Arabic Videos

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 (B1) | 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

Food in Lebanon vs Syria | Arabic Conversation

Join Maha and me as we compare Lebanese and Syrian food culture. We discuss breakfast, everyday meals, desserts, and the traditions of hospitality. Improve your Arabic listening skills through this natural conversation designed for intermediate (B1–B2) learners.

Intermediate (B2) | free | 00:33:07

Ahl Al Gharam 8: A Poem With No Soul

The birthday dinner. Riyad recites the stolen poem, and Hamsa's reaction is the most dangerous compliment in the series. It's nice, she says, but it has no soul. Like a mix of different bouquets. She can taste that the words came from different hands, and Riyad starts sweating. Then the cake, the gift, and Riyad's biggest line yet: I want to love once, and forever. Hamsa laughs and answers with the words the whole show is named for. We follow the dinner and I explain يسلم تمك, the beautiful reply to beautiful words, plus معقول and وين ما رحت, and why the song كذبك حلو keeps following Hamsa everywhere. Next episode: the final one. The book is still on her shelf.

Intermediate (B1) | premium | 00:13:54

The Mosquitoes Won. I Retreated

I had a simple plan: drive to my favorite park, walk in the forest, film a calm vlog. Montreal had other plans. It's a brutally hot July evening, the park smells like fresh forest, everything is beautiful, and then the mosquitoes find me. Three or four bites in one minute. You'll watch the exact moment I give up and run, because I film videos every day and I refuse to show up tomorrow with a bitten face. A real, unscripted vlog in easy Levantine Arabic, around B1. The car, the heat, the traffic light, the forest, the retreat. Everyday language exactly the way I actually speak it.

Intermediate (B1) | free | 00:12:41

Ahl Al Gharam 7: She Has the Same Book

Riyad walks into a bookstore and asks for poetry collections by poets nobody knows. كتب ما بتنباع, books that don't sell, the seller warns him. Perfect, thinks Riyad, and copies a poem into his notebook. What he doesn't know is that Hamsa's father collects exactly these books, and tonight, bored at home, Hamsa pulls the same one off the shelf. At her birthday dinner he shows up late, angry, in a ripped sweater, without a rose. Then he recites the stolen poem. We watch it build and I explain خلعته قتلة, معصب, and كل سنة وانتِ سالمة, how Syrians say happy birthday. Next episode: how long before she opens that book?

Intermediate (B1) | premium | 00:12:42

Ahl Al Gharam 6: She Wants to Believe

Hamsa lies on her bed, listens to كذبك حلو, and rereads the poems. She's happy, and the happiness is built on the lie. Meanwhile Sami finally refuses: no birthday poem, no more cheating. His advice to Riyad is the simplest line in the series, قول الحقيقة. Tell her you love her, بشعر وبلا شعر. With poetry or without it. Rania tries to warn Hamsa without saying it straight, calling Riyad's poems خواطر instead of شعر. Hamsa defends him harder than he deserves. We go through it all and I explain حاج بقى, the Damascene way of saying enough already, and the difference between خواطر and real شعر. Next episode: a birthday dinner needs a poem, and Riyad goes looking for one nobody will recognize.

Intermediate (B1) | premium | 00:10:45

One Line of Poetry Changed My Life

I remember the exact moment. Early March 2020, Montreal, right before the lockdown. My family and I were watching an old Syrian series, الفصول الأربعة, and in one episode, a character recited a single line of ancient poetry. That line didn't leave me. In this video I tell you how a school subject I liked but never loved became a full obsession, what الشعر means to me now, and the slightly crazy idea it led me to: memorizing the longest of the Muallaqat, the great pre-Islamic odes. Did I actually do it? That's the next video.

Intermediate (B1) | free | 00:09:20

Ahl Al Gharam 5: A Poet Doesn't Fight Like That

It's 2006, so Riyad's big romantic idea is gifting Hamsa a mobile phone. Sami wants out and tells him so with one of the best expressions in the whole series: بتوصلني لنص البير وبتقطع الحبلة فيني, you lower me halfway down the well and cut the rope. Then a stranger follows Hamsa in the street, Riyad handles it with his fists, and Rania asks the obvious question. Since when do poets fight like that? Hamsa's answer is the heart of this episode: حسيت بالأمان معه. She felt safe. We follow it all and I explain ورطة, عنجد, and the coffee order that confuses even Riyad, سكرين. Next episode: Sami is done writing, and Hamsa's birthday is tomorrow.

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

She Tried Everything to Learn Arabic. One Thing Finally Worked

Aliyah learned to read Arabic at six years old, for the Quran. She could read every word and understand none of them. Years later, she tried everything to turn that reading into a real language. Fusha classes at fifteen. An Arabic language and culture program. A degree in Middle East studies. Then the biggest step of all: two months in Jordan, living in Madaba with a host family that spoke no English at all. Real immersion, and it worked. She jumped a full level in two months. Then she came home, life had no Arabic in it, and ten years quietly erased almost everything. Here's the twist. Aliyah teaches English and creates comprehensible input for English learners. When 250 hours of input took her own Spanish from intermediate to advanced, she finally saw the answer sitting in her own toolbox. She came back to Arabic through input, pressed play after ten years away, and understood 90 percent of the first video. Today she listens 15 to 30 minutes every day, and the Arabic is coming back.

Intermediate (B2) | free | 00:24:42

Ahl Al Gharam 4: A Poem That Isn't His

Hamsa is falling for Riyad, but not for the reason he thinks. She wants someone strong. He's convinced she wants a poet. So he pushes Sami, the real poet, to write a love poem he can recite as his own. It works better than either of them expected.

Intermediate (B1) | premium | 00:12:32

One City With More People Than My Country

Can you find America on the map? Are Mexico and Africa on the same continent? What language do they speak in Brazil? Today we travel the whole world from one map. Africa, Europe, Asia, Oceania, and the two Americas. I ask simple questions and we answer them together: where the countries are, what people speak, and which capital belongs where, from Bogotá to Washington to Buenos Aires. On the way we cross the Amazon, the biggest forest on earth, meet the two giant oceans, and end in Tokyo, one city with more people than Syria and Lebanon combined. 37 million people.

Beginner (A2) | free | 00:12:13