Why study Jordanian/Palestinian Arabic?

Why study the Jordanian/Palestinian Dialect?

This is one of the most common questions that I get from students who start learning Arabic. Arabic dialects can be very different and learning more than one is time consuming therefore making the right decision is essential.

Many students think that learning Modern Standard Arabic is the solution because everyone in the Arab world understands MSA. And while this is technically true, speaking MSA in daily life sounds funny to native speakers. I don’t understand Moroccan, but when I visited Morocco, my Moroccan friends and I effortlessly communicated using a mix of Levantine, Egyptian, and Moroccan dialects, hardly ever resorting to MSA.

If you were to ask any Arabic speaker for their opinion, you'd likely receive a variety of reasons why their dialect is the best. So, in the spirit of fairness, I'll do my best to remain as objective as possible, acknowledging my own bias.

The dialect you should study depends entirely on your goals. I've taught Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) to individuals who wanted to work in governments or in translation. However, if your primary interest lies in a specific Arab country, such as Egypt, then it's evident that learning the Egyptian dialect is the way to go. Yet, if you find yourself without a particular dialect in mind, let me give some reasons on why you might consider starting your journey with the Jordanian dialect:

1. Jordan's Central Location: Jordan is surrounded by countries with their distinct dialects, like Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. This makes the Jordanian dialect widely understood by Arabs from these diverse regions.

2. Close Affinity to MSA: The Jordanian dialect shares a lot of common words and grammatical structures with MSA. So, if you want to learn MSA at some point, learning the Jordanian dialect can pave the way.

3. Safety in Jordan: Given the unfortunate ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, Jordan stands out as a safe place for foreigners. This safety has fostered the establishment of Arabic schools and created a welcoming atmosphere for Arabic learners. 

4. Limited Loan Words: Many countries in the Middle East have historically been influenced by powerful empires or nations, such as the Ottoman Empire and France, resulting in their languages being enriched with loan words. Jordan, on the other hand, experienced less foreign influence. Jordanians predominantly use Arabic in their daily lives, with relatively fewer loan words incorporated into the Jordanian dialect.

ليش لازم تدرس اللهجة الأردنية؟

هاد واحد من أكتر الأسئلة اللي بيسألوني اياها الطلاب لما يبلشوا يتعلموا عربي. اللهجات العربية بتختلف عن بعض وكتير صعب الواحد يتعلمها كلها، عشان هيك اختيار اللهجة اللي بدك تدرسها مهم.

كتير طلاب بيفكروا إنو الفصحى هي أحسن إشي يتعلموه لإنهم بيفكروا إنو كل العرب بيفهموا الفصحى، وهاد تقريبًا صح، بس المشكلة إنو الناس ما بيحكوا فصحى بحياتهم اليومية، ولو سمعوا حدا بحكي فصحى بالشارع ممكن يضحكوا عليه. مثلًا أنا ما بفهم اللهجة المغربية، بس لما سافرت للمغرب قدرت أحكي مع صحابي المغاربة بخليط من اللهجة الأردنية والمصرية والمغربية، وما حكينا فصحى مع بعض. 

لو سألت أي حدا عربي: أي لهجة أدرس؟ رح يحكيلك: لهجتي! 

أنا رح أحاول أحكي رأيي بحيادية بس أنا كمان رح أحكي "لهجتي!" 🙂

لما بدك تختار أي لهجة تدرس، لازم تفكر بأهدافك. مثلًا، لو بدك تشتغل في الحكومة ولا في الترجمة مهم تدرس فصحى، ولو عندك صحاب مصريين بدك تحكي معهم لازم تدرس مصري، بس لو ما عندك هدف معين خليني أحكيلك ليش لازم تدرس اللهجة الأردنية:

1. الأردن في الوسط: الأردن موجود بين دول فيها لهجات مختلفة زي سوريا ومصر والسعودية وهاد بيخلي اللهجة الأردنية خليط من هاي اللهجات وكمان بيخليها مفهومة من الناس في هاي الدول.

2. اللهجة الأردنية قريبة من الفصحى: اللهجة الأردنية فيها كتير كلمات وقواعد زي الفصحى، فلو هدفك تدرس فصحى بعدين، اللهجة الأردنية ممكن تكون بداية كويسة.

3. الأمان في الأردن: للأسف، الوضع في الشرق الأوسط مش دايمًا كويس بس الأردن أمان وعشان هيك فيها مدارس للعربي وجو كويس للطلاب الأجانب.

4. ما في كتير كلمات أجنبية: الدول اللي تأثرت بالإمبراطورية العثمانية وبفرنسا بيستخدموا كتير كلمات من لغات تانية، بس الأردن ما تأثرت كتير بثقافات تانية وعشان هيك الناس بيستخدموا بس العربي في حياتهم اليومية وما بيستخدموا كلمات أجنبية كتير. 

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:

1. Defines what Arabeze is

2. 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:

1. Essential Phrases for Daily Conversation part 1

2. 50 Essential Nouns

3. 50 Essential Adjectives

4. 50 Essential Verbs

5. 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:

1. Using the voice flashcards for the videos mentioned in Step 3

2. 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

About us

Hi everyone! This is Sofia and Faris, the founders of Hob Learning. We are beyond excited and grateful that you are here! Faris is from Jordan and is a native Arabic speaker, and Sofia is from the United States (and very much not a native Arabic speaker!).

Sofia is an Austin, Texas native and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2017. Since then, she’s held various product management roles at large companies. Faris is from Amman, Jordan and graduated from Brigham Young University. He works at a financial consulting group.

The moment Sofia met Faris, two things were immediately clear:

1. He was her soulmate

2. She had to learn Jordanian/Palestinian Arabic.

So: we started this website to help you learn the Jordanian/Palestinian dialect of Arabic. In fact, since Sofia is still in the process of learning (and, let’s be honest, always will be), we designed it to be exactly what she was looking for: an on-demand, entertaining, culturally relevant, and valuable resource for learning the dialect.

We named our company Hob Learning (“Love” Learning) for two reasons:

1. The decision to learn a language is often one driven by love

2. We want you to love the language learning process!

Whether you’re looking to travel to Jordan, a student of Modern Standard Arabic looking to communicate with Jordanians, marrying into a Jordanian family, or working up the courage to connect with your own family in Arabic, I’m confident that our content will be useful to you! Our platform has:

1. Fun native speaker videos covering applicable, useful topics in a natural way of speaking

2. Complete Jordanian/Palestinian (not Modern Standard Arabic) grammar lesson series for all levels

3. Transcripts in English, Arabic and Arabeze for each video

4. Flashcards (with voice!) in English, Arabic and Arabeze for each video

5. The opportunity to connect with learners from all around the world in our group chat!

We encourage you to:

1. Make mistakes

2. Get out of your comfort zone

3. Have the most fun and enjoy the connections you make in your new language.

Thank you so much for visiting our website. We hope you join our community! <3

Love,

Sofia + Faris

Note: Hob Learning is not a course.