Arabic All The Time is built entirely around comprehensible input, with a leveled library in both Modern Standard Arabic and Levantine Arabic, produced by native speakers from Syria, and a new video every day. If you've used Dreaming Spanish or LingQ, or read Krashen, and you've been looking for the Arabic equivalent, this is it.
This post explains why, and what it means for you as a learner. No hard sell. An honest case for why this platform exists and who it was built for.
What Arabic All The Time Is
Arabic All The Time is a video platform for acquiring Arabic through comprehensible input, which means Arabic you can understand even though you don't know all the words, because the pictures, the context and the way it's spoken carry the meaning. That is how you acquired your first language, and it is how adults acquire a second one. No grammar study, no memorization, no forced speaking. The library runs from absolute beginner to advanced in both Modern Standard Arabic (MSA, or Fusha) and Levantine Arabic (Shami), and a new video comes out every day.
The platform was founded by Hasan Alhamwi, a Syrian native speaker and former engineering consultant who acquired Spanish purely through listening, with conversation practice added later. No classes, no textbooks. When he looked for the same thing in his own language and found it didn't exist, he built it.
The mission is simple. Build enough comprehensible Arabic that understanding it becomes inevitable for anyone willing to listen.
Built Entirely Around Comprehensible Input
Most Arabic platforms treat comprehensible input as one feature among many. Some listening exercises, some video, maybe a few stories, on top of a core that is still a grammar course. Lessons, drills, exercises, tests. Input is the garnish.
Arabic All The Time has no grammar lessons. No drills. No vocabulary lists. No tests. Every piece of content is made to be understood, not decoded, not studied, not translated. Slow, clear speech. Heavy visual support. Vocabulary recycled across many videos. Content calibrated to what real beginners can actually follow, not to a textbook's idea of what beginners should know.
That is the difference between using input as a feature and building around it. It shapes everything, what we make, how we make it, how it's organized, and what isn't there.
Real Comprehensible Input for Beginners
The problem nobody in the Arabic learning space talks about honestly is that comprehensible input for Arabic beginners barely existed before Arabic All The Time.
News assumes you already have a base. Lectures assume formal training. Dialect resources teach at you, with grammar explanations and phrase lists, instead of giving you Arabic you can simply understand. The beginner gap in Arabic has been there for as long as adults have tried to learn it.
There is a reason for the gap beyond neglect. Making Arabic comprehensible to an English speaker is much harder than making Spanish comprehensible. Spanish and English share thousands of cognates. An English speaker hearing universidad or importante gets half the language for free. Arabic shares none of that. Every word has to be built from context, visuals and repetition, which means far more work per minute of video. Before Arabic All The Time, nobody was putting in that work at the scale Arabic needs.
We built directly into that gap. Picture talks. Clips from crosstalk sessions. Beginner stories. A1 content for people who have never heard a word of Arabic, and A2 content for learners who have started to feel the rhythm of it. All of it built to be understood from close to zero. No prior knowledge required. No Arabic script required.
Modern Standard Arabic and Levantine, Together
Most Arabic platforms make you choose between MSA and a dialect. That framing creates a divide that doesn't exist in how Arabic is actually used.
Arabic is one language. MSA and Levantine are registers of it, on a spectrum from the formal (MSA) to the colloquial (dialects like Shami, Egyptian, Gulf, Iraqi, Maghrebi). Arabs move along that spectrum all day. They acquire their dialect first by listening, then pick up MSA through news, cartoons and school, all of it as input, none of it as study.
Arabic All The Time has both. Beginner content is in Levantine, because that is where comprehensible beginner Arabic can exist, in daily life, simple conversations and real topics. MSA takes over at intermediate and advanced levels, where the richest Arabic media lives, history, literature, podcasts, documentaries, news, serious ideas. The two reinforce each other, because they are the same language at different registers.
Egyptian Arabic, the most widely understood dialect in the Arab world, is next on the roadmap, built the same way from absolute beginner up. No date yet.
A Leveled Library From A1 to C1
The library is organized into five CEFR levels, from absolute beginner to advanced. Every video is produced with full visual support, icons, illustrations, demonstrations and animated cues, so meaning comes through context, not subtitles.
Beginner A1 is built for people who have never heard a word of Arabic. Heavy visuals, slow speech, nothing assumed.
Beginner A2 brings richer vocabulary and longer videos once the sounds of Arabic start feeling familiar.
Intermediate B1 builds listening stamina with real content at a manageable pace, personal stories, cultural topics, everyday scenarios.
Intermediate B2 is near-natural speed Arabic on real topics. This is where Arabic stops feeling like a subject you study and starts feeling like a language you live in.
Advanced C1 is full-speed MSA on nuanced topics, history, literature, philosophy, culture, for learners closing the last gap before native media.
Live Crosstalk With a Native Speaker
Most platforms give you recorded content and leave you to it. Arabic All The Time also offers live one-on-one crosstalk sessions with the founder.
Crosstalk is a conversation where you speak English and I speak Arabic, for the whole session. No switching, no translation. Live comprehensible input calibrated to your level in real time. If you look confused, the Arabic slows down and gets rephrased. If you nod, it goes deeper. For beginners it is the fastest way to feel what acquisition through input is like, and most people leave their first session with a clearer sense of it than months of traditional study gave them. Later, once you have enough input behind you, it is also the gentlest place to start speaking, because speaking doesn't start by itself and needs its own short block of practice.
The first 30 minutes of your first session are free. After that, sessions are $45 per 50 minutes, or $400 for ten. Book here.
Made by Native Arabic Speakers
Hasan is Syrian, and Levantine Arabic is his native language. The Levantine on Arabic All The Time isn't researched, approximated, or reconstructed by a team that learned the accent in a classroom. It is how people from Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan actually speak, the rhythm, the vocabulary, the pauses, the naturalness of it.
This matters more than it looks. Acquisition depends on authentic input. A non-native presenting Levantine to beginners is teaching a performance of the language, not the language, and the difference is audible to any native speaker. It also shapes what your brain actually acquires.
The MSA content stands on the same foundation, native fluency from a Syrian education and a lifetime of Arabic media, literature and ideas.
A Library That Grows Every Day
Volume is what drives acquisition. Your brain needs repeated exposure across many contexts, topics and registers, not one well-made lesson. One hour of input isn't meaningfully different from another. Two hundred hours is.
Arabic All The Time releases a new video every day, across levels and both varieties. The library already holds hundreds of hours of leveled Arabic across every level and both registers, and it grows every day. That is the long-term vision and it shapes everything we build.
Built for Learners Who Already Understand Input
Arabic All The Time was built for people who already know how language acquisition works. Learners who've experienced it through Dreaming Spanish or Refold, who've read Krashen, who've internalized that understanding comes from hours of input, not hours of study. If that's you, you already know what you're looking for, Arabic content that meets the standard of the best input resources in other languages.
And if you're new to all of this, nobody is turned away. Everything on the platform is an invitation. Watch a free video. Book a crosstalk session. Let the experience speak for itself. The research behind comprehensible input is forty years deep, but you don't have to take our word for it. Arabic acquired through input feels different from Arabic memorized through drills, and one session tends to make that clear.
Honest Pricing
Free: a generous selection of videos, permanent access
Monthly Premium: $24.99
Annual Premium: $179.88 a year, which works out to $14.99 a month
Crosstalk: first 30 minutes free, then $45 per 50 minutes, or $400 for ten
Premium unlocks the full library and every daily release. Every membership directly funds more production, which is why the library grows as fast as it does.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best way to learn Arabic?
Through large amounts of comprehensible input, Arabic you can understand through context rather than translation. That is how humans acquire any language, and forty years of research in second language acquisition supports it. It also produces the most durable result, because the language is built into you through understanding rather than memorized and forgotten. Speaking then takes its own short block of practice once you have enough input behind you.
What is the best platform for learning Arabic through comprehensible input?
Arabic All The Time. It's built entirely around comprehensible input rather than layering input onto a grammar course, with a leveled library in both Modern Standard Arabic and Levantine, produced by native speakers from Syria, and a new video every day. Live crosstalk sessions with the founder sit on top of the library.
Is there a Dreaming Spanish for Arabic?
Yes. Arabic All The Time is built on the same idea, acquiring the language through videos you understand, made for Arabic by native speakers. The library covers absolute beginner to advanced in both MSA and Levantine Arabic, with new videos daily.
Is Arabic All The Time good for absolute beginners?
Yes. A1 content is made for people who have never heard a word of Arabic. Slow, clear speech, heavy visual support, simple repeated vocabulary. No prior knowledge and no Arabic script required. You watch content you can mostly understand and let your brain do the rest.
How is Arabic All The Time different from other Arabic apps and platforms?
Most Arabic apps are grammar courses at the core, lessons, drills, exercises and tests, with some input added as a feature. Arabic All The Time has no grammar lessons, no drills, no vocabulary lists and no tests. The whole platform exists to give your brain Arabic it can understand every time you press play, in both MSA and Levantine, produced by native speakers.
Does Arabic All The Time cover MSA or spoken Arabic?
Both. The library covers Modern Standard Arabic (Fusha) and Levantine Arabic (Shami), with Egyptian Arabic next on the roadmap. Beginner content is in Levantine, because MSA isn't used for daily life, nobody asks for directions in Fusha. MSA takes over at intermediate and advanced levels, where the richest Arabic media lives.
Should I learn MSA or a dialect first?
Start with what matches your goal. Levantine is where the beginner-friendly content is and it's the closest dialect to MSA, which is why most people start there. If your goal is media, books or formal Arabic, start with MSA. Arabs acquire their dialect first by listening and pick up MSA later through exposure, and the hours in one carry over to the other far more than people expect.
How long does it take to learn Arabic through comprehensible input?
Conversational ability: 500 to 1,000 hours of input. Comfort across native media: 1,700 to 2,500 hours. Those are the real numbers for lasting fluency in any language, by any route. Comprehensible input doesn't make the hours fewer. It makes them enjoyable and the result durable. Traditional methods feel faster because you're doing something, but the hours still have to happen. The full ladder is on the roadmap.
How much does Arabic All The Time cost?
There is a free tier with permanent access to a generous selection of videos. Premium unlocks the full library and every daily release for $24.99 a month, or $179.88 a year, which works out to $14.99 a month. Crosstalk with the founder starts with the first 30 minutes free, then $45 per 50 minutes or $400 for ten.
What is a crosstalk session?
A conversation where you speak English and the native speaker speaks Arabic throughout, with no translation and no switching. The Arabic adjusts in real time to what you understand, through pictures, gestures and rephrasing. You get fully comprehensible Arabic with no pressure to produce. Hasan runs sessions in both Levantine and MSA, and the first 30 minutes of your first session are free.
Who is Arabic All The Time for?
Anyone who wants to acquire Arabic through comprehensible input. It fits especially well for learners who already understand how input works, people who've used Dreaming Spanish, LingQ or Refold, read Krashen, and want the Arabic equivalent. Newcomers are just as welcome. Every free video is an invitation to feel what acquisition through input is like.
Does comprehensible input actually work for Arabic?
Yes. Comprehensible input is how humans acquire any language, and it has been shown at scale in Spanish, Thai, Mandarin, French and others. There is no reason it would work differently for Arabic. It hadn't taken off for Arabic because the content didn't exist, and producing it is harder for Arabic than for languages that share roots with English. Arabic All The Time is closing that gap.
The Bottom Line
Arabic All The Time is built entirely around comprehensible input, with leveled content in both MSA and Levantine Arabic, produced by native speakers from Syria, released daily, and paired with live crosstalk with the founder. It was built for people who wanted the Arabic equivalent of what exists for other languages, because that equivalent didn't exist.
We're not trying to convince anyone that comprehensible input works. The research is solid and the results speak for themselves. We're here for the learners who've already found their way to input and are ready to use it for Arabic, and for anyone curious enough to try.
The door is open. The content is waiting.
Start watching free videos · Book a crosstalk session · See pricing
