Arabic Videos

Nour 4: "I Can't Run Away From Myself"

Anwar wakes Muhannad up and drags him to breakfast. Fairuz is playing, because the Syrian dubbing team knew exactly what an Arab morning sounds like, and that small choice tells you why this show landed the way it did. Over breakfast Anwar has a plan. Buy a boat, seventeen metres, and sail away from all of it. Muhannad tells him the truth instead. Even if I sailed to the end of the world, I still could not escape myself. Meanwhile his mother is frightened. The grandfather said nothing at the party, and silence from that man is worse than shouting. She is already thinking the word inheritance. And the grandfather has picked up the phone and asked for Muhannad. Expressions as they come: بعالم ثاني, يحرمه من الميراث, بسيطة, بكفّي, ما بقدر أهرب من حالي. Next episode: the grandfather and Muhannad, in the same room.

Intermediate (B1) | premium | 00:14:45

The 3 Biggest Questions Arabic Learners Ask

Stuck in your Arabic? In this first episode with my sister Lotus, we tackle the three questions every Arabic learner asks. Should you use subtitles? We say no, and we explain why English text is probably slowing you down. I acquired Spanish this way. Lotus did the same with Turkish. Learning to sit with not understanding every word is what gets you there faster. Then the intermediate plateau. It feels like you've stopped improving. You haven't. It's the gym after your newbie gains. The progress just stopped being obvious. And finally, MSA or dialect. Learn both. Levantine or Egyptian will open the whole Arab world to you, and Arabic isn't a set of separate languages. It's one language with beautiful variations. Relax. Listen. Let it click. What's your biggest struggle with Arabic right now? Tell us in the comments and we'll cover it next episode.

Intermediate (B2) | free | 00:21:21

Nour 3: They Already Knew Each Other

"Noor opens a wooden box, lifts out old photographs, and there they are. Noor and Muhannad, as children, side by side. She was in her school clothes. He was already a young man. She has known him this whole time. Then we go back to the party. Muhannad drunk, the tray on the floor, the grandfather saying nothing at all. Fajr wakes up to find his car gone and a metro card in his hand. And in the last minutes, Muhannad's mother is on the phone to her daughter Dana in America, worrying out loud about her son, while a small voice calls out for her mother in the background. Dana has a daughter. Her own mother does not know. Expressions as they come: تعال سلّم على جدك, سكران, طوّل بالك, ما باليد حيلة, وين هالغيبة, اشتقت لك. Next episode: the grandfather starts asking where Muhannad is."

Intermediate (B1) | premium | 00:17:41

Maha Speaks 4 Languages. One She Doesn't Love.

How many languages does Maha actually speak? Four, and she will tell you she does not think that is many. Today Maha is back, and this time we are not talking about Lebanon or Arabic. We go through every language she knows, how she learned each one, and her honest level in all of them. She tells me which language she loves most, which one she never enjoyed, the advice she gives every language learner, and the language she still wants to learn next. A real, unscripted conversation in Levantine Arabic, around B2. If you can follow two friends comparing languages, you are doing the thing that builds real Arabic.

Intermediate (B2) | free | 00:28:08

Nour 2: The First Time We See Nour

"Muhannad is drinking to forget. His friend Anwar is trying to pull him out of the bar and back to life. And far away, in a house that could not be more different, a girl named Noor watches Muhannad's grandfather receive a prize on television. Two worlds, one screen. They do not know each other yet. We follow the family business, the grandfather فكري بيك, and the first quiet appearance of the girl the whole show is named after. I explain يطول عمرك, سكران, and the toasts and blessings that fill Syrian table talk. Next episode: the two worlds start moving toward each other."

Intermediate (B1) | premium | 00:16:12

Nour 1: "I'm Going to Be a Father"

The episode opens with pure happiness. Muhannad is in love with Nihal, she is pregnant, and he is overjoyed. I'm going to be a father. مبروك حبيبتي. One perfect minute. Then a truck. We watch the opening scenes together, the credits, the news, the celebration, and the moment everything changes, and I explain the expressions as they come: رح صير أب, مبروك, حبيبتي, and the words Syrians reach for when the world falls apart. Next episode: Muhannad tries to drown it.

Intermediate (B1) | premium | 00:15:13

The Turkish Drama That Conquered the Arab World

In 2008, one Turkish series did something no Turkish series had done before: the entire Arab world watched it. Noor and Muhannad became household names from Syria to Morocco. Grandmothers planned their evenings around it, and Arab television was never the same again. The secret that matters for us: the show was dubbed in clear, beautiful Syrian Arabic, which makes it some of the best listening material that exists. In this series we watch the first episode together, scene by scene, and I explain the real expressions as they come, in clear, comprehensible Arabic. This video is the introduction: the story of the show that changed Arab TV, and why I chose it.

Intermediate (B1) | free | 00:06:59

I Live in Montreal's Most Arabic Neighborhood.

Planes pass over my head all day, and I still chose this neighborhood. In this walk I show you why. It's quiet, it's close to everything, and it's full of Arabs. Arabic is the third most spoken language in Montreal, after French and English, and in this quarter you hear it in the street, in the shops, in the shawarma and knafeh restaurants. I say hi to people, show you the park where I skate in winter, and explain why Arabs who immigrate keep pulling each other to the same places. A real, unscripted walk in easy Levantine Arabic, around B1. This is my daily life, narrated slowly enough that it becomes your input.

Intermediate (B1) | premium | 00:11:28

He Cancelled His Subscription After 4 Hours. Look at Him Now.

In January, a man subscribed to Arabic All The Time, spent four hours on the site, and cancelled. This is the story of what happened next. I wrote him an apology email. He wrote back with his reason: not enough beginner videos yet. He was right, the library was still young. So I offered him a free crosstalk session while I kept building, and he said yes. He was 49 years old and starting Arabic from absolute zero. Six months later, he has more than 300 hours of listening. We work in Modern Standard Arabic: I speak Arabic, he answers in English, and today I can talk to him about any topic and he follows all of it. He says a few words when he feels like it, no pressure, because speaking arrives on its own once the understanding is there. Give him six more months. He's still my student. This video is my thank you to him.

Intermediate (B1) | free | 00:06:42

Why Is the Middle of the Earth Hot?

Today we travel the whole world without leaving the map. I open Google Maps and we go together: Japan, the two Koreas, China and its Mandarin, Taiwan, and the Philippines, which is not one island but thousands. Then we follow one yellow line around the planet, خط الاستواء, the equator. It passes through Southeast Asia, through Somalia and Congo and Kenya, through the Amazon, and everywhere it goes, the same things follow: heat and huge tropical forests, غابات استوائية. Then we go to the cold ends of the earth, Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland, which belongs to Denmark by the way, and the two frozen poles, where people actually travel from Argentina just to see the ice.

Beginner (A2) | premium | 00:09:59

I Made Shawarma at Home (You Won't Believe It)

Shawarma is restaurant food. Everyone knows you can't make it at home. So I made it at home. This is the whole process, start to finish, in real Levantine Arabic: preparing the beef, building the marinade spice by spice, and making Biwaz, the onion and parsley salad that shawarma is never served without. Then the sandwich itself: the meat, the "magic" sauce, the toasted bread, and the first bite. The thumbnail already tells you how that went. Twenty one minutes of real cooking and real Arabic. I name everything as I go, the ingredients, the steps, the verdict, so your listening hours add up while dinner gets made. No script, no translation, just follow along.

Intermediate (B2) | free | 00:21:10

I Cooked Chicken Hearts at 11 PM

It's 11 PM, I haven't eaten in hours, and I'm cooking chicken hearts. This is a real cooking vlog in simple Levantine Arabic, around B1. No script. I name everything as I go: the onion, the garlic, the olive oil, the spices, and my favorite ingredient, pomegranate molasses. A lot of mozzarella also disappears while the food cooks.

Intermediate (B1) | premium | 00:09:46

Don't Call It the Middle East

How many countries speak Arabic? At least 22. Today we find every one of them on the map. We travel the whole Arab world, الوطن العربي, from Mauritania on the Atlantic to Oman on the Indian Ocean. On the way you'll learn which Arab country is the biggest now that Sudan split in two, which one holds more than 100 million people, why almost nobody lives in the middle of Libya, and which countries make up المغرب العربي, بلاد الشام, and the Gulf. We also pass two famous disputes that I very carefully refuse to get into. You can watch me dodge them live.

Intermediate (B1) | premium | 00:09:53

Montreal Is Not a Boring City. I'll Prove It.

Last time the mosquitoes chased me out of the forest. Today, round two: a new park, and this one is full of life. Kids' football matches on every field, a baseball game, a running track with an actual audience on the benches, and a plane heading to the airport above it all. People think Montreal is a city without life. This park says they're wrong, especially in summer, when the whole city moves outdoors.

Intermediate (B1) | free | 00:09:58

Ahl Al Gharam 9: She Knew All Along

Hamsa knew. Maybe from the beginning. She tells Rania plainly: أنا عرفانة كل شي وكاشفته. She saw through Riyad, and she loved him anyway, because a man who lies to win you must love you that much. Her words, not mine. So she gives him two gifts. A cassette with one song on it, كذبك حلو, her way of saying I know without saying it. And one request for a wedding gift: a poetry evening, dedicated to her, with one condition. أصلي. Every word his own. Watch what that condition does to a man who cannot admit the truth. I walk you through the final scenes and explain كاشفته, مخه بعضلاته, and غصباً عن الدنيا كلها, the phrase Riyad repeats like a man drowning. This is the end of Hamsa and Riyad's story, and the end of this series. If you want me to analyze more episodes of Ahl Al Gharam, or a different Syrian show entirely, tell me in the comments. I read all of them.

Intermediate (B1) | premium | 00:16:32