For any student learning Arabic, the discussion of the different dialects soon arises.
When I first started learning Arabic, I was learning classical. However, I soon became disheartened with the amount of times I heard "Why are you speaking like that?" or "Nobody speaks classical, learn a dialect". Obviously nearly all Arabs understand the classical form, but very few seem comfortable talking it with new learners in conversation. For the everyday Arabic speaker, you can see that it has been some time since they spoke classically.
Despite living in a Gulf State (Qatar), I have been learning the Levant dialect. I have found it to be the most widely understood of all of the dialects.
What are everyone else thoughts on dialects? What is the best dialect to speak to be understood by all? Should everyone learn Classical Arabic first and then a dialect? Or the other way around?
Definitely classical Arabic first, then choose the dialect you like. To be so honest with you; I feel sorry every time I see a foreigner learning a dialect first & I feel he/she didn't learn the real Arabic language! I used to speak Classical Arabic 'Fusha' with all the foreigner students I had to deal with in my job & they used to like that very much because they understand what I say better than when speaking to them with a certain dialect. If I'm Arabian myself & Arabic is my mother tongue, yet I don't get the dialect of Morroco for example; How could it be possible for a foreigner to do that?? That's why speaking Classical Arabic 'Fusha' is very important for everyone so they will understand each other.
If you ask me,the best thing is learning classic Arabic first.because wherever you go,they will understand you when you speak with modern standard Arabic.maybe some of them will smile or laugh when you speak with that,but that is the real Arabic.because there are dialects and they are really different than each other.if you compare Syrian dialect with the Egyptian one or Algerian one,Tunisian etc.. And after that Syrian dialect is the closest dialect to standard Arabic.and I think the most popular one is Egyptian dialect. So bro,try for the standard Arabic better,even if they say to you why are you speaking like this.you can tell them because I know Arabic better than you :)) all the Arabs should be able to speak in standard Arabic not only understand it.
I think MSA is better for new Arabic students. When it comes to dialects, I think you made a good choice in learning Levantine Arabic dialects. Jordanian, Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese dialects are the closest to Fusha and understood by all Arabs.
Usually, I recommend my students to start with the Classical Arabic for a lot of reasons:
1- It's more difficult so when you start later on learning the dialect, you will find it really easy.
2- Most of the Arab dialect are derived from the Classical Arabic.
3- If you learn Levantine Arabic or even Egyptian and you go to Morocco or Algeria, people will mostly understand you BUT they would respond in their dialect meaning? you will not understand anything 'just like me when they talk to me in their (darija)'...
At the end of the day, my advice to you and to all Arabic learners is to focus on your objective, so if your objective of learning Arabic is only to talk to people without reading books, news, literature etc... you better focus on the dialect where you're living in or interested in. BUT if you wish to understand the news, books and things like that, you better learn the classical and when you master it you could choose any dialect you like. I hope that my answer clarifies things for you and for other learners :)
Fadi
Standard Arabic and dialect both are important to learn, but in my opinion, being able to communicate with the people you're living with is more important than being able to read a novel.
