How to start with Hob Learning
Hi everyone,
Welcome to our first ever Hob Learning blog post. My mom (an avid Hob Learning user and language teacher of 13 years) and I have put together a 10-step guide on how to best use Hob Learning if you are starting from scratch.
Jahzeen? Yalla!
Step 1: Get acquainted with the platform.
Take stock of the resources we’ve made available to you via Hob Learning!
Above all, Hob Learning is a video library. Think of it as a YouTube channel for learning Jordanian/Palestinian Arabic, but with TONS of resources + entertaining content to make the journey fun, relaxed and productive.
For our conversational videos, we offer transcripts in English, Arabic, and Arabeze (+ time stamps!) + flashcards with voice (!).
The transcript is in the “Resources” tab. Links to the flashcards are in the caption.
Now, let’s talk about navigating the site: make sure to use the filters + search.
You can filter by level (beginner, intermediate, advanced), topic, and video type (grammar, activity). You can also use the search bar to look for videos that interest you!
Humble brag: we are the first to document Jordanian/Palestinian dialect grammar in a thorough, detailed, modern and learner-focused way. We have over 30 grammar videos explaining concepts from conjugations to sun and moon letters.
Step 2: Watch the video called “Arabeze”.
If you don’t know how to read Arabic (yet!!!), this is essential.
“Arabeze” is Arabic words written with English letters (and numbers). For example, the word for "dog" in Arabic is "كلب". In "Arabeze", we write it as "kalb".
This video:
Defines what Arabeze is
Offers a glossary of what sound each number represents.
For example, “7ob”/”حب”means love. You might be thinking: what in the world is that 7 doing there? In this video, you’ll learn that the 7 represents the letter ح, and that the sound for this letter is a strong “haa”.
While we HIGHLY recommend starting to learn how to read (check out our “Reading with Lina” section), starting off your studies with Arabeze is a great crutch and quick way to be able to start speaking, visualizing, and taking notes without having to spend months on the Arabic alphabet.
Once you get to be more advanced in the language, learning how to read/write is important (and makes things easier).
Step 3: Get your ear used to what Arabic sounds like.
Watch a few videos from the “Beginner Essentials” section. Instead of trying to memorize them all, JUST listen to how words are said and repeat them out loud.
Here are the videos we recommend starting with:
Essential Phrases for Daily Conversation part 1
50 Essential Nouns
50 Essential Adjectives
50 Essential Verbs
50 Common Phrases
Bonus: listen to Jordanian/Palestinian artists like Dana Salah, Aziz Maraka, Big Sam and Faraj Suleiman. We also have a few walkthroughs/explanations of songs on our platform!
Step 4: Check out our Instagram highlights
We have TONS of free content on our Instagram (@hob.learning). If you look at the pink highlight on our profile called “Listening + Vocabulary”, you’ll see short, bite-sized videos of a native Arabic speaker talking, followed by the transcript in English/Arabic/Arabeze (with the original audio) and then vocabulary highlights.
This is a great way to continue listening to natural speech while also seeing if there are a few words here and there that you can identify.
Step 5: Start building vocabulary
To us, vocabulary reigns supreme over grammar. This is why we suggest, early in your learning journey, that you focus on building vocabulary! You’ll realize right away how valuable learning the basics is when listening in on conversations and forming basic sentences. How exciting!
This can be intimidating, so we suggest:
Using the voice flashcards for the videos mentioned in Step 3
Focusing on words you think will be most useful to you
Step 6: Watch “The Present Tense” video in our Beginner Grammar section and practice writing conjugations with 50 Essential Verbs list
Here’s a great place to start once you’re ready to tackle grammar: the present tense.
You’ll learn how to conjugate verbs in the present tense for all subjects. This is SO great - and, might I say, easier than you think thanks to our amazing native Jordanian Arabic teacher, Lina.
Step 7: Back to our Instagram highlight: listen for words you’ve learned + notice patterns in grammar
At this point, you’ve built quite the base of vocabulary and some grammar. Let’s see how far you’ve come: go through our Instagram highlight again. I’m SURE you’ll be able to recognize a lot more words than you think, especially once you read through the short transcripts.
Step 8: Begin watching other videos on our platform, making sure to access the transcripts so you can read along in Arabic or Arabeze
Our “Beginner Essentials” section is a great place to start. You can also filter for all videos across the platform tagged “Beginner” (via our filters) and start with these.
Make sure to access the transcripts in the Resources tab under each video to read along with the speaker. Also, the audiovisual flashcards will be your best friend as you’re starting out! When you read the transcripts along with listening to our videos (and songs!), you’re getting reading + listening practice at once. Bonus points if you repeat after the speaker!
Step 9: Find someone to practice with (classes, friend, family member)
This step is really important. The point of learning a language is to communicate! Make sure to prioritize practicing with a friend, family member, or book a class with Lina.
Pro tip: let go of the fear of making mistakes. If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not learning. Being uncomfortable is good in life :) and making the effort to speak another language is a NOBLE pursuit for which you should be very proud of yourself. YOLO!
Step 10: Look at all vocab words you've learned and make up sentences.
My mom’s first sentence was “I am very happy” and “She is a small dog”. There are thousands of permutations you can make with our 50 adjectives / nouns / verbs / phrases.
My favorite way to get myself to do this is to order a really cute notebook from Papier and dedicate it to my Arabic studies, make a cup of tea, and put on relaxing music to set the mood. :)
Bonus step: Join our Discord community! The link to join is in the caption of our videos. In the Discord, you can request videos, connect with other Arabic learners, and ask our native Arabic teachers questions, live!
PRO TIP:
Consistency is KEY. If you can make actively studying Arabic for 5-10 minutes per day a habit, imagine where you’ll be a week… a month… a year + from now! This means: taking notes, putting your phone away, and focusing on Arabic for this amount of time. I promise, this hard work will pay off!
*You don’t have to study for hours every day (like my mom, who somehow can spend 4+ hours a day on our platform - yes, she’s a linguistic genius)
Thank you for reading our first blog post! We hope it was helpful!
-Sofia and Monica
