Find an Arabic tutor near me in Birmingham

Arabic lessons in Birmingham: find a tutor

Learning a language is never as easy as travelling to an unfamiliar place – if we can always get by with a little English in a country where the native language is different, it often takes a language course to get comfortable or speak fluently.

Fancy learning some Arabic in Birmingham? Whether you’re in the city centre or the surrounding areas, Birmingham’s Arabic community plays a huge part in local culture.

As the UK’s second largest city and the largest city of the Midlands, Birmingham is arguably more diverse than London.

A once medieval market town, Birmingham saw major advancements during the Industrial Revolution. After the bombings of the Second World War, the city underwent a huge urban regeneration, and has since developed a strong economic and cultural profile.

So there you have it: a great reason to start learning about Arabic culture within the multicultural community of Birmingham.

But what if you know nothing about this ancient and complex language? There’s so much to learn, from the Arabic alphabet to grammatical rules and Arabic vocabulary…

Thankfully, Superprof is here to provide the highest-quality Arabic tutoring with our most competent teachers.

Why learn Arabic in Birmingham?

First and foremost, the main reason to learn Arabic in Birmingham is the city’s diverse ethnic landscape. You’ll find a variety of ethnicities and nationalities in and around the city, with so much of their cultures to enjoy.

Some good reasons to learn Arabic

In a city of over a million people, it is a unique opportunity to learn as much as possible about Arabic language and culture.

In addition, taking classes with Superprof will considerably increase your language level alongside a strong Arabic-speaking community.

As English is widely spoken by North Africans and Lebanese, you’ll find there’s less of a language barrier, which will help you build confidence and start more conversations.

What’s more, learning this Semitic language (if possible from a young age) will help to speed up your cognitive skills.

A study published in the Journal of Neurolinguistics states that ‘learning and practising something, for example a second language, strengthens the brain.’

This scientific work provided Chinese lessons for 39 English-speaking people. As soon as the lessons were complete, scientists found that the best students had brain networks that were more connected and integrated than before the study.

This shows that learning a complex language, such as Arabic or Mandarin, can stimulate your reflexive abilities: when shown the Arabic alphabet, different grammar rules and unknown Arabic words, brain memory increases.

Arabic: a rich historical and cultural language

Learning the Arabic language is a passport to knowledge – not least because Arabic is synonymous with a rich Islamic civilization of over two millennia.

Indeed, historians, archaeologists and experts in Islamic sciences trace the emergence of this Semitic language to the second century.

Few feudal texts were translated into the Latin alphabet: to read and understand Arabic writing therefore allows access to authentic Arabic literary texts, such as poetry and philosophy.

Throughout history, Arabic civilization has experienced long centuries of territorial expansion from the Arabian Peninsula to Europe (particularly France and Spain) via North Africa.

Throughout the Middle Ages – the Umayyad, Abbasid and Ottoman Empires – Arabic culture played a part in all fields of science and art.

Muslim scholars leave behind a colossal, centuries-old legacy in the fields of mathematics, physics, medicine, Arabic literature and Arabic calligraphy. The West would later draw inspiration from this set of scientific breakthroughs during the Renaissance, after centuries of Christian obscurantism.

There are many reasons to learn Arabic, but how do you go about learning? And what form of Arabic should you learn?

It’s important to remember that there are different forms of Arabic, depending on where in the world it’s spoken.

Some general things to know for learning Arabic in Birmingham

An important diglossia of the Arabic language

Arabic is an umbrella language that embraces different dialects: a classical Arabic, which corresponds to its ancient, authentic form, and a modern standard Arabic, itself divided into literary Arabic and dialectal Arabic.

Literary Arabic is the most taught form as it is understood in all the Arab countries of the Muslim world, from Morocco to Syria.

To increase your Arabic language skills, you can also learn an Arabic dialect that’s practiced in a particular country or region. For example, Moroccan Arabic, Darija, will be different from Egyptian Arabic.

Finally, Arabic is also the language of the Holy Koran, the language of the Prophet Muhammad. Learning to read and write in Arabic gives Muslims an Islamic education allows them to perfect their reading of the Koran.

Some specifics of the Arabic language

Whether you want to learn literary Arabic, dialectical Arabic or Koranic Arabic (and religious practices), you may have already noticed that you read and write the Arabic alphabet from right to left.

This may feel weird at first, but the key is to memorise the letters of the alphabet and their position within each word.

There are 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet, and each letter has four forms depending on the place it occupies in the Arabic word: 

• An initial form, which never changes
• An isolated form, which corresponds to the first syllable
• A middle form, which corresponds to the middle of the word
• A final form, which is used at the end of the word

In linguistics, we say that Arabic is a triliteral language: words are essentially made up of three consonants. The vowels in the abjads are not always written.

To help you understand, take the root k-t-b (ك-ت-ب), which means ‘to write’. This root of three consonants makes it possible to form other Arabic words related to the semantics of writing:

• Ka-ta-ba (in phonetic transcription): to write 
• I-kta-ta-ba: copy
• Ki-tab: book 
• Ka-tib: writer 
• Ma-kta-ba: library

In fact, you can progress quite quickly once you’ve memorised the letters of the Arabic alphabet – to read Arabic is much easier than learning Arabic vocabulary.

Arabic classes at home with Superprof in Birmingham

Helping you make rapid progress, our courses will ease you into the Arabic language to familiarise you with the sounds and difficulties of Arabic pronunciation or writing.

In Birmingham, dozens of professors trust us to offer courses at all levels, from beginner to advanced level.

Becoming bilingual in Arabic is possible, but keep in mind that it will take either intensive courses or several months of classes to achieve this. Willpower, rigor and hard work are therefore essential if you want to learn to speak Arabic fluently.

Our Arabic courses are distinguished by different profiles, the proposed hourly rate and course content.

The average price for a one-hour home session is £20 in Birmingham. These rates range from £10 to £35 an hour.

But why is there such a price gap? Several variables make up the hourly price: 

• The experience and qualifications of the tutor (for example, a graduate in Arabic language or from the Arab World Institute, etc.) 
• The number of years the tutor has been practising 
• Activity and status: a student in Arabic can’t charge the same as a teacher at the end of their career working in a language school
• Nationality: a non-native Arabic speaker will be cheaper than a native Arabic speaker 
• The level taught: introductory courses will require less preparation than advanced courses 
• The proximity: travel costs can be added to the price if the tutor has to travel far to visit the student 
• The content of the lessons: prices can vary depending on whether you opt for introductory alphabet classes, conversation classes,

Arabic reading and writing courses, Koranic Arabic lessons, Arabic calligraphy courses, literary Arabic and Arabic dialect courses.

The objective of private home lessons is to provide the learner with regular monitoring throughout the learning period. To help you achieve your goals, choose a teacher who can adapt to your pace.

From school to university, ongoing tutoring to exam preparation, our teachers are all fluent English speakers, so there will be no problems with comprehension or communication.

There’s also lots you can do outside of your lessons to improve your language skills: reading Arabic news and listening to Arabic with English subtitles (on Al-Jazeera, for example), are great exercises to speed up learning – and impress your teacher!