINK TO MORE AWESOME LINKS
I am very very excited! I am part Arabic and can't wait to learn the language!
how do I apply for Arabic because I'm fluent arabic but can't read or write because I grew up learning it from my parents but never got around to learning the full language ??
When you get the answer to this, let me know. I'm sort of in a similar situation for Persian, but I think I would be of great assistance on the English side of things. I'm not quite sure if they need fully fluent bilinguals; thus, I'm reluctant to apply right now :/
I think both of you would be very helpful to your respective language courses if you really grew up bilingual. You can probably offer an excellent perspective on the differences between each language, that would be very helpful to new learners, even if you might doubt your mastery of the language compared to others. I think that is an under appreciated vantage point.
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A question for those who know more about Arabic: is it possible to make educated guesses about the pronunciation of a word written in the standard manner, without the vowel marks? Or do you have to always know the pronunciation beforehand in order to pronounce the vowels correctly?
As a native Arabic speaker, yes, I can guess the pronunciation of a word without the accent marks. But sometimes, a word can be read in more than one way.
Like this word: كتب. Someone might read this as Kataba, and someone else might read it as kotob. The first one means "he wrote" and the second means "books". There's no way to know for sure which one it is.
So, to answer your question, yes, anyone can guess the pronunciation of a word, but it might not always be correct.
Has this course been scraped or not? I've been eager to learn Arabic, MSA, specifically, but I have not found sources. Will this project continue?
Regards
Diego Estevez.
Since it have been more than a year, should it be better to release a beta, and then do the modifications needed? I think most people would prefer to have a "near to complete" course to play with rather than wait another year for a "more close to complete" course
At the current pace, Duolingo will literally never make an Arabic course. Why? Good question. please let me know if you find out. In the meantime (or eternity, rather) I recommend the quizzes on quizlet!
Duolingo will literally take 5 centuries to make an Arabic course I'm so fed up
I can't stand it when people say things like "what do you expect, it's another script and totally different kind of language" and there's already another Semitic language with 10% as many speakers as Arabic speakers finished before Arabic is even started.
No one has the modern standard Arabic as mother tongue, it worth to point that to new learners
Please it's been one year since you announced Arabic is coming, I really want it to come out !!!! until then I'm obsessed with Portuguese tho ;p
So I read this just now, but this is well over a year after this post, and still nothing... is there something Duo wants to tell us? Or is it just that complicated a course that it takes a long time to create?
When will this be available? I am anxiously awaiting the ability to learn Arabic.
Arabic is not on my immediate list to acquire, but who knows what life will bring. What a great accomplishment! My congratulations to the entire Arabic Team! Have some lingots.
I have wanted to learn Arabic for ages. I'm really interested in Islam, and Arabic would be a cool way to demonstrate that interest. I cannot wait for the English to Arabic course.
Congratulations!!! Like so many others, I can't wait for the reverse course!
I had 10 years of lessons, I have lived in the Middle East for even longer than that, and I've learned hardly any Arabic at all... Maybe I'll finally be able to figure out this puzzling language when this course is released. Waiting excitedly!
This is great news!! I'm really looking forward to learning Arabic and so is my daughter! Great job to all who are working so hard to make this a reality!
Wow, how could I have missed this! Arabic is one of the language I'm waiting in DL and this news means that the reverse course will start anytime.
I know that it may take time before the reverse course will move to beta, but I'll be waiting
Congrats to the team! What an accomplishment!
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Looking forward to the news that Arabic for English speakers is hatching.
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I hope that work begins on an Arabic for English speakers course soon! I am eagerly awaiting the opportunity to learn this language using DuoLingo! Any updates on status of the project?
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Congratulations! Fantastic! But like others, I am looking forward to MSA for English speakers. When can we get excited about the release of that course?
No one really knows when, but to help you with the wait, here's an app I found that uses pretty much the same method as Duolingo: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/19063269
Would love to see Arabic for English speakers in 2017, pls guys tell you what if you can get on top of that I'll contribute to an Ancient Egyptian course (I study the Language at University) :P
I would also like to know! What is the progress of the Arabic course for English speakers? I need to keep my Arabic up to scratch after uni and am absolutely dying for duolingo Arabic!
I can't see the language in the incubator, I'd like to know too. Leaving comment to follow up the discussion.
the people want to learn Arabic from English please make a course Arabic for English speakers and i can help i am Arabian
Please anybody, tell us whether the Arabic course for English speaker will ever be realized or not. There are so many users can't waiting for it!!
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I know... Chinese is also needed! I wonder when Japanese will come to the web.
So is this going to happen, or what? It's been two years, and still Arabic for English speakers hasn't hatched! Please, please, please, we need this!
I believe that this is a production for Arabic speakers to learn English. I do not believe a course for English speakers to learn Arabic exists yet.
Hmm, I know the Arabic alphabet, but beautiful as it is, this artistic kind of calligraphy is so hard for me to read, I may as well be dyslexic. My eyes just don't know where to focus.
letters in Arabic connect in words, so you need to understand the language not just the alphabet
Yes, thanks for the explanation, that is indeed a good tip.
But what I mean is I can't even read it well enough to look it up. So saying 'soon you will understand it' doesn't quite ring true for me.
You could help though :)
I'm horrible with photoshop but let me give at a try
1- الحب Love
2- ربيع Spring
3- القلوب Hearts
The rest is Tashkeel/Harakat
It looks like there's a nuun in there at the end, on the left of the 'b' in al-7ubb?
What's all the extra stuff floating around the letters? I mean I know enough to recognize them as vowel marks and stuff like that but they don't seem to be all needed here.
I can read regular Arabic script and I can't even read this. I simply don't know where to begin--which words do I read first and which vowels apply to which letters etc.
Start at the right, and follow through. The verticality is just artistic. If two letters connect together, and then another one lands above them but between them, that letter comes after them (like in the last word). This is really just cramming letters in in a beautiful arrangement, so don't be too upset if it's hard, it's hard for arabic speakers too. It's more just art.
Even as a native Arabic speaker I had some difficulty deciphering this: الحب ربيع القلوب = literally: "Love is the spring of hearts" :D
When I saw this post, I was so....excited! Wow! Good job on graduating! I want to learn Arabic(eventually) and I want to learn MSA! Can't wait for the course!
i am hoping for a time when Arabic slang comes out to help tourists also when original Arabic is not spoken or awkward in some places hehe ! good job.
Yaay, can't wait! I need to polish my fus'ha. I actually used English for Arabic speakers thinking it was the opposite but I still learned a lot!
I can't wait for Arabic for English speakers. I'm really interested in learning Arabic.
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Any news on the possibility of an Arabic for English speakers happening? I haven't heard anything in awhile so I thought I'd ask. Keep up the good work guys!
¡Congratulations! and thank you, I wish to begin Arabic from English soon. I tried English from Arabic one day, but it was impossible to learn Arabic that way.
I feel that Modern Standard Arabic will be sufficient for now. But as Duolingo gets more efficient in other writing systems it would be good to have an Egyptian Arabic course. People all over the Arab-speaking world understand Egyptian Arabic because Egyptian movies are very popular in most of those countries. So it would be a good alternative for for students of Arabic.
Hummm actually what you say about Egyptian is true for the old generation, nowadays people across Middle East and North Africa know more the Lebanese and Syrian dialects since music and movies are mostly from there now.
Interesting change. But I am not surprised. I read that Kuwaiti soap operas are also popular. Thanks for the info.
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There is still no sign of Arabic on the beta courses you can sign up for. How can fictional languges such as High Valyrian and Klingon be available before Arabic? Any idea when we can start learning ??
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My thoughts exactly ! I find quite ridiculous allowing ressources to fictional languages in spite of real ones. And it's been a year since we are waiting for arabic :/
I've been waiting over a year for Arabic. @.@ This is hard. I just want to learn Arabic, not that I don't like Sci Fi, but real languages are more important than synthetic ones.
You say Arabic is coming - 2 years ago - but is it? 2 years later there's no sign of it even entering incubator phase.
It seems there are plenty of qualified people willing to contribute so if fake languages like klingon and esperanto are getting higher priority than Arabic... Well that's extremely, extremely frustrating.
Why this course has not been released yet ? It's unbelievable that this website does not dedicate some time to a language which is the 5th most spoken in the world.
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Hi! If you have a program for Arabic speakers willing to learn English, why not the other way around? I am sure there are hundreds of thousands of people willing to learn Arabic. I would be very thankful to you guys if you introduce Modern Standard Arabic courses for English speakers.
Thanks in advance!
I'm wondering the same thing! It's been a year since it was out of beta apparently, why isn't it accessible?
I'd love to give Arabic a gentle try, but can't see it listed in the courses for English speakers. Has it happened, and if so, how do I find it, please?
What's the update on this thread guys? It's been two years since you graduated to beta. When's the release scheduled.
It's very confusing to me. The Arabic for English couldn't be found in the incubator section, nor anywhere else. It seems to me that the whole project was abbandoned....
That's because the course is English for Arabic speakers. No one has started a course for English speakers yet.
Oh, you're right. Now I realize that this whole topic is about English for Arabic speakers. But the title ,,Brace yourself, Arabic is coming" is wrong and thus very confusing... So we have to wait with patience...
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I'm almost tempted to see if I could manage the reverse course as I don't think Arabic for English speakers is coming any time soon. Might be an interesting project - the alphabet is phonetic so it isn't as impossible a task as it seems although the Duo interface in Arabic font is a bit overwhelming!
Very hard to go for the reverse course. I have tried and I think I was wasting my time.
Please post if donations are needed to keep this project going; I'd love to contribute
There is an application that I discovered which is called Mondly. It is not free, it is far less good than Duo, but it can help a bit.
Whoever is on "TeamArabic" needs to be fired and replaced by someone who will actually work on the project. There is no other language on DuoLingo that has progressed so slowly.
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Even Chinese? Chinese and Arabic have so many speakers, it's stupid for Duolingo to not include them. Why wouldn't Duolingo include the most spoken language in the world?
Arabic for English speakers hasn't been added to the incubator, which is not something "Team Arabic" have any power over.
Then who is responsible for it? Is there anyone awake at DuoLingo HQ? There isn't even anyone from the development team responding to this post that has two years' worth of comments asking where is the Arabic course????
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I noticed that work has begun on the Chinese course for Duolingo so I hope that means that an Arabic course is not too far behind. Does anybody have any information on this?
Hello TeamArabic, Any updates? course progress is stuck at 0% but estimated launch is still 3/1/18. What's going on? We're in the dark here
As Salam Alekum to all,
I am waiting- because I want to learn Arabic language. Further I want to say this platform (Duolingo) is very helpful for me for learning a Arabic language.
I am already learning to French Language ( still continuous)
Well this might be the most exciting news I've heard for a few weeks. I'm looking forwards to the reverse course (it's not too soon to be getting excited about that yet is it?). And of course well done on all the hard work!
Congrats Arabic team! Can't wait for the reverse course to be out! Good luck in building the course! :)
Great news! Although I'm not planning on dabbling in Arabic, I'm excited for everyone who are waiting for that course.
Congratulations! By the way, Duolingo now is wearing the Sudanese Jalabya :)
Have you decided on a landmark to use yet?
I find it quite hard to think of a single landmark that represents the Arab world as a whole, its like picking a single landmark to symbolise an area like 'Eurasia'.
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How about the Burj Khalifa? It's not very 'historic', but neither is the Eiffel Tower, for that matter.
I like that, i was going to say that too but I think Palm Island would look better in the little circle.
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That thought crossed my mind too, but the Burj Khalifa has a unique and unmistakable silhouette, whereas palm trees are found throughout the world.
I think Palm Jumeirah Island is unmistakable, no one could confuse it with a tree. Plus it has a nice round shape. I'd be happy with the Burg Khalifa too, it's quite amazing.
Mecca is the one of the centers of the Islamic world but Arabic is a language not a religion and it is spoken by people of very diverse religions. So tying Arabic with Mecca would not be a fair representation.
I know, but religious landmarks are used for other languages as well, not to mention a Mayan temple for Spanish.
Edit: approximately 47-77% of Russians and 78% of Danes are Christians. Are Christian buildings fair representation? In comparison, 90% of Arabs are Muslims. (And yes, Arabic =not necessarily= Arab)
Well... they could also go with the Pyramids of Egypt. Then we'll have two sets of pyramids on the site that have nothing to do with the language they're representing. Symmetry!
Monument notwithstanding, though, I'm definitely looking forward to this course and glad to hear it'll be in the works soon.
Based on their language, the Ancient Egyptians weren't Semitic, but they were Afro-Asiatic. They were still related to the Semitic peoples, just more distantly.
I would love an Ancient Egyptian course, but they would probably have to invent hieroglyph-input software specially for it specifically. It could be a while.
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Pyramids were built by semitic people, just not Arabs. It would be more appropriate to keep them as a landmark for the Ancient Egyptian course
That is pretty sad actually. What are they going to use when they do a Mayan course?
Anyway , I thought of Mecca obviously, but it is too easy to cop out there, and besides it represents Islam as a whole, not just the Arab speaking world.
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Good question!
Did you see https://www.duolingo.com/comment/8619542 ?
There, Raulxancez shows the art he made for courses he'd like to see Duolingo add, using the existing art for courses like Danish for Spanish Speakers and his own art for courses like Nahuatl for Spanish speakers.
He also uses the Chichen Itza pyramid for Maya for Spanish speakers and uses the Angel of Independence ( http://simerida.com/courses/angeldelaindependencia.php ) for the courses teaching Spanish. :)
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And the Wailing Wall is used for Hebrew. Slightly religious overtones, there(!); but no-one is complaining that it is a language and not a religion. Especially as Hebrew was resurrected as a living language from almost entirely religious source texts. Methinks there is some eggshell-treading going on with regard to Arabic.
Who's treading on eggshells? I just wanted to provoke some responses so I could learn something new. I already thought of Mecca before I even posted, but is that the single greatest monument in the entire Arab world? I mean I am not religious in any way, so for me,it is essentially.... A cube... Sorry if that sounds irreverent. But well...
While I definitely agree that Arabic is a language, not a religion, could you not still have something Islamic as the picture as the region where Arabic is most widely spoken has been heavily influenced by Islam? Alternatively maybe some native flora/fauna such as the Socotra dragon tree https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socotra#/media/File:Socotra_dragon_tree.JPG ?
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Surely we should save that symbol for the (undoubtedly forthcoming) course on Soqotri.
It doesn't have to be a landmark, Esperanto and Norwegian didn't use monuments. Also many of the monuments used for languages were built in times when their people didn't speak these languages :D
Esperanto and Norwegian didn't use monuments.
IMO the Bust of Zamenhof in Białystok and Sverd i fjell are monuments:
a statue, building, or other structure erected to commemorate a notable person or event.
Well if it doesn't have to be a landmark then my vote would be for an oasis. There is nothing I find more fascinating about the Arab world than the history of conquering the desert. Even the desert itself is an enthralling place to be in.
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Whichever it is, how would it look with the rest at https://www.duolingo.com/courses ?
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The Arab world has tons of landmarks. It will be hard to pick one. My vote goes to Petra. But whatever the choice, I just hope the Pyramids will be reserved for an eventual Ancient Egyptian course.
I agree, I really hope the pyramids or the sphinx aren't used, that would be such a bad cliche, it would be like using stonhenge to represent English, they hadn't even left Denmark at the time it was built
I suggest Arabic calligraphy (see my picture), rather than a particular landmark! This has always been the classical choice for language courses and programs. Landmarks would be more relevant to colloquial dialects. If you use the pyramids for MSA, then what do you use for the Egyptian dialect??? They are in fact using the pyramids now (Sept 2018) and this to me implied that they're planning to offer the Egyptian dialect rather than MSA.
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Have you seen http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/ ? It seems useful for all sorts of "which monument should Duolingo use for language X?" discussions. :)
Also, remember https://www.duolingo.com/comment/7991320 ? :)
Definitely not a Mosque or the Ka'aba. It is a liturgical language but I'd much rather not typecast it strictly as a Muslim language.
Exciting news! I know very little of Arabic and Arabic culture, so learning this on Duolingo would be great for me.
Yes, it is what we call العربية الفصحى
It's an abbreviation of Modern Standard Arabic.
Seeing as this is from two years ago and there is so far no Arabic for English speakers course, are there any updates here?
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Can someone please update us: when are we seeing Arabic for English speakers? I have been dying for this for over a year now.
Arabic for English speakers in the incubator.. sign up
I really do hope we will get speaking exercises (many of the newer courses don't seem to have speaking ex)
Arabic For English Speakers has just been added in the incubator. It will teach MSA and Egyptian dialect.
It seems to be stuck at 0% hatching for several weeks now yet the estimated date of its completion is just 4 months away. Any idea what's going on?
(At this time the Arabic course for English speakers is out) How is it taught, using the traditional Arabic script or in Phoenician alphabet characters? I'm only asking because on Google translate they list both... example: مرحبا and marhabaan (meaning hello)
This post is almost 4 years old and we still do not have Arabic -Language with 4th most native speakers. The post says "we are out of beta" but the progress bar says there is still 32% to go. Seriously 5 years and a language as important as Arabic is STILL not here? Jesus.
Am I missing something?
I have been following this thread for 2 years, it is just outrageous. Duolingo simply does not want to set up Arabic.
Like, I understand that this is done on a volunteering basis so there might be some delays but when we have Klingon, High Valarian or Navajo but not Arabic it is just ridiculous. I do not mean to bash the other languages but it's just that more speakers = more contributors = faster finishing of the hatching. At least logically it is supposed to be that way. The site said August 2018 for the estimated time of release. Now it says 1st of May 2019. Hope it works this time.
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I would love to know that status on the Arabic for English speakers course. It is still coming or has it been shelved? Is this the best thread to check for updates?
I would like the course to teach both MSA and a dialect/some dialects/all dialects but in this way: first, a skill for teaching MSA and next to that skill, a skill for learning a dialect. Imagine that you want to teach us greetings, you can make a skill called Greetings in MSA and next to that skill, a skill called Greetings in (name of the dialect). I would like Egyptian Arabic. Thanks
With over 200,000 people who have asked to be notified when the Arabic course is released, it would be nice to have an update. I am very keen to learn Arabic and so far I am left in the dark as regards the progress being made by the duolingo team in getting this language off the ground. Is the date of 1 May 2019 still achievable? I am asking as otherwise I need to consider other options. I am sure that none of these are as good as what duolingo is potentially capable of. Any news from anyone in the know would be more than welcome. I appreciate that bringing this project to fruition is no easy feat.
There is a new release date, July 1, 2019. Still not sure whether it is MSA or ECA, though.
Hope there will be different levels not only alphabet for beginners
It is currently hatching. Progress reached to date is 40%. I do not know if we have been here before, the promised delivery dates have so far never been fulfilled due to unexpected technical difficulties.
Last time I checked it was 50%, so progress is being made slowly but surely.
Alhamdulilah! Thanks to the team and contributors who make Arabic come true! Most Malaysian Muslim can read Arabic but don't know how to speak. This would be a game changer.
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I have read a lot of articles saying to pick a dialect to learn if you want to learn Arabic
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