أهلًا وسَهلًا! Welcome to Dr. Bulbul’s Arabic. If you’re learning Arabic, but would like tips as well as links to useful instructional videos, Arabic songs, and articles related to Arabic, you’re in the right place.

New material is constantly being added. To ensure you don’t miss any new items, you can also follow this blog on Facebook by following the DrBulbulsArabic page. Here is a summary of material currently available on this site.

Dr. Bulbul’s Videos

In February 2022, Dr. Bulbul starting creating short videos in simple, informal Standard Arabic for TikTok and YouTube. You can access the transcripts and translations of these video clips here.

Things to Watch and Listen To

• Learn colors in Arabic with a children’s song.
• Skaykh Munaf’s Arabic conversations. These are appropriate for the beginning and intermediate learner. I have posted detailed commentary pages on some of these.
• ArabicPod101’s “Arabic in Three Minutes” Series. These videos introduce useful words and phrases and are appropriate for the beginning and intermediate learner. I have posted detailed commentary pages on some of these.
• Learning family members with a children’s video. Practice expressions like ‘my mother’ and ‘my father’. For beginners.
• Learn the days of the week with a children’s video.
• “Egypt is my mother” song (مصر هي أمّي). In this post I guide you through the refrain of a well-known song. Appropriate for all levels.
• Learn the numbers 1 through 10 with children’s videos. This post will help you use either of two children’s videos to practice your numbers. For beginners.
• Miscellaneous easy conversation videos on YouTube. This is where I post links to other video material you might find useful. Updated December 17, 2017.
• Easy Arabic story videos by “Arabic with Nadia”. These are very easy and were designed for adult learners of Arabic.
• Learn 10 professions with a Zakaria children’s video. Learn additional professions and practice the ordinal numbers with the “Seven Brothers” song.

Read in Arabic

• Al-Manhal’s collection of children’s story books for learners of Arabic. For a very easy one, check out the very first in the series: أنا وأخي (“Me and my brother”), which includes some important vocabulary about one’s morning routine.
• Read some of the many children’s e-books in Arabic by the publishing house Safeer.
• Who is Miss Minousch? A short reading packet written by Dr. Bulbul himself. This is a perfect thing to read if you have just completed the Bite-Size Arabic book.

Grammar, Vocabulary, and the Like

• Online Arabic dictionaries, a review of four online resources.
• All about يَشْرَب yashrab ‘to drink’. For all levels.
• Talking about eating and meals. For beginners and intermediate learners.
• Nominative, genitive, accusative: Arabic’s three grammatical cases. A very basic introduction. Appropriate for all levels.
• The principal moods of the Arabic verb: Indicative, subjunctive, jussive, and imperative. An overview.
• Counting things 1-10.
• Some basic expressions for Ramadan.

Duolingo

Trying to work through the Duolingo Arabic course? Good news: Dr. Bulbul is writing a skill-by-skill course guide, with lots of explanation and extra material. See what skills he has posted so far here:

• Dr. Bulbul’s Guide to Duolingo Arabic

Long before the course was released, I wrote the following article on the upcoming course: Duolingo Arabic is coming: What should we expect? While the course has come out, that article still serves as a sort of review of the Duolingo system as a whole.

Reviews

• My review of Rosetta Stone Arabic.
• My review of Complete Arabic.
• My review of Mastering Arabic 1.
• My review of Alif Baa: Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds.
• My review of Bite-Size Arabic: Learn to Read and Write Arabic Using the Tiniest Bit of Vocabulary and Grammar.

For Teachers

• Tasharrafnaa: A short textbook in transcription for use with Alif Baa or Bite-Size Arabic.
• Mastering Arabic 1: Supplemental materials. Supplemental exercises and materials for teaching Wightwick and Gaafar’s beginning Arabic textbook.
• Using Bite-Size Arabic in the classroom.

General Interest

• I want to learn Arabic. How should I start?
• An American journalist learns Arabic during the Egyptian revolution. Comments on an article that appeared in the New Yorker magazine.
• Depictive calligraphy: When the word for ‘duck’ looks like a duck.
• Where’s Zamalek? About a residential district in Cairo.
• Want to improve your Arabic on location in Cairo?
• The Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum’s song ’Alf leela w leela.

For Dr. Bulbul’s Students

These pages are relevant for students enrolled in Dr. Bulbul’s courses:

• Finding Arabic books in the Netherlands
• Waiting for your next UvA Talen Arabic course to start, but want to keep learning? Check out these two pages:  What to do while waiting for Arabic 2 to begin, What to do while waiting for Arabic 3 or higher to begin.
• Generic Arabic 1 syllabus.
• Arabic 2 syllabus, DL2364, Monday evenings, April-June 2022.
• Arabic 3 syllabus, DL2365, Tuesday evenings, April-June 2022.
• Arabic 5 syllabus, July-September 2021.
• Arabic 6 syllabus, October-December 2021.

Would you like to take a course taught by Dr. Bulbul in Amsterdam? Check out the Arabic 1, 2, and 3 courses at UvA Talen. If there is enough interest, he may also organize an independent evening course during the summer for students who have completed at least Arabic 2 at UvA Talen.