Hi everyone! Who do you hope to say “shukran” to, now that you know how to thank someone in Arabic? A Lebanese friend? A Moroccan relative? A Saudi acquaintance???

Good to see a new lesson up and ready — but, as an intermediate student — might I trouble you by asking for a more explicit schedule for lessons? I’m pleased to purchase a subscription, but I’d like concrete details about how steady the lessons will be, particularly for experienced learners. (Thank you — I am appreciative that this is a new site.)

For what it’s worth, I find that using even simple phrases such as ’shukran’ go a long way in winning a bit of respect and friendliness from locals across the Arab world.

I have also seen “jazak’Allah khayr/khayran”…which is much like barak Allahu fik. (I should be typing in Arabic, but I haven’t printed out a keyboard overlay yet!)

Once you know “shukran”, you can recognize “thank you” in languages that borrow Arabic words. For example, in Farsi, they say “mutshakeram” (I am thanking you, literally), or other dialects say “tashakur”. I don’t know Urdu, but I think they might also borrow an Arabic word. Do you recognise the sh-k-r pattern in there? They are taken from the same root that “shukran” is derived from. This is fascinating to me.

I always that ‘jazakallah khair’ (May God reward your efforts) to be a lovely phrase — once displaces both praise and glory to God away from the human-centred view. I have seen its use among non-Muslims frowned upon in some sectors.

Congratulations!.
To be honest, to learn Arabic has been in my radar due my work but I have not found a useful resource. Keep focus in do a fun and interesting podcasts.
I already study Mandarin using other podcast system. Perhaps my only advice or suggestion is to do more immediately repetitions of the dialog and phrases, at least 3 times, that works very well.. of course we could listen again all the podcast, but at this stage where all Arabic sounds are new, repetition is good.. , other is find out some UAE cultural and/or dialect classes.
Thanks so much!!.. and Congratulations!!.

Arabic is gender-based in the sense that pronouns, adjectives, suffixes, and verb conjugation all change depending on whether you’re addressing a man or a woman. Same thing applies to singular and plural forms. This means that grammar is what changes in a sentence if the speaker is a man or a woman. However, there aren’t actually any expressions or phrases that are specific to men or to women because it is considered rude or socially unacceptable if used interchangeably.

Thanks Rechoboam for pointing that out and there will be some male voices in different lessons. So stay tuned! And please let us know what you think.