The One Cartoon Rule That Taught My Kids Arabic In A Year

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. In this video, I'm going to do a unboxing a review of this series of books that you see in my hands, literally Al-Arabiyyah Bayna Yadayk, and this is basically the equivalent of Al-Arabiyyah Bayna Yadayk but for kids, Al-Arabiyyah Bayna Yaday Bayna Yaday Awladina or Bayna Yaday Awlad Na'am Awladina. And um the company or organization that takes care of these, which are the same ones that put together Al-Arabiyyah Bayna Yadayk, is called Arabic for all, and they were kind enough to send me a copy of this full series, and I'm going to revise it and review it with you guys and go over it, and we are going to talk about how we can make sure that all of this knowledge right here, how we can how can we transfer it into our children's mind even if our Arabic still not there, but we don't want to waste time until I learn Arabic and then my children and learn Arabic themself. Ideally, we want to as soon as we realize as adults like, "Oh wow, I wish I learned Arabic before." As soon as you realize that, you want to make sure that you start doing whatever you can so your children don't have to realize late as well that they should have learned Arabic. So, first of all, let's talk about the the actual work itself, the >> [snorts] >> the quality of the books and um and the images of the books made for children as well. The touch feels very very good. It feels it feels good to write on it, and it's always nice to have the physical copies especially for kids because it's a different feeling for them, and and it's a different excitement to actually, uh you know, fill out the exercises themself and whatnot. They actually have a website that's called kids.arabicforall.net, which I'll put in the description below, and you can go on there and there are audio materials that go with The books themselves, you can buy them from their website. And as you can see, they are about $7, let's say $8 each. And if you go into the audio materials here at the top, later once you have the books and use the audios that they have here, you can even download all of them here. One thing that I like about Arabic for all.net and as an organization and you know, an organization that put together curriculums to learn Arabic is that they are very well organized. If you have done before, you might you might not you might have not realized that at the end of the books, actually there is a breakdown of all the words and as well there's a breakdown of very importantly the purpose of the lesson. So for each lesson, there is a a purpose in I don't think they they have put it here because for children learning Arabic for children is a little bit, you know, simpler and they they pick it up quicker and they are able to build patterns faster. But what they did is they put the breakdown of all the vocabulary. So at the end of each lesson, the instructor that's teaching those children can test them on on that vocabulary as well and make sure that they have, you know, achieved anything that they had to achieve in that lesson. Which this is what makes a difference when somebody learns Arabic by just just, you know, scattered from in a scattered way where sometimes certain teachers, they don't follow a specific curriculum or whatever it might be, uh, which is fine as well. You still going to learn, but if you have a book and you and each book has, let's say, whatever, 70 lessons and each lesson has a particular and and each lesson has a particular amount of vocabulary and basically you understand what you have to accomplish to learn Arabic, which, let's say, for example, for the English language, they say 10,000 vocabulary words, right? Let's say for the Arabic language, since is a root-based language, as in you learn one root, for example, kataba, and you once you understand this morphological phenomenon, the sarf of the three root letters, you later on are able to understand from one root letter different meanings that come from that same root letter. So, for example, once you understand what the pattern of the verb or infa'ala and for fa'ala and for af'ala and for istaf'ala, once you understand what this pattern usually means, then you just have to add three letters to it and you have a bunch of other words. So, let me give you an example. If you know kharaja, [snorts] to come out or to leave or to exit, and then you understand the pattern of af'ala, then you take these three letters and add it into this pattern and now you know kharaja, which is to leave, but you know as well akhraja, which is to take out or kick out, and then you know as well istaf'ala, if you know this pattern, istaf'ala, you know that it usually means to extract something or to ask for something or to consider something a particular thing. Now, in this case, for kharaja, istakhraja, usually it might it might mean to extract something from something. Likewise, if you know the pattern of fa'ala, which is similar to the af'ala, then you know that kharaja to take something out as well. Likewise for infa'ala, usually it means that the thing has been done by itself. Inkharaja, it can mean that something just came out of somewhere without anybody really causing that thing to to come out of that thing. And so, because it's a root-based language, it's easier to learn. And as an adult, it helps you to make these correlations. But children, they start building these patterns faster than than adults. And especially because adults as well, we tend to try and understand too much. Try and stop and try and make make sense of it and instead of just allowing yourself to learn how a children would learn. Now, this doesn't mean that a children shouldn't learn things like for example, here we have kaff al-mukhatab, right? So, you could consider this as grammar. So, masmuka, the possessive pronouns. Masmuka, what's your name? Masmuki, what's your name for a female? Masmukum, right? So, we learn these on on book one. Likewise, we learn ma al-istifhamiyyah, you know, to ask a question. Ma hadha, what is this? And so, this is how you you learn grammar progressively. Instead of starting with al-ajrumiyyah from the very beginning trying to understand al-ajrumiyyah, you just start by learning little little concepts of grammar that anybody when they learn a language would use in their first communication sentences. Like, "Oh, what's your name? Where are you from?" From mean aina anta. All of these things is is grammar as well, but it's pieces of grammar that are very useful in the beginning in order for you to form sentences that make sense. And so, this is on the first book. Then as well, one thing that I like about about this is So, when it comes to learning a language listening to how the thing is said is what helps for your brain to form the language in your brain as a [clears throat] tilkaia something that's automatic for you to do. And I tell you this after having grew up speaking Catalan, Spanish, learned French, learned English, and learned Arabic. All of these last three to fluency. They weren't my languages. Catalan and Spanish you can say that those are my my mother tongues and my national tongues. And these three languages, especially French, cuz Arabic, English we did it in school. Arabic was the only one that I actually sat down in a class and went over books and etc. etc. obviously because I'm more interested about it to understand my religion and whatnot. But French, to be honest, my writing is very bad. My my grammar, my everything when it comes to to the actual technicalities of the language in French is very bad. Mes yeux pas français. Ooh. N'importe quelle personne qui qui m'entend parler français. Peut-être qu'il faudra qu'il m'entende pendant peut-être 2 heures parler ou même même disons une demi-heure. Si je parle pendant une demi-heure, je vais commencer à dire des bavures, je vais commencer à dire des des choses que qu'une personne qui est native, qui a grandi dans cette langue, euh tombe pas dans ce dans ce genre de bavure. Mais moi mon français, il est il est vraiment de la street quoi, de la street de Paris. So my French is is fluent, but I learned it by listening. And the reason why I'm mentioning this is because if you pay attention to people who are deaf, their problem is not speaking. Yet when they speak, they sound, you know, I don't want to I don't want to imitate them. But for the sake of the example, to make the example clear, they sound like and like they're not able to pronounce the whole the whole the full sentences. And it sounds like they have a problem in speaking. But the real problem is in listening. And because they don't hear how it's being said and how it's spoken, they are only able to communicate with with sign languages. But when it comes to the the voice and the sound that they that they produce with their mouth, they don't have a problem with that. They can yell and they can try and and communicate speaking. And likewise, I remember growing up there was a there was a girl in my class. She was half deaf. And because she was half deaf, she was able to speak, but it wasn't 100% accurate. And so this shows you that when it comes to to being able to form a language and being able to produce language, you will need to listen a lot. And this is why I like the, you know, how Arabic for All make their books is because they they make part of the curriculum listening a lot. And and when I met the the author of of the book or one of the authors, Dr. Abdur Rahim ibn Ibrahim al-Fawzan, which I will as well I'll put the link in the description so you can go and watch the the interview. We spoke about how to learn Arabic as a somebody who is not Arab and and whatnot. And one thing that we spoke about a lot, which opened my eyes when it comes to how our program was set up when we were teaching al-Arabiyyah bayna yadayk in al-Andalus Institute, it opened my eyes in in making students, you know, use the language more and listen more. So what the what the Sheikh said is that when you go over al-Arabiyyah bayna yadayk, all you have to do is go over a lesson, especially the first one because it's all conversational. Go over the lesson and then make the students just repeat that same thing. So in the beginning you start memorizing sentences. Where are you from? You just memorize where are you from as one block and you just memorize that. And now you know that where are you from? You just know that that means, you know, where are you from, basically. And this is how you start with a language. Like for example, there are certain things that I that I might know how to say in for example in Tagalog, right? I grew up around a lot of Filipinos in in Barcelona, Spain. I used to play as an import as well. Play basketball in a Filipino team. So, I know for example, "Ang pag ang Ang pag Ang pag ang ko Muhammad. Ang pag ang ko Muhammad." I just know that "Ang pag ang ko" means "My name is." I don't know which of those words is my I don't know which one is is. I don't know which one is name. But, I know that "Ang pag ang ko Muhammad" means "My name is." Right? And you And if any Filipino in the comments, you can correct me. And so, this is how you start learning a language. You memorize the actual full sentence first. And once you start communicating, and then little by little you will be able to start debunking the whole sentence and be able to use blocks of that sentence that you have memorized to produce more to produce more more language. So, first you know how to say "Min aina anta?" Where are you from? Then, you're able to produce where I come from, where I go to, where And you're able to use that word or those different words in many different sentences. So, now you are start being able to produce more sentences. Now, let's talk about how would you, you know, make sure that your children go over these. And And it's important that we talk about this because me, personally, I have realized that, you know, it took me learn It took me learning the Arabic language myself, and it took me 10 years to learn the Arabic language myself to realize how late I was in terms of of speaking to my children. And the thing is that when my when I had my first child, I my Arabic wasn't good yet at at the stage or of speaking on a day-to-day basis to my children. And it it didn't feel comfortable. Now, after 10 with other children that other children that I had, now I'm able to to do so. And I wish I, you know, I did it with my my oldest kids because then they would have grew up with their first language or their home lang their, you know, mother tongue home language being the Arabic language. And that on a long-term just gives you so much facility in or ease in terms of of your deen, whether it's memorizing the Quran, whether it's sitting on a at a khutbah, and maybe you're not proficient at fusha, but you understand 60 to 80% of what the Imam is saying, especially if the Imam is, you know, paying attention to speaking in a in a way where the mass of the people understands in a easy easy Arabic, which most of the Imams do. And I think that many times we don't we don't realize how important it is for us to put time into teaching the Arabic language into our children because ourself, yet we haven't seen the importance. And you don't really see the importance until you actually get it and you have the Arabic language with you and you read the Quran every day and you hear it whatever anything just just hear just turn on the Quran in the radio is a reminder. And just hearing the Quran while you're washing the dishes is a reminder because you understand and then it's going over a story and it's reminding you of things you might be going through right now. So, in simple, how would I, you know, if I'm not yet proficient myself in Arabic, how would I make sure that my children go over this? And look, when it comes to knowledge, all there is is going over books. I was having this conversation with a brother not long ago. We were talking about how you know, there's there's knowledge that we don't know just because we haven't gone over the book yet. And the first step to acquiring that knowledge is just go going over the book. Like just just reading because there is knowledge out there that it doesn't take rocket science to understand. So, when it comes to learning Arabic, maybe the first few books it will be the, you know, the the the pattern formation, the skill formation is going to be a little bit tougher. But then your children, the the once they get these, all of these rest of the books is going to be so simple. So, what I would recommend is that you find somebody who ideally who is recommended by by a teacher that you know knows how to teach the Arabic language. And it's not every teacher that knows the Arabic language that know how to teach it. And I'm saying that because a lot of people think that because somebody's native that they will teach better. And that's not necessarily the case. But you want to find someone that knows how to teach the Arabic language to non-Arab. That's first thing. Somebody who knows how to children. That's another thing cuz teaching children is not the same as teaching adults. You want to find somebody who can teach your children all in Arabic. That's very important. In the beginning maybe yes, they might be able to to you know do a little bit of of of of English here and there, but then you want your children to be listening to listen to Arabic all the time. So, you want the teacher to teach them in Arabic. And again with the example that we said about the deaf people, the reason why they can't speak is because they don't hear it. So, if you want this if you hear it, your children will just replicate what they are hearing. And so for that you can simply just go on websites that have, you know, private tutors to teach the Arabic language. Or if you know someone, whatever you might be, just find a private tutor that can sit down for even if it's 3 hours a week. Ideally you want to do to do it on a day day-to-day basis and just have that teacher go with your children over this book. That's how simply it That's how simple it is. Just go take that teacher and have them go over these books with your children. And believe me after a year, a year and a half, and once your children have gone over these books, they will surprise you and and you will be so glad that you did and you will see the fruits of your children knowing Arabic in the future when they when they grow older. Now obviously before you get into these books or your children, you want them to learn how to read. So, if you don't know how to read or your children don't know how to read, what I would recommend you is to go and check the description. I have a full free course that you can go over. In two days, you will learn how to learn Arabic, even if it's a slow pace and texts that are easy with harakat, with vowels, but it's all you need in order for you to to learn how to read. And you can do it yourself and do it with your children. And in one weekend in two weekends, you guys can be good readers of the Arabic language. And then next step is going into this. And believe me, this is all your children would need in order for them to know Arabic. Al Arabiya bayna yadayk, Al Arabiya bayna yaday awladina. I haven't [clears throat] gone over this one, but I have gone over Al Arabiya bayna yadayk times and times and taught it myself. And I can tell you that it's all you need in order for you to have B2 level of Arabic. And B2 level is what you will need to understand a very simple tafsir. Like this tafsir right here, for example. Very simple tafsir to understand. And just imagine what that would do in your house. If you If you put effort into this and then just imagine Imagine yourself like watching Arabic cartoons with your children, uh reading to them a story before they go to sleep only in Arabic. And by the way, before we finish this, watching Arabic cartoons, my children, two of them, they learned Arabic by literally just having a very strict rule in the house. You cannot watch anything unless it's Arabic cartoons or cartoons in Arabic. And they literally learned Arabic like that. No No structured Arabic learning, literally just just watching Arabic cartoons. So, I would recommend you that you have that strict rule in your house of only allowing your children to watch Arabic cartoons. And believe me, after 1 year, it will surprise you. So, this video is to hopefully encourage you to have your children learn the Arabic language, even if you Perhaps you don't have time, or you might think that you don't have time, or whatever it may be, have your children at least benefit from And let them benefit from their early from their young brain, so they can learn the Arabic language before they become a little bit older.