Levels and content of Cafe Palestina Arabic classes

Pictures are from our recent Arabic in Wales course (time off, and Arabic through cooking!)

Arabic Beginners Level A

This course is suitable for beginners in Arabic. It aims to help learners develop proficiency in the Palestinian or Levantine dialect. Additionally, it is well-suited for students currently studying Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) who aspire to explore an alternative accent.

In this level, we will cover these topics:

• Greetings and feelings
• Personal information (name/nationality)
• Daily objects (masculine/feminine nouns)
• Pronouns
• Numbers 0-10
• Time
• Family members
• In the café
• Places in town
• Questions (What / who / where / when / Do you?)
• Sentence structure
• Declensions of prepositions (with/from/for/to)
• Letters of the alphabet

Grammar points: adjectives (mescaline/feminine), the, verbs (to want, to have/ to know), active participle.

Recommended Book: Let’s Speak Arabic 1 by Omar Othman, Chapters 1- 6 ( you can order a copy from Café Palestina)

Arabic Beginners Level B

Beginners. For those who have finished level A or studied for approximately 36 hours. It is for students who have studied MSA and want to learn Levantine Arabic or have been travelling in Palestine, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. It is for students with a little experience in Arabic who can recognise the Arabic letters or who can read and write Arabic.

In this level, we will cover these topics

• Talk about daily activities
• Use daily phrases
• Conjugate verbs to talk about you and others
• Use necessary words like (must/ have to/ let’s / perhaps / ...)
• Use time words
• Talk about transport
• Numbers 11-100
• Talk about food
• Use numbers with nouns

Grammar points: verbs (past / B-prefix verb and simple verbs), negation of verb and direct object, dual nouns.

Recommended Book: Let’s Speak Arabic 1 byOmar Othman, Chapters 7- 10 (you can order a copy from Café Palestina)

Arabic Elementary Level A

Moving on, this is one step higher; you need to have studied at least 70 hours and be able to put together at least an easy sentence in written Arabic.

At this level, we will cover these topics:

• Talk about your family
• Be able to use verbs in sentences and questions
• Talk about festivals
• Talk about your daily routine
• Talk about directions and positions
• Be able to read a short story and talk about it
• Be able to translate sentences from Arabic/ English
• Be able to compare things
• Numbers 100- 1000000
• Use nouns with numbers

Grammar Points: Verb, declensions of prepositions/plural/adjectives

Recommended Book: Let’s Speak Arabic 1 by Omar Othman, Chapters 11- 16 (you can order a copy from Café Palestina)

Arabic Elementary Level B

You need to have studied at least 100 hours. It is a conversation class for people who are managing at some level with spoken communication. If you can put together a complex sentence in speaking and written Arabic, this level is for you.

In this level, we will cover these topics:

• Greetings and courtesy expressions
• Use Ordinal numbers
• Talk about your place
• Be able to translate long texts
• Talk about your belongings
• Be able to describe the seasons of the year
• Be able to use an adjective to compare things
• Use new verbs in your speaking
• Use link words in your speaking and writing (the connective ma)
• Talk about food shopping

Grammar Points: comparative and superlative, verbs

Recommended Book : Let’s Speak Arabic 1 by Omar Othman, Chapters 17- 20 (you can order a copy from Café Palestina)

Arabic Intermediate Level A

Students should have studied Arabic for about two years, specifically focusing on the Levantine dialect, or have lived in the Levant countries for an extended period. They must be able to read and write in Arabic with confidence.

In this level, we will cover the following topics:

• - Discuss your life and the lives of others
• - Talk about current issues
• - Discuss education
• - Describe people, films, and books
• - Explore possibilities
• - Read a short story and discuss it
• - Talk about marriage
• - Describe parties and events
• - Discuss fashion and traditional clothing

Grammar Points: We will focus on active participles, adjectives, and verbs.

Recommended Book: Let’s Speak Arabic 2 by Omar Othman, Chapters 1-8 (you can order a copy from Café Palestina).

Arabic Intermediate level B

Students should have studied for approximately three years and be able to read and write in Arabic with confidence. A strong understanding of sentence structure is also essential.

In this level, we will cover the following topics:

• - Discuss your life experiences
• - Talk about social life
• - Discuss education
• - Express opinions
• - Talk about travel and identity
• - Read and discuss short jokes
• - Share and talk a love story
• - Discuss illness and health issues
• - Talk about the month of Ramadan

Grammar points : Will include the use of "iyya," verbs, and both active and passive participles.

Recommended Book: Let’s Speak Arabic 2 by Omar Othman, covering Chapters 9-17. You can order a copy from Café Palestina.

Arabic Upper Intermediate

If you are a student with an advanced vocabulary and a good understanding of everyday expressions, and you can confidently speak Arabic, this course is tailored for you.

In this level, we will cover the following topics:

1. Discuss your life using cultured language.

2. Utilise deep cultural phrases that natives use regularly.

3. Respond appropriately to cultural phrases.

4. Communicate with classmates in various ways and provide answers.

5. Talk about daily life in real-life situations.

Grammar Points: We will review key grammar concepts and practice using different negative structures as native speakers do.

Recommended Book: To be provided by the teacher.