A topic such as the one you are asking about calls for an appropriately long answer. So brace yourself. There is no clear-cut answer to the question whether you should learn MSA or Dialect. There is, really, no "If your goal is ... then go for ..." kind of answer. Generalizations can be made though. If for academic purposes, passion for literature in all its genres, history, theology, philosophy, linguistics, language learning per se, politics, then I say go straight for MSA. MSA is the main medium through which all this vast range of fields is being communicated across the Arab world. At this point I would like to dispel a misconception that might be inferred from this, and that is MSA is an archaic language that is limited to only few areas outside which it is not or is inappropriate to use. Not true. Again because a clear cut cannot be made. MSA is still an essential part of the Arabic identity and is still seen as "Our Juwel". A point to consider is that Dialect is (a lot) simpler than MSA. You can learn Dialect relatively quick compared to MSA, for reasons the scope of this answer cannot cover. So, this will be a motivating start. That is, of course, not to say that MSA is the devil par excellence in terms of difficulty, but the language is vast and will take you long time to learn. You mentioned traveling and everyday life, and I think Dialect is the practical tool for that. Since as I said there’s no clear division, you will by the time learn few MSA words and expressions here and there, proverbs etc. automatically. This might be later the gate into learning MSA specifically after having “absorbed the shock” of the new culture. In a nutshell: Which one would I personally pick if I were you at this situation? Dialect.

It really depends on your goal. If your goal is just to be able to communicate and say basic phrases to get your message across then I would recommend you go for the MSA. However, I believe learning a dialect holds many benefits compared to learning MSA. In both cases you will have to learn the basics of the language. So starting with MSA might be a good start. When it comes to listening, choosing a dialect will make a big difference. It will enable you to use tv shows, movies and other listening material viewed by natives rather than content created specifically for language learners. Once you travel to the country of which you’ve learned the dialect, or deal with people that speak it, you should be able to understand them and be understood. You will also be understood by people from other Arab countries. However, if you learn MSA, yeah you will be understood, but it will take a bit more effort to understand the spoken language.

Thank you guys so much for your answers, I have been able to ponder a lot of what you guys have told me. Thank you all again for your informative answers.

Hello Andrew. Well, I am gonna put it as clearly as possible. This is a controversial topic between Arabic natives themselves. Probably you will leave the post more confused than before putting it there! :) Anyhow, generally speaking, in my opinion, for people who are thinking about relationships with Arabs from different countries, or for those who are thinking about spending long times in the Arab world, it is definitely better to start with MSA, because afterwards you can build up easily on it and perhaps going with some dialects not just one of them, and everybody will understand you, but you will barely understand anybody! Except, if they talk to you, I mean when they talk to each others it will be tricky for you, but most likely they will speak MSA with you when you talk to them directly. On the other hand, if you just would like to travel to a specific country in the Arab world, or you just wanna have some connections with Arab people from that country, and would like to sound more natural when talking to people, and would love to leave people very surprised from your skills, then of course go with that country's dialect, after all you do care about it in particular. Also, audio sources for dialects are countless, whereas they are much less for MSA. Written sources are completely the opposite! People can teach dialects much easier, so probably it will be easier for you to find language partners for dialects than finding ones for MSA. At the end, if you will choose one dialect, I'd advise you to go with the Levantine one, very close to MSA (generally), and everyone from outside that region will be able to understand you easily. Egyptian is also good, very common and understandable and the funniest one ^^! I like all of them honestly, but I am advising you as a learner, for me as a native, all of them are really beautiful! That's all!

I'm an advanced learner, and since you have said you want to learn Arabic for travel and everyday use, I recommend you learn dialect, either Egyptian or Levantine. This is what I did, and then once I felt I had a handle on everyday communication, I began to concentrate more on MSA so that I could read and understand the news etc. People will tell you not to learn a dialect unless you are visiting that one particular country - not true, Egyptian and Levantine dialects are understood across the Arab world, and you will understand pretty much every dialect except the Maghrebi ones.