Languages

Are you trying to learn Arabic or Italian?

I have lots of resources.

Levantine Arabic

I’m co-founder of a small company, called Simple & Easy Arabic, which strives to make learning spoken Levantine Arabic — well, simple and easy.

We have a very active page on Instagram with lots of vocabulary and grammar, as well as a podcast, an online dictionary, and much else. All our links can be found here. We also have a Patreon account. I have a list of free online books and resources here.

We are also in the process of publishing four books. The first is Levantine Arabic Plurals, the second is Levantine Arabic Verbs, the third is a Crash Course in Levantine Arabic, and the fourth is a Collection of Short Stories in Levantine Arabic.

Italian

I’m in the beginning stages of learning Italian.

I have produced this condensed — though incomplete — summary of Italian grammar, if you’re interested.

The best introductory Italian book ever written — in my opinion and the opinion of many, many others — is the Natural Method Institutes’ 1962 classic L’Italiano. Trust me, it’s a gem. No need for any introduction to grammar or long lists of vocabulary. You just start reading Italian from the beginning.

The method is also known as the inductive-contextual method. It’s brilliant. Understanding is achieved through familiarity with cognates and through context alone, and you build from there. You will quickly see that this is indeed the case. This natural method is extremely effective.

The method is unique, and utterly fantastic. I learned Latin from Wheelock’s classic text, but there’s a brilliant Latin book based on this same natural method, called Lingua Latina and written by Hans Ørberg. I’m working on doing a version of this text for Arabic.

I also have a Facebook Page: Italian Language and Culture.