Health professionals in the UK have been talking about the importance of having 5-a-day, i.e. 5 portions of fruits and vegetables every day to keep healthy and fit. I believe that any serious learner of Arabic must have 5 portions of Arabic a day as well to improve their abilities and update their skills.
The 5-a-day of Arabic should include practicing the 5 skills of Arabic.
Reading القراءة
Writing الكتابة
Listening الاستماع
Speaking التحدث
Translation الترجمة
You can practice according to the appropriate level for you. If you are a beginner, start by reading and writing words or sentences. If you are an intermediate or advanced student, you can write a letter, a paragraph, emaill, etc. It really helps if you read and then write about the same topic.
With the Internet and youtube, listening cannot be easier! You can listen to the daily news bulleting in Arabic on BBC Arabic or CNN Arabic. Al-Jazeera would be brilliant for upper intermediate and advanced students.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arabic/tvandradio/
You can listen to the news on radio or TV and read the news story on the website as well, and thus practice both skills at the same time.
To practice speaking, you have to find a partner who is willing to listen to you speaking in Arabic! Alternatively, you can record your speech and listen to it later. This is very very useful!
Translation into Arabic and into English is also easy to practice with the help of the Internet. It is often the case that news items on major outlets like BBC are presented in both English and Arabic. Also, almost all UN agencies have their websites in English and Arabic, so it is possible to find English and Arabic versions of many texts on the web, e.g. the following links take you to the main story on the UNESCO website in both English and Arabic:
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/resources/online-materials/single-view/news/from_the_grassroots_to_global_campaigns_ngos_and_education_for_all/
http://www.unesco.org/new/ar/education/resources/online-materials/single-view/news/from_the_grassroots_to_global_campaigns_ngos_and_education_for_all/
To access the Arabic website for any UN agency, click on Arabic (العربية) on the homepage:
Remember that you do not have to understand everything, you just have to get into the habit of using your Arabic regularly!
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