Why a Lebanese Teacher Writes Arabic in English Letters.
Intermediate (B2) · Language Learning · 30 min · Free
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Lena is an Arabic teacher from Lebanon. She teaches Lebanese Arabic to people from all over the world, full time, and she has written two books for learning it, for the first and second levels.
She started by chance. She taught someone Lebanese, liked it, and went looking for materials, but everything she found was word lists and short sentences about one topic. You couldn't build a real conversation out of them, so she started writing her own texts and dialogues. That became her book, Talk to Me in Lebanese, with dialogues, questions, grammar and practice, and audio for every text through a QR code.
The books are written in Latin letters, and I asked her why. The goal is to listen and to speak, not to read and write, and the Arabic alphabet can come later for the people who want it.
Most of her students have Lebanese roots and want to talk to their family. Others need Arabic for political science, and many simply love the region. Her favourite students are the children, because they come wanting to learn.
We talked about food first, of course, tabbouleh and fattoush, and about سهر, the long evenings out that she says have no real translation in English. And about how life in Lebanon keeps going through war and hard times, with people still going out, meeting and enjoying the moment.
To anyone who thinks Arabic is too hard, she says no language is hard. Start with simple things at your level, listen a lot, and keep going, because a language is like the gym, and you can't stop and expect results.
Her books, Talk to Me in Lebanese, are on her website and on Amazon, and you can find her on Instagram as welearna.
Her books on her website, WeLearnA: https://welearna.com/items/talk-to-me-in-lebanese/
Levels 1 and 2 on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/9922892693
Lena on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/welearna/
The full library, 400+ videos in Modern Standard Arabic and Levantine Arabic, organized by level from Super Beginner to Advanced: https://arabicallthetime.com
Hear from other learners, or share your own story: https://arabicallthetime.com/reviews
Arabic Journeys podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/60ofkXIaju9Zhz04kGrbNB
