As technology has made the world smaller and brought people from across the world together to collaborate and work towards a common goal, the need for all of these people to communicate with one another easily has become increasingly important. That’s why multilingualism has become one of the most essential skills in the business world.
Arabic is a dominant foreign language in the financial circle, as many of its participants belong to Arabic-speaking ethnic groups. If you’re involved in global finance and have discovered that learning Arabic would be beneficial for you but don’t wish to overload yourself by getting over your head in a language you’re learning for business reasons, take a look at these resources that will help you get a better grip on Arabic without sacrificing too much of your time. Use these resources to learn Arabic for business, fast.
Online Tutoring
If you work best by one-on-one learning, try finding an online tutor or language exchange partner to guide you through your learning. Working with another person is beneficial because you can work together to build up the knowledge on the specific topics that you need to know. They also give you insight on cultural quirks and significant things to remember.
A language exchange partner is a free alternative to a tutor, but requires some extra time on your end, as the idea is to trade lesson for lesson, which means that you could teach someone English for Arabic.
Both of these options are available at LRNGO, which offers you free searches to connect with people all over the world to learn.
YouTube Videos
Learn on your own by using instructional YouTube videos to guide you. Dedicate 5-10 minutes of your time, watch a lesson and learn!
Learn Arabic from Me is a great channel for beginners, giving them a foundation for learning Arabic. Get a grip on basic vocabulary, phrases, and listening skills by watching a few short videos.
Arabic Pod 101 helps you learn the alphabet, offers vocabulary paired with pictures, survival phrases, and an "Arabic in 3 Minutes" playlist, helping you get the most of your Arabic learning in a condensed amount of time.
Podcasts
If you’re busy, but still want to find time in your schedule to learn Arabic, try getting yourself listening to podcasts. Podcasts are great because you can listen to them while doing other things, even driving to work, meaning you can get practice from anywhere.
Arabic Pod offers a ton of podcasts made for beginners to strengthen their listening skills and download lesson transcripts to go with them.
Arabic Survival Phrases is perfect if you are expecting to face situations in which you will need to know some basic phrases in Arabic, but don’t want to get into the details of learning the language. Learn useful phrases like business greetings, how to say "I’m sorry", and how to navigate a restaurant.
Websites
For more resources, lessons, and ways to learn on your own, take a look at these websites.
Learn 101 gives you well-rounded resources so that you get the basics of Arabic vocabulary and grammar, as well as audio and translation resources. You can explore the website yourself or go by their step-by-step lessons.
Carnegie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative seems like the best option for getting exposed to foundational Arabic. The class is completely free and is a six-week course with six lessons, focusing on both culture and language, including a lesson on professional meetings.
Education Portal and Open Culture both offer lists of other valuable, free resources that you can use to expand on your learning.
Photo Credit: markjhandel
