How to Learn Hijazi Arabic with the FSI Method

What you are learning

The book’s introduction says Hijazi is spoken on the western coast, in Jidda, Taif, Mecca, and Medina. It teaches the urban dialect of Jidda, not Bedouin Hijazi, and not Najdi (in and around Riyadh) or the eastern dialect it calls Shargi. It says there is no single standard Hijazi, and that pronunciation varies. Where the book had to choose, it chose Jidda.

The same introduction says that, in 1975, Hijazi was the most widely understood dialect on the Arabian Peninsula and was used for government and commerce, while Najdi had prestige because it was closer to Classical Arabic and was the dialect of the royal family. That is the book’s claim from 1975. It is not a current census.

The sound contrasts with Najdi and Egyptian are on the comparison page. The course page is Learn Hijazi Arabic.

What the FSI method is, in this book

From lesson 4, each lesson has a short dialogue to memorize, structure sentences, grammatical notes, vocabulary notes, and drills: substitution, transformation, questions and answers, and translation. Situations are English lines you should then be able to say. Cultural notes appear when the book has them. Every tenth lesson is a review. Lessons 1 to 3 are the opening dialogues and drills, before that full pattern.

The wider drill cycle, including shadowing as a way to repeat a line, is on the FSI method page. Vento does not add a score promise for Hijazi pronunciation. Listen to the lesson audio and repeat the line.

Does it work?

The book was for classroom students with an instructor. Its introduction says that after the book a student “should have attained a working proficiency” of about S-2 on the FSI scale: routine social demands and limited business requirements, such as directions, a meal, personal information, and purchases. It also says real fluency still needs speed and new vocabulary after the book. That is the 1975 aim. Vento has not measured it, and studying alone is not the class the book describes. Do not read the S-2 sentence as a date you will be fluent. The method page is where Vento states the limits of using these courses alone.

Step 1: Learn the sounds in the guide

The pronunciation section uses a transcription because, the book says, Arabic spelling cannot show every dialect contrast and can tempt a classical pronunciation. It also says English equivalents are approximate, and the instructor is the model. These are the book’s descriptions, not a field recording from this year:

• /H/ (ح): like h, but strongly whispered from deep in the throat.
• /9/ (ع): the voiced counterpart of /H/.
• /'/: the catch in the throat between the vowels of “oh-oh”.
• /g/: “g in get”.
• /q/: farther back than /k/. The guide says this sound occurs only in “classicized” words and often alternates with /g/.
• /j/: “j in jet”. The guide does not write this sound as /g/.

On the “th” consonants, the guide says Classical Arabic th has changed in Hijazi. The Jidda form it teaches uses /talaata/ for “three”, not /thalaatha/. It says the Classical pronunciation and the Najdi pronunciation are still heard often enough that you should recognize them. A Hijazi speaker should check every bullet against current Jeddah speech before you treat it as a rule.

Step 2: One dialogue at a time

Lesson 1 is a greetings dialogue. The printed lines include marHaba (“Hello”) and marHaba. keef Haalak? (“Hello. How are you?”). The book says the English is sometimes a free translation, not a word-for-word gloss, and that the dialogue is given in the masculine singular, with feminine and plural in the drills. A note in lesson 1 says the lesson’s greeting words are heard more on the western coast, and that alternative words for “How are you?” and “Fine” are common in the Najd, around Riyadh. Those alternative words are not copied here. Read them in the book, or ask a speaker.

The lesson 1 preview shows the opening stored for Vento. Some English lines in that file do not match the drill pairs. Use the preview to hear the lesson, and use the book for the gloss.

Step 3: Drill it aloud

The book’s drills substitute one piece of a sentence, transform it (for example affirmative to negative), and ask you to answer and to translate. Do that for the lesson you just heard before you open the next one. The book does not say “ten minutes” or “twenty minutes”. Vento will not invent a timer.

Step 4: Say it with the audio

Shadow one line: speak with the recording, slightly behind it. Then say the line without the recording. If you cannot say it, you are not done with that lesson. The method page is the longer version of this step.

Step 5: Use the book’s review lessons

Every tenth lesson is a review. Lesson 10 in the printed book says “Review all dialogues.” In Vento’s catalogue, lessons 10, 30, and 50 have “Review” in the title. Lessons 20 and 40 are titled for a topic (taxis, renting), so the catalogue title is not the printed heading. Say the earlier dialogues again before you start the next block. This page does not add a separate flashcard schedule. The book’s review lesson is the schedule it actually printed.

The first ten lessons

There is no 30-day calendar here. The book does not give one, and a made-up grid of minutes would be a fake plan. Work in order through the first review. The titles are the ones in Vento’s catalogue, not printed chapter titles from 1975.

How long it takes

Category IV on the State Department list is 88 weeks, 2,200 class hours, to ILR 3 in speaking and listening. Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean. The page lists “Arabic”, not separate dialects. Finishing these 50 lessons is not that figure. The book’s own aim, for a classroom student who finishes it with an instructor, is about S-2 on the scale the book names. This page does not convert S-2 into the State Department’s ILR 3, and it does not treat them as one number.

Figures for categories and class hours are from the U.S. Department of State, “Foreign Language Training” (https://www.state.gov/foreign-language-training), describing full-time classroom study to an ILR 3 in speaking and listening. They are not a promise about self-study. state.gov/foreign-language-training

Hours for the other courses are on the difficulty ranking.

Mistakes that fight the book

• Reading the Arabic spelling “in the classical way” and ignoring the transcription. The book switched to transcription to stop that.
• Calling Najdi or Egyptian “this course”. They are different. Egyptian and Levantine have their own courses. Vento has no Najdi course.
• Treating 2,200 class hours, or the book’s S-2 sentence, as a promise about your phone.
• Skipping the pronunciation guide and opening lesson 11.

Start lesson 1

Read the preview, then start the drills in this browser. No account is required for that start.

Questions