Talk in Arabic Review

Saturday, June 25th

2022 Arabic Lesson Reviews

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.