Arabic Learning Resources

This list will hopefully be updated as I find more useful things. There's a distinct international relations student bias here.

Grammar

• This website, entitled Arabic Learning Resources is usually one of the first to pop up after I search for a grammar concept, and the site I go to first if I'm looking for post-Al Kitaab clarification. There aren't that many topics, but the ones that are there are pretty thorough, with examples in Masri and MSA. I've never explored the sections on topics other than grammar, but I'd assume they're equally helpful.
• Transparent Language - Arabic Language Blog I use this site for help with grammar concepts that I don't understand after reading about them in Al Kitaab and then looking at the previous site. They have a wide range of topics, though the site isn't organized super well for looking for specific posts. The posts are clear and simple, though they sometimes omit useful information for the sake of said simplicity. They appear to have a fair amount of posts on non-grammar things like Arab food and other cultural things as well, but I have yet to utilize those. 

Vocabulary

• I use Memrise to learn vocab. It's essentially online flashcards, like Quizlet or something, but it includes an element of time, and allows me to recognize and then focus on words that are more difficult. There are a lot of Al Kitaab courses on Memrise, but I find it most beneficial to make them myself, and then use them. I don't use the "meme" aspect of the site very often, but in the few instances that I have, the words have generally stuck with me. There's also an app that allows me to download some courses for offline access. It's sort of weird (it's very new), but still pretty effective. I would recommend using the browser version when you have access to internet and a keyboard, and then the app when you're out and about and still want to do vocab, because you're that cool.

Media

• Sada, by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, is available in both Arabic and English, and features articles on current events related to "major issues of political reform in the Arab world." They're a little more scholarly and in-depth than news articles, and they also have a bilingual Twitter if you want to practice shorter bits of text.
• The New York Times Middle East section has videos in Arabic fairly regularly. They're usually interesting. They're usually in the dialect of the region in question with English subtitles, so they're good for simultaneously learning about real current events and exposing oneself to various regional dialects and styles of speech.
• Jadaliyya is also an interesting place to practice one's Arabic. The articles here are a little bit less well-written and more biased than the sources I've mentioned already, but there's something to be said for bias and a wider range of viewpoints, perhaps different from the standard American ones. They have articles in English and Arabic, but not translations like the Sada articles. 

Links Links Links (Vaguely Middle Eastern News Compilation Contemplation 19/6)

I try really hard not to spam Facebook with tons of links to things that are mostly relevant to my studies and not my life (because Facebook is ~all about me~), but sometimes I still want other people to read them, so here goes this week's vaguely Middle Eastern news contemplation:

Firstly, I saw these two articles right next to each other on my newsfeed, and I thought the juxtaposition was interesting. I feel like we're told so often that Israel is an oasis of acceptance in a Middle East full of hate that it's important to note these things too.

I thought the pictures in this article, though not from a particularly reputable news source, were a nice glimpse of hope from Syria, something we don't see too often.

This New York Times editorial (sorry for my future overrepresentation of this source, I have to tell myself it's worth paying for a subscription) caught my attention for the comments on the United States. We're such a large, wealthy country that it's hard to believe we take so few refugees and leave it to Europe and other countries to deal with the problem. Props to the State Department for trying though!

I enjoyed this video because it's in Arabic (woo, practice all the time!) and also because it's about women's involvement in politics in Yemen during the Arab Spring. I'm working on a paper on the same thing in Tunisia, and it's interesting to compare the two. I also recently started following Alex Potter, an American photographer in Yemen, on Instagram. I find her inspiring because she's only five or so years older than me and doing war photography in the Middle East, speaks Arabic, and is bringing attention to a situation that the American media tends to overlook. However, I also think I should try harder to find more people to follow and read that are actually from the regions in question. I speak and read (basic) Arabic, and am capable of reading local news sources, the only thing stopping me is laziness - it's so much easier (faster) to just follow Americans and Brits, and read English captions - but it's important to look beyond the Western point of view, especially since I have the capability to do so. I'm sure there are equally good Yemeni photographers, I just have to find them.

Finally, though not really ~Middle Eastern~, in the U.S. some activists are trying to do Ramadan in a more environmentally friendly way, and that makes me happy. The food waste part especially stood out to me, because in Oman it seems like tons of food goes to waste after normal meals, so I can't imagine after Ramadan meals (though I won't have to imagine in like three hours!).