Fawakih

Syed S.
Level 5

Don't get hung up on language "rules" and "exceptions"; embrace them as you learn them, even if something doesn't make sense. As adults, we try to make things we don't understand fit in a pattern. Yet if we looked at how we speak English (or maybe even emoji language), we break language rules all the time without second guessing ourselves because we focus on the emotion and intent we are trying to convey rather than the detail.

In other words, when learning something new, remember that kids accept new knowledge as they are told without questions, while adults tend to get too hung up trying to understand "why". Knowing "why" is important, but you need to also focus on building up your "knowledge library" first.

Don't feel demotivated or overwhelmed if you don't immediately remember a newly learned concept; it takes time and continuous exposure to develop the passive level of understanding that makes recall easy.

Between taraweeh, listening to Arabic portions of khutbas, and general Quran reading, most of my "aha!" moments have come later after the first exposure. Understanding will come when given the time and practice. A good way to "speed" up understanding is to pair up with a buddy who you can try to teach a simple concept to.

Syed began his journey as a Level 1 student at Fawakih in 2014.

Rizwan K.
Level 6

My main advice to know that studying Arabic is not like taking a college course on some topic where you take the course and then take the test and then leave it for weeks, months or years to come. It is, if you desire it to be, a long term endeavor. My advice is to learn slowly and when you have time, take advantage of intensives that are offered.

Rizwan began his journey as a Level 3 student at Fawakih in 2016.