Why did I decide to learn Darija?
Many years ago, I studied “The Outsider” (L’Etranger in French), a book written by Albert Camus and I’ve since wanted to go to Algeria to discover the country where Albert Camus was born and raised. I’m planning a holiday to Algiers next year (2019) and this was a perfect opportunity for me to learn Arabic.
So I started looking into learning Arabic, and discovered that there are many different dialects, of which some are unintelligible to Arabic speakers of another dialect. I had no idea this was the case!
Happily, Algerian Arabic (Darija) is a mixture of Arabic, Amazigh, Berber, French & Spanish. I say happily because I speak a fair amount of French already and a little Spanish.
So my journey started in late September and I’ll attempt to document it here.
So far, the best advice I have received in learning Arabic is to learn the alphabet. It only took me about three weeks to be able to read (albeit slowly) and I think it makes a great deal of difference. Some of the sounds are proving difficult to master, but perseverance is the key!
The second best piece of advice I received was to spend time listening to Arabic speakers, and to seek out a native-speaking tutor. I can personally recommend italki.com.
This site will use English and the Arabic Alphabet exclusively. I did not find phonetic writing helpful.