The Best Arabic Lessons

Wednesday, March 22nd

2023 Arabic Lesson Reviews

italki

• Online tutoring in Arabic
• Prices start at $6/hour (or less during a trial period)
• Over 400 tutors to choose from
• Convenient scheduling
• Excellent way to develop better spoken fluency and accent

Arabic can be challenging for native English speakers. It's not easy to find someone to practice with, and then there's the issue of "Which dialect do I learn?" italki takes care of both problems! This platform matches students with community tutors (who may not have any background in education) and professional teachers (who have formal training in language instruction) for live, 1:1 Arabic lessons via video call. Whether you need to learn MSA, Egyptian Arabic, or another dialect, you will have over 400 instructors to choose from here.

Take some time to browse teacher profiles

Looking through instructor profiles on italki is fun, almost addictive, so set aside some time to choose yours carefully. Most teachers have video clips that show you how they teach, describe their background, and give you the opportunity to hear their accent (both in English and Arabic). As you find some that seem like a potential match, you can use the heart icon to save them to a favorites list until you're ready to decide. Profiles can be filtered by teacher type, native speaker, the country they're from, and price. If you've got a specific Arabic dialect in mind, we recommend you type it in the "also speaks" box or scroll way down to where you'll see specific options (Arabic - Sudanese, Arabic - Gulf, Arabic - Maghrebi, and so on).

A wealth of experience

We wish that italki would let students filter teachers and tutors by experience level. You'll see them all lumped together: instructors who are brand-new to the platform or with just a few completed lessons, alongside teachers who have successfully completed thousands of lessons with italki students. For instance, we found a professional teacher named Sara Hamed who had taught nearly 6000 lessons at the time of our review!

Costs

• From $6/hour to $60/hour
• Discounted rates on trial lessons

Plenty of details within each profile

Going into an instructor's profile will give you even greater insights into their background, teaching methods, and experience. Using Sara as an example again, her profile reveals that she's from Egypt and received diplomas in Arabic for foreigners from Cairo University. She teaches using photos, videos, music and games, in order to help her students develop not just their speaking skills in Arabic but also reading, writing and listening. She prices her lessons at $10, both for a trial and for regular sessions. That's fairly average for tutors on italki: you won't find many that charge more than $20/hour, and those are usually very specialized lessons (like test preparation or business presentations).

Scheduling is a breeze

You might wonder if it's difficult to plan lessons through italki, given that most native speakers probably live several time zones away. It's not! The platform detects the time zone of your computer or mobile phone and renders the availability calendar based on where you are. Click on the calendar for your selected tutor and you'll instantly see which time slots are open over the next week. If you need an appointment that isn't shown on your instructor's calendar, you can message them through italki and ask if they can fit you in at your desired time. It's not hard to find availability: again, referencing our rockstar tutor Sara, we had no trouble getting lessons scheduled at a convenient time, with multiple open slots in the upcoming week.

Thousands of five-star reviews

Across hundreds of languages, italki gets rave reviews from students. It's also practically impossible to find a tutor that has anything less than a perfect 5.0 rating average! If you're feeling at all hesitant about using these Arabic lessons, we encourage you to read through student comments on the tutors you've saved to your favorites list. That's the best way to reassure yourself that your learning will be in good hands.

Are these Arabic lessons ideal for all students?

As much as we'd love a perfect one-size-fits-all approach to learning Arabic, there isn't one. italki is an excellent resource, but there are a few reasons why it might not be right for every learner. The most obvious exclusion: anyone that doesn't have a dependable internet connection in a private environment! Can you imagine having a successful Arabic lesson on a crowded train or while depending on spotty public WiFi? Probably not. Also, there's no anonymity here: you can't hide behind an app, your classmates, or a textbook. Some students' embarrassment over the inevitable mistakes they'll make could get in the way of learning with an italki tutor, particularly for beginners. Neither of these factors are italki's "fault" , but they're worth keeping in mind.

Our favorite Arabic lessons for speaking fluently

Let's be real: Arabic is not an easy language to learn. Why not let an italki tutor make it easier? You won't find local private tutors that can match the convenience and affordability here, and italki makes it possible to learn whichever Arabic dialect makes the most sense for you. You may want to pair your italki lessons with an app that lets you learn on-the-go and on-demand - to reach your fluency goals even sooner - but there's no other online way to learn to speak Arabic that we recommend more than italki.

Arabic Pod 101

• Five levels of Arabic instruction, from Absolute Beginner to Advanced
• Several paid plans to choose from
• 60-day money-back guarantee
• Content refreshes regularly
• 7-day free trial of Premium features
• Get one-on-one help from professional teachers with Premium Plus membership

Arabic Pod 101 is one of many languages offered by Innovative Language Learning, all called "Pod 101" or "Class 101" . In every language they teach, the company gives students access to an unparalleled amount of content, with updates that include vocabulary related to current events and pop culture.

Drop the sales pitch and get on with it!

We've evaluated this provider across lots of languages, and one thing stays annoyingly the same: the sales pitch! To create your free user account, you'll have to check off a lot of boxes - all with the hope that you'll be convinced to sign up right away for a membership or spend $1 for a "limited-time offer you'll never see again" . We wish they'd drop all of that marketing, because it obscures the fact that this is actually a solid language-learning platform and not some gimmicky service you'll regret using. On the plus side, you don't have to accept any of those "buy now" offers: just skip past it and finish making your user profile, no problem. When we did that, we still got a free week of Arabic Pod 101's Premium level of service, no credit card info needed.

Arabic lessons spanning 5 content levels

We're always excited to see Arabic lessons that provide enough room to grow. Arabic Pod 101 covers five different fluency levels: Absolute Beginner (can introduce yourself, count to ten), Beginner (can read and write basic Arabic script, greet people, order at a restaurant), Intermediate (can make future plans, follow simple instructions and give directions), Upper Intermediate (can speak in past/present/future tenses, make sentence with imperative and conditional verbs, tell a story or make an argument), and Advanced (can understand complex sentences, describe situations in detail, understand and discuss opinions). You can change your difficulty level at any time.

Fairly traditional approach to learning

You're not going to see a lot of game-like tools or fancy features here. Most Arabic lessons will include a native speaker dialogue, vocabulary, lesson notes and a transcript. We noticed that the lessons seem to focus both on MSA and Moroccan, and you can see the main or traditional script, translation in English, the Romanization for pronunciation purposes, vowelled text, or all of the above. Some exercises will ask you to listen to a native speaker, record yourself speaking the same text, and then manually compare your accent to theirs. We usually prefer automated speech recognition, but some experts rightly make the point that such software is infamous for over- or under-correcting students' spoken Arabic.

An overwhelming, endless supply of new Arabic lessons

Where Arabic Pod 101 can be a little daunting is when you look at all of the possible learning pathways. Yes, you'll have one automatically populated according to the fluency level you set at the beginning, but there's so much more. Just click on "Add a Pathway" and you'll see what we mean! In the Classic Absolute Beginner Pathways alone, we found options for 3-Minute Egyptian Arabic, Alphabet Made Easy, Survival Phrases and many others. Even without considering the pathways, simply looking at your dashboard can send you off down any number of learning "rabbit holes" . There's free "gifts" every month that may include cheat sheets, vocab lessons and more, and you'll always spot new audio and video files under Newest Lessons. Yikes!

Costs

• Free access to thousands of lessons
• Basic membership: plans range from $8/month to $96 for two years
• Premium membership: plans range from $25/month to $240 for two years
• Premium+ membership: plans range from $47/month to $549 for two years

Premium Plus: expensive but potentially worth it

To minimize confusion and get the most out of your Arabic lessons, you may want to invest in the Premium Plus membership on Arabic Pod 101. It's not cheap at $47/month, but it gets you assigned to your own private teacher. He or she will customize your learning plan, so that you don't have to wade through all of the possibilities yourself. You'll also have the ability to get feedback on homework assignments, on your spoken and written fluency, and receive acknowledgement for all of your progress! Because this company has a 60-day money-back guarantee, there's nothing lost if you decide to give this top-tier subscription a try for a while.

Lower-cost subscriptions available

If you're not quite ready for the highest plan here, there are two more affordable options. The Basic plan lets you access all of the lessons and study tools, while the Premium incorporates more tools for review like transcripts of the audio dialogues and flashcards. Not sure if it's worth it? Use the 7-day trial of the Premium features, and then let your account revert to the free one - then see what you're missing as you continue to study!

Arabic lessons for everyone

Despite being a little overwhelming, Arabic Pod 101 gives you lessons that will keep you learning. Use it for a month or for years, and there will always be something new just around the corner. We'd be happy to see the marketing pitches dialed back by a lot, but besides that we give these Arabic lessons a strong ranking.

Busuu

• Learn Arabic for travel or for general studies
• 14-day money-back guarantee on paid memberships
• Free basic account with access to over 115 Arabic lessons
• Get personalized study plans with Premium Plus membership
• Certification testing available

If you could spend less than 24 hours studying Arabic and come away with the equivalent of an entire college semester's work, wouldn't you jump at the chance? According to an independent study, that's the magic of Busuu. Named after an endangered language of Cameroon, this platform delivers top-notch lessons across multiple languages - like Arabic.

Pay nothing for a basic account

There's a ton of content available through Busuu that won't cost you a thing. After you enter your name and email address, you'll be asked to specify your reasons for learning Arabic (like travel or professional development) and what fluency level you hope to reach (from Beginner/A1 to Upper Intermediate/B2). Once you've indicated how much daily/weekly time you plan on dedicating to your Arabic lessons, Busuu will approximate when you'll reach that level of fluency. As an example, starting as a brand-new learner and studying 10 minutes every day, you'll reach a B2 level of fluency in about 18 months.

You control your learning

Busuu has four total content levels, and you can start wherever you like - or move forwards and backwards, skip from one level to another, or just tackle the topics that include the vocabulary you need. That's one of the aspects of Busuu that make it an appealing choice for those who've already studied some Arabic: you don't have to spend any time in endless repetition of things you know well, just to get to the content you want.

Costs

• Free for Basic membership
• Premium membership: $9.99/month
• Premium Plus membership: $13.99/month
• Discounts available when you pay for 12 or 24 months in advance

Free is good...

You'll soon see that there's more than enough for you at Busuu. Their A1 content alone has 41 lessons on topics ranging from numbers 1-10 to going shopping, and the A2-B2 levels have 70+ more lessons. However, to fully utilize everything Busuu offers, you'll need a paid membership. Many of the best review features are locked for free accounts.

...but memberships give you much more

What will you pay? The Premium tier costs $9.99/month and unlocks all of the lessons, lets you use the platform in offline mode, and gives you AI-customized review sessions. We recommend that Premium Plus service, though: for just $13.99/month, your account will have the option of having your fluency certified by McGraw Hill, getting unlimited feedback from native speakers on your written and spoken exercises, and having a study plan tailored to your learning goals in Arabic. If you really fall in love with Busuu, think about paying in 12- or 24-month increments to take advantage of their best discounts.

What's the catch?

There are just a few aspects to Busuu's Arabic lessons that could be considered downsides. The first is that you can only have one language at a time with a free account: if you're learning, say, Arabic and Chinese, you'll need to pay for a subscription to use Busuu for both. Another drawback is the lack of exercises to practice speaking Arabic. Yes, you can record yourself in certain activities, but you're at the mercy of the native speakers who use Busuu (ostensibly to learn other languages like English) to get feedback.

Keep an eye on the renewal date

Lastly, although Busuu has received over 5,000 five-star ratings from very satisfied students, the company has gotten its fair share of complaints - almost entirely about the limited 14-day refund policy and automatic renewals on 12- and 24-month plans. Might we suggest setting up a reminder in your calendar for a few days prior to your renewal date, in the event that you want to cancel but you miss the email notice from Busuu?

No risk to try it out

Many Arabic lessons stall out as you move past a beginner level of fluency, but not Busuu. That's reason enough for you to take advantage of their free membership and see if it would be worth subscribing. You may want to opt for a month-to-month plan first, so that you don't have any issues down the road with the refund policy or automatic renewals. Although Busuu won't get your spoken Arabic to a native level of fluency, it's still an all-around good resource that incorporates content you can enjoy for a long time.

Rocket Languages

• Focuses on Egyptian Arabic
• Free guest access
• One-time cost of $149.95 (or $99.95 with promotional discount) for lifetime access
• Can also pay in six monthly installments ($27/month, or $19/month with promotional discount)
• Four modules with 12-13 lessons in each one
• Each module includes four or five interactive audio lessons, four language and culture lessons (which also include grammar), and four writing lessons to learn the Arabic alphabet
• 60-day money-back guarantee

Just getting started and wondering which Arabic lessons are best-suited for beginners? Hoping to avoid lengthy memberships and recurring subscription fees? Try Rocket Languages. Well-known companies like Deloitte and Pentel have used this program for many years to help employees study new languages, and it's a terrific option for individuals like you too.

Provide email address for free guest account

You can try Rocket Arabic at no cost. Just enter your email address and you'll be taken to your guest account: no credit card required.

Well-rounded approach to Egyptian Arabic

You should know upfront that Rocket focuses specifically on the Egyptian dialect of Arabic. That's an important distinction, since many rivals teach Modern Standard Arabic instead. What else do you need to know? Get ready for a fun learning experience that walks you through all of the basics of reading, writing, listening and speaking in Arabic. There are four modules here, consisting of Interactive Audio Lessons with native speakers, Language & Culture Lessons, and Writing Lessons for learning the Arabic alphabet. Lessons end with several types of practice, ranging from basic flashcard recognition and multiple-choice quizzes to speaking along with the lesson's dialogue in the roles of both characters. All of the lessons are based on a theme, which keeps your learning contextualized. Some lesson titles include "The Perfect Tourist" , "Islamic Sayings" , and "Visiting the Library of Alexandria" .

Costs

• Free guest account
• One-time fee of $149.95 ($99.95 with promo pricing) OR
• $27/month for 6 months ($19/month with promo pricing)

One time fee = lifetime access

As you may already be aware, most Arabic lessons require a month-to-month subscription or an annual fee. Not Rocket's! You'll pay a one-time fee of $149.95 or six monthly installments of $27: your choice. We've also seen promotional discounts from time to time, so keep an eye out for those when you're ready to buy. It's nice to have an option for learning Arabic without an expiration date or ongoing charges. Also, Rocket Languages ensure your satisfaction by offering a 60-day money-back guarantee.

No advanced content, no regular updates

There are two reasons why Rocket Arabic doesn't earn a higher rating. First, the content doesn't progress much beyond the basics, leaving you to shop around for another program once you've completed all of the lessons here. You definitely won't want to use Rocket if you've already had a year or two of experience with studying Arabic. Also, the content in the lessons is refreshed infrequently: during our most recent visit to the Rocket platform, lessons marked as "new" had been updated...over a year earlier. That's not a huge issue - basic Egyptian Arabic like counting and writing isn't going to change much from one year to the next - but you won't get the weekly/monthly vocabulary for current events like you'll see with some of Rocket Arabic's competitors.

Solid option for beginning Arabic lessons

For most languages, Rocket is our first choice for beginners who need something affordable, interesting, and well-rounded. Their Arabic lessons certainly match that description. Even though it's not the right fit for people who've already learned some Arabic and need advanced materials, Rocket Arabic still earns our enthusiastic recommendation.

Mondly

• App-based Arabic lessons
• Uses games, contests and leaderboards to keep you interested
• Can practice dialogues with Chatbot and Augmented Reality
• Has voice recognition activities for perfecting your Arabic accent

Language-learning apps are more popular than ever, and Mondly is one that offers more than most with over 40 to choose from - including Arabic. Just take out your phone (or navigate to the website) whenever you've got a few minutes; you'll be picking up new words and phrases in no time. And, if you're the kind of person who's motivated by points and leaderboards, Mondly's got you covered there too.

You had me at "Hello"

You can create a free account with Mondly and try out the first lesson of every language they offer: it's always called "Hello" , though the actual content varies. For the intro lesson in Arabic, you'll learn "mother" , "father" , "sister" , "brother" , "hello" and "this is my _____" (fill in the blank with one of those family member words). We're grateful that Mondly allows users to toggle between the words written in Arabic and their transliteration with the English alphabet: you decide when you'd like to learn to read the new words.

Theme-focused vocabulary sets

Mondly's Arabic lessons revolve around themes like Family and Travel. The amount of content varies; you might get just 27 words and no phrases in a category like Animals, but over 200 words and 60+ phrases under City Tour.

Not much grammar instruction

Even though some of the vocabulary sets are called "Grammar" , you're not going to find much on Mondly that teaches it explicitly. What is the standard word order in Arabic? How can you put together your own sentences? This isn't the kind of program where you'll be told outright how to do that. There's a little bit at the end of each lesson: look for the blue icon next to the "Redo" button. It's not always useful, though: in the first "Hello" lesson, the grammar gives you all of the conjugations for the verb "to be" ...but that's not used even one time in the lesson itself!

Chatbot and Augmented Reality tools can be fun

Mondly has a couple of unique features that you won't find with other Arabic lessons. Start by trying the free Chatbot conversation that comes with your trial access: it's on the main dashboard under the "Hello" lesson. You'll get a basic back-and-forth exchange of introducing yourself, asking how the other person is doing, and so on. We'll be honest: we had a very hard time imitating the spoken Arabic well enough to get the system to recognize our response, so don't feel too bad if you do also. Another interesting tool is the Augmented Reality feature that lets you "speak" with a digital partner you can superimpose on your own environment. We don't know how much meaningful learning that offers, but it can't hurt to try it!

Costs

• Free guest account
• One-time fee of $149.95 ($99.95 with promo pricing) OR
• $27/month for 6 months ($19/month with promo pricing)

Budget-friendly

As you use your free Mondly account, you'll quickly see that most features require a paid subscription (most lessons beyond "Hello" , more than one Chatbot conversation, all of the AR capabilities). The good news is that these Arabic lessons are very affordable - but prices vary on a regular basis. Standard pricing is typically $9.99/month or $47.99/year to unlock just one language. Mondly usually offers an all-access pass for their entire language library, and more often than not it's "promotionally priced" at $47.99 as well. To make things even more mysterious, at random times we've spotted an even deeper discount: get all of Mondly's languages, forever, for a one-time fee of $89.99. There's no apparent rhyme or reason that would let you predict when one of those mega-sales is coming around. Thankfully, any of those prices are much more affordable than some competitors' Arabic lessons.

Don't ask for a refund

We're not sure why Mondly doesn't offer students any kind of satisfaction guarantee. Their rivals do, almost without exception. At least you're not going to be out more than $100 if you subscribe and then change your mind, but we'd still suggest starting out with a month-to-month plan to minimize the damage. You can cancel at any time, and we're pretty sure Mondly will offer you plenty of incentives to get you back.

Not the best, not the worst

Mondly's Arabic lessons have some pros and cons. They're affordable for sure and can be an entertaining way to get in some daily language practice. We also like having the chance to try out some back-and-forth conversations, even if the speech recognition software had a hard time understanding our terrible-for-now accent. On the other hand, Mondly is missing the structure and the tools that help students develop true fluency in Arabic. Students who are serious about learning the language will likely need a more traditional program and just use Mondly for review.

Rosetta Stone

• Free trial for three days
• Teaches Arabic through immersion
• Voice recognition tool helps you practice your accent
• 30-day money-back guarantee

For many years, Rosetta Stone was the only name that came to mind when thinking of independent-study options for learning languages - but its hefty price tag put it out of reach for many people. Fortunately, the company has changed a lot: not just eliminating their clunky CD-ROM delivery system in favor of online lessons, but also bringing their prices down to fit most budgets. Their Arabic lessons cost just $35.97 for three months or $95.88 for a full year; you also have the option of a lifetime all-access pass to their entire language library for under $300.

Learn Arabic through immersion

The best-known feature of Rosetta Stone's approach to teaching languages is total immersion: you won't see any explanations in English! How does that work, exactly? Your first lesson will consist of basic words like "girl" , "boy" , "eats" , "drinks" , and the simple sentences you can make with them. You'll match the pictures with the audio, mimic the audio clips as closely as you can, and try to recognize the script that matches the words and phrases you hear. Even the lessons that are categorized as Grammar or Pronunciation are structured this way; there's never an overt explanation of word order, how the script in Arabic is read, and so on. (We're not even sure it ever demonstrated that Arabic is read from right to left!)

Costs

• $35.97 for 3 months of Arabic lessons
• $95.88 for 12 months of Arabic lessons
• $299 ($179 with promo pricing) for lifetime access to all languages

Better use that three-day trial

We always recommend that students sign up for Rosetta Stone's complimentary three-day trial. These Arabic lessons are structured so differently from most programs that it's absolutely essential you "try before you buy" . And, don't assume that because you've used this company to learn one language, it'll be the same in Arabic. For example, in some target languages that don't use the Romanized alphabet we know from English, Rosetta Stone has a little button in the bottom right-hand corner that gives you the option to see different scripts. That usually includes a way to see the transliteration: how it would be pronounced (approximately) with English characters. The Arabic lessons here don't give you that capability, much to our disappointment. As we worked through the first lesson, we were really aggravated trying to mimic what we thought we were hearing and to match the totally foreign-to-us Arabic script with what we were hearing. It's okay for language lessons to be challenging, but these just made us want to give up.

Extra content isn't much of a value-add

In your student dashboard, you'll see an option to Explore All Content at the top of the page. That takes you to some extras like interactive stories, downloadable audio files, or an alphabet tool. We didn't find anything that greatly enhanced our learning here, just more "features" that left us confused.

Room to improve

We'll give Rosetta Stone credit where it's due: the lessons are much more affordable now, and they're easily accessed via desktop or mobile app. That's a huge improvement over CD-ROMs (does anyone even have a way to use those now?). And, some students really enjoy learning by immersion. However, that tends to come most easily when it's a language that shares the Roman alphabet and/or has words that are already familiar to us (such as Spanish, French, or German). In order to learn a language like Arabic, most students will make more progress with some explanation in English; otherwise, their experience will too often consist of asking "But why?!"

Memrise

• No cost for a basic Memrise account
• Wider range of features available with paid Memrise Pro subscription
• Plenty of user-created content as well as Memrise lessons
• Multiple fluency levels available
• 30-day money-back guarantee

Memrise has helped more than 60 million people worldwide to acquire new language fluency. While we regularly give this service our highest recommendation, their Arabic lessons don't quite measure up.

Native speaker video clips... missing

We've evaluated Memrise for many different languages, and one of the program's biggest features is the native speaker video clips. There's no better way to see and hear exactly how someone uses the language in authentic settings: you can start to incorporate real gestures and mannerisms that come with the language (and perhaps avoid some of the faux pas English speakers are famous for making in other cultures!). But, this hallmark feature is completely absent with Memrise's Arabic lessons.

Crack the code

Instead, you'll begin with something they call "Code Cracker" . That's no exaggeration: you'll get little segments of Arabic script that, in theory, correspond with letters, but there's no explanation. We found ourselves muttering under our breath, "Okay, the characters to write "l' seem to say "la la la" , now how do we put that together?" We hoped that there'd be more explanation as we went along, or that we'd eventually see Memrise's famous native speaker video clips. We were disappointed.

Use the free account first

If you want to see for yourself, you can create a no-cost Memrise account and try any one of their many lesson choices. Not only does it include seven levels of Arabic, but it also gives you access to user-created content across a variety of topics. Algerian Words and Phrases, How to Type with Arabic Keyboard, and Yemeni Arabic Vocabulary were just a few of the extra courses we found.

Costs

• Free for basic account
• $8.99/month
• $90/year
• $139.99/lifetime membership

More review options with paid subscription

Your free Memrise access lasts forever. However, if you want to use all of the review features and study tools the program offers, you'll need to pay for a membership. It costs $8.99/month, $90/year, or $139.99 for a lifetime plan. You might get a discount if you look around or wait long enough: we spotted 50% savings on the yearly plan on the Memrise website and in emails we received on more than one occasion. All subscriptions are backed by a 30-day refund policy if you try these Arabic lessons for a while and decide to use something else instead.

Disappointing by comparison

Typically, Memrise is one of our favorite language learning platforms. Unfortunately, when it comes to Arabic, this service is a let-down. It's mostly a glorified set of flashcards, with no context at all. You could use your free Memrise account for vocabulary review to complement another program, but we don't think most students will choose it as their main way of getting well-rounded Arabic lessons.

Talk in Arabic

• Focuses on spoken Arabic
• Learn all major dialects: Moroccan, Algerian, Egyptian, Levantine, Iraqi, Tunisian, Saudi, Sudanese
• 30-day refund policy

Most Arabic lessons focus on Modern Standard: a literary form of the language that literally no one uses in day-to-day speaking. Talk in Arabic wants to help you learn Arabic the way it's used by native speakers - in eight different dialects! If your travels are taking you to Tunisia, you've got business meetings with a Moroccan team, or you'd simply love to hear Arabic in many varieties, this may be the only platform out there that gives you easy access to all of the above.

Get a free account for a preview

You can create a free account to take a sneak peek at what Talk in Arabic offers. All of the dialects are listed on the side of the page, or just click on the dropdown box at the top of the site. They include Egyptian, Levantine, Iraqi, Saudi, Sudanese, Moroccan, Tunisian and Algerian.

Lacks structure, consistency in content

These Arabic lessons aren't very organized, and the amount of content varies widely depending on which dialect you choose. You'll find many more lessons in Egyptian Arabic, for example, than you will for Sudanese. You also won't have any structure to guide your studies: no checkmarks, no tracking, nothing. You'll just have to select the dialect you want and then your fluency level (beginner, intermediate, advanced). Some lessons are in audio format, while others are native speaker video clips. Most of them have a PDF you can download to get a transcript of what's being shown/said: not the most intuitive way to follow along with the material.

Costs

• $12.95/month per dialect
• $95.40/year per dialect
• $197 one-time fee for lifetime access per dialect

Unclear pricing

What does Talk in Arabic cost? You're not always going to get the same answer to that question. They advertise that their "regular" pricing is $12.95/month or $95.40/year per dialect, with the option to pay a one-time fee of $197 to get lifetime access to that dialect. And, when we went to set up our free account, we got an upgrade offer to get a year-long plan for just $47. And yet, our free dashboard let us access sample lessons from all dialects, and even when we started the upgrade process we didn't have to specify any particular dialect. We reached out to Talk in Arabic via live chat, but no one responded.

30-day refund policy

The refund policy here is a little different. They call it a 30-day "grace period" and you'll have to specifically request a refund. If you simply cancel your account without making that request, you won't get your money back automatically.

Has potential but comes up short

We really want to love Talk in Arabic, because so few language programs give you access to the most commonly-used dialects from around the world. Unfortunately, it's just not enough to earn this platform a strong recommendation. It would be almost impossible for a brand-new student to feel comfortable learning here: there's not enough explanation to get them started. It could be a fun resource for more advanced learners, but even those students would probably need to use Talk in Arabic in conjunction with a more structured program.