Looking for some good Egyptian Arabic tips?
You’re in the right place! After learning Egyptian Arabic to a high level myself, I’ve realized there are a lot of ways to get better at the language. If only I knew half of these when I first started out!
Below you will find a list of my best Egyptian Arabic tips that will help you learn the language faster. Some are serious, some are a little bit more funny…but all of them are guaranteed to speed up the learning process.
We’ve separated this post into two main sections:
- Egyptian Arabic tips if you live in Egypt
- Egyptian Arabic tips if you don’t live in Egypt
I hope you enjoy this list – and let me know if you have any creative and effective tips of your own.
Your Ultimate Guide To Learning Egyptian Arabic
One quick note before you read the rest of the post. If you haven’t already…
Join the Cleo Lingo email list!
Sure, some shameless self-promotion to start out this post. But if you’re serious about learning Egyptian Arabic, it might be one of the best things you do all day.
If you’re on our email list, we send you a bunch of cool stuff that helps you learn Egyptian Arabic.
This includes:
- A bi-weekly newsletter
- Updates about all the blog posts we release
- News about our first Egyptian Arabic course (coming in late 2023)
We’d love to have you!
Egyptian Arabic Tips If You Live In Egypt
Use Couchsurfing
I’ve talked about it before, but Couchsurfing is a great website if you’re learning Egyptian Arabic.
It helps you do a few things:
- Meet up with people in different cities (great if you are living in Egypt and looking for a conversation partner)
- Travel the world for free (if you do it safely)
- Find people online that share common interests (always great with language learning)
Even if you don’t live in Egypt, you can simply search for people that live in Egypt. Reach out to them and ask if they want to do a language exchange. You never know what you might find! I did this myself all the time, and got a couple great conversation partners out of it.
Note for women: Some guys unfortunately seem to think Couchsurfing is a dating site. Just a heads up.
Go to all sorts of events
Related to the first one, this tip is more about pretty much any kind of meeting you can imagine.
Just one example is the Quora meetup in Cairo.
I used to write Quora answers, a lot of which were about life in Egypt (check out my profile here). Because I ended up being one of the consistent writers located in Egypt, I got an invite to Quora’s annual meetup.
It was really fun, and I ended up speaking quite a lot of Egyptian Arabic. Check out websites like Meetup if you are interested in practicing your Egyptian Arabic in real life.
Live with Egyptians
We all know it: living with native speakers of the language you are learning is one of the best ways to level up your conversation skills. That’s why I’m a big fan of seeking out Egyptians to live with.
Now, am I saying your experience is guaranteed to be a good one? Definitely not – I lived with two Egyptian guys that hated each other. Just about every other night I could hear them screaming at each other, and once I even walked in on them cursing and throwing pillows at each other (this is not a joke). Super weird? You bet…but it certainly helped my Egyptian Arabic speaking skills!
Pro tip: establish immediately from the beginning that you want to speak at least some Egyptian Arabic with your Egyptian roommates (maybe not entirely if you are just starting out). It’s extremely difficult to switch languages with other people once your communication has already been “established” in one specific language.
Chat with your doorman
If you aren’t used to it, the Egyptian boweb (doorman) can be a weird cultural thing. These are guys that are basically in charge of the building and wear the hat of repairman and security guard at the same time. Very different from many countries. Out of five apartments I lived in in Cairo, three of them had one.
Of course, not all apartment buildings have bowebs. That said, if they do, these guys are pretty much at the entrance of apartment buildings 24/7. And my experience is that they usually don’t speak English very well. Bowebs have seen some shit, trust me on that one…might as well ask them about it!
Make best friends with your cleaning lady
This will make me sound lazy, but I had a cleaning lady when I lived in Cairo. She came every two weeks, and left our apartment looking spick and span (and yes, this is a normal thing in Egypt).
It’s easy to be that awkward foreigner that just smiles and nods at your cleaning lady, but I highly advise against it. Try to chat with her, even if it’s just a little bit. You’d be surprised at how confident you can get with even just a few “chats in the real world.” This is exactly what I did…and wouldn’t you know it, some of the best conversations I ever had were with my cleaning lady!
Pretend you don’t speak English
Want to know one of the most frustrating feelings ever? Devoting a ton of time to learning Egyptian Arabic, getting pretty good at it…and then having an Egyptian quickly switch to English (or whatever your native language is) when you are trying to speak their language to them.
This is annoying, but let’s face it: Egyptian Arabic is hard. Not many foreigners are learning it…even the ones that live in Egypt! Trust me when I tell you that most Egyptians aren’t used to expats not only learning their language, but learning it well. Depending on who you are speaking with, Egyptians might just do the automatic “switch to English’ when they hear your accent.
Well – just pretend you don’t understand them! Learn how to say “I don’t speak English” and “Sorry I’m from Serbia” (never met any Egyptians that speak Serbian, sorry Serbian readers) and go from there. Likely, the conversation stays in Egyptian Arabic and gives you the chance to use it.
Of course, don’t be a jerk about it. After all, it’s not like you should be “taking advantage” of Egyptians solely for language practice or anything like that. Plus, maybe they want to speak your language too! But this little trick can be quite useful.
Get lost in the city
I haven’t told many people about this, but I had a very weird tradition while I lived in Cairo. It was called “Get Lost Friday”, and it’s exactly what it sounds like.
I would intentionally go to a part of Cairo I had never been to (it’s so big you’d never run out of new neighborhoods) and get lost. This would force me to chat with people to find my way home. Whether I was finding my way to the metro, a bus stop, or a hotspot of TukTuk activity, I was chatting with Egyptians.
This skyrocketed my ability to:
- Correctly pronounce tricky words when people corrected me
- Explain things when I was trying to make my way home
- Get comfortable making mistakes – of which there were a lot
Now, I will be the first to admit it: this approach is a bit extreme. If you are introverted, this may not be something you’re comfortable with. Also, sadly, if you are a woman, simply going around to random places in Egypt can be legitimately dangerous.
Still, my general point stands: if you are serious about learning Egyptian Arabic, and you live in Egypt, simply speaking to people can do wonders for your language skills. Might as well take advantage of it – in a smart way, of course.
Sit at ahwas and eavesdrop
This is exactly what it sounds like. At the risk of sounding a little melodramatic, there is something magical about sitting at an outdoor cafe in Egypt. Seems like there’s a certain time of day where the entire world is there, too…which makes it a fantastic way to practice your Egyptian Arabic.
Whether that means ordering stuff, or, yes, eavesdropping on the conversations that are happening around you, an ahwa can be a great place to brush up on your Egyptian skills. It’s a wonderful opportunity to experience something deeply Egyptian. Of course, be sure you learn how to order an ahwa first!
Eavesdrop everywhere else, too…and take notes
If you live in Egypt and are trying to learn the language, your chances to pick up little fragments of conversations are pretty much limitless. Here are just a few places you might hear useful Egyptian Arabic phrases and tidbits “in real life”:
- Your taxi driver screaming at other drivers on the road
- The two women standing in line in front of you at the supermarket
- The fruit guy you go to talking to one of his longtime customers
- Egyptians talking to each other at the party in Zamalek you find yourself at
- The million conversations going on around you on a minibus hurting through Dokki
- Those kids that ride around on motorcycles and shout things at their friends
The trick here is to be ready to write things down. This is exactly what I did for three years in Cairo – and it resulted in over 6,000 phrases that I turned into Anki vocab cards.
I’m set for life! 🙂
Celebrate Ramadan at least once
There is this misconception among non-Muslims that Ramadan is some super oppressive time that’s not fun at all. It can be hard, certainly. It’s often polite not to eat in front of other Egyptians during daylight, and many restaurants will even close up shop until the sunset. This can make things a bit weird in Egypt (or any other Muslim country) if you’re working around during daylight hours.
But after the sunset? Well, it’s party time! Not only is Ramadan (and all the Iftar and Sahour parties that happen during it) a great time to practice Egyptian Arabic, but it’ll show you an entirely different side of Egyptian culture. And that right there is reason enough to check it out!
Learn how to drink tea with your sugar
This is a little joke I have. True story, though. Once, when I was living in Cairo, I was fixing tea for a coworker. I asked him how many spoonfuls of sugar he wanted, if any. His answer?
“Only six.”
This tip has nothing to do with tea, and everything to do with assimilating into Egyptian culture. The fact is, depending on where you come from, there is a good chance that Egyptian culture is very different from what you are used to. But there are a ton of benefits (involving your speaking skills, as well) to trying to “act a little more Egyptian.”
For example, I typically don’t drink sugar in tea. However, just to “blend in” a bit more while living in Egypt, sometimes I would in Egypt. And I’m completely convinced it made me feel more comfortable while chatting with Egyptians, and made the process of improving my Egyptian Arabic feel more natural.
A bit esoteric? Maybe. If this whole ‘blending in” business isn’t your thing, no worries. But you might be surprised what happens in your brain (and how much quicker you learn Egyptian Arabic) if you start “drinking tea with your sugar.”
Become a football fan
Guilty confession time – I’m not that big of a football / soccer fan. I know – not that surprising coming from a guy from California. That said, when I lived in Cairo, I watched more football matches than I can remember, and they all made me a better Egyptian Arabic speaker.
In fact, we even have a post about how to watch football in Egyptian Arabic. Definitely worth checking out if you want to take this Egyptian Arabic tip seriously!
Date an Egyptian
Enough said.
Don’t be the person who dates / marries an Egyptian and then refuses to learn their language. Egyptian Arabic is hard, sure…but the things we do for love, right?
Anyway, if you live in Egypt and want to learn the language, try out at least a few of these tips. I guarantee you that they will change the way you think about learning the language, make you more creative in how you study, and make your progress a whole lot faster.
And if you don’t live in Egypt?
Here are some tips for you, as well!
Egyptian Arabic Tips If You Don’t Live In Egypt
Watch Egyptian Arabic YouTube channels
YouTube, if you know where to look, is one of the best resources for learning just about anything. Egyptian Arabic included. Great videos for free, and ready to go whenever you are. Plus, find the right ones and you can skyrocket your listening comprehension…likely the most difficult skill when you are starting out with a new language.
Obvious caveat here: make sure you have a system in place if you want to maximize the time you spend on YouTube. And once you do… go check out some of the best Egyptian Arabic YouTube channels guaranteed to improve your skills!
Join the right online forums / groups
The internet is a big, big place. There are online groups for just about anything you can imagine…including learning Egyptian Arabic. While Googling is your friend here, Facebook and Reddit are great places to start.
The benefits of joining these groups can be massive, if you are active enough:
- Find a conversation partner to practice Egyptian Arabic with
- Get tips from people learning Egyptian Arabic you might not have thought of
- Gather new resources and materials you can study with
- Read “cultural tips” about living in Egypt you didn’t know about
You’d be surprised what you might find!
Get yourself a conversation partner on iTalki
When I first moved to Egypt I was really good at Standard Arabic. I had just spent over three years studying it at college and had even worked as an “Arabic Teaching Assistant” for my school’s language department. I quickly realized that wasn’t going to help me in Egypt.
Because I didn’t yet know anybody in Egypt, I didn’t have an Egyptian friend who could help me with the language. I quickly turned to iTalki. This is a website where you pay a teacher to chat with you via Skype or Zoom. And I must say – it got me speaking super fast.
I tried to take at least one hour-long lesson per day. Because I studied all the new vocab I was learning religiously, it was only a few weeks before I was having basic conversations, and a couple months before I started to feel confident. That’s the power of speaking a lot, and iTalki makes it super convenient to do.
Chat with random people on Tandem
Tandem is much the same with iTalki. The difference is that instead of professional teachers, you’re just talking with normal people. Tandem is a great app if you want speaking practice but are also interested in making new friends in a country (useful if you’re planning on moving to Egypt or visiting the country someday).
Two things here:
- The name says it all: this is a Tandem language exchange. You will learn Egyptian Arabic, sure, but you’re also expected to teach your partner your language. If you are trying to learn as fast as possible and have the money to spare, simply hiring a teacher on iTalki is probably the way to go.
- I’ve heard that a lot of guys treat Tandem as some sort of dating app. Kinda weird (especially if that’s not what you’re looking for). It’s still a good app for language practice, but just keep this in mind.
Follow Egyptians on social media
One of our main rules at Cleo Lingo is that you have to be creative with your language studies. We live in a time where it’s never been easier to find quality material to learn with. Sure, Egyptian Arabic might not have as much as Spanish (the entire reason we created Cleo Lingo), but there are still things out there. You just have to go looking.
One good example is social media. If you just do a little research, you quickly come across “famous Egyptian celebrities.” And now, all you have to do is follow them on the various platforms so you can see what they write and/or say.
The important thing to note here if you’re learning Egyptian Arabic is that you want to be following people that typically create content in Egyptian Arabic. Seems obvious to say, but you will often come across either English (so they can appeal to a wider audience) or written Standard Arabic (although this is less common). Happy searching!
Get the right books
Lastly, if you don’t live in Egypt, but want to learn Egyptian Arabic, books can be a great place to start. It’s a great introduction to the language, allows you to conceptualize certain difficult topics much easier, and can teach you a ton of new vocabulary.
Pro tip: don’t work through a book on your own. It’s well worth your time hiring a teacher (iTalki, for example) to go through certain sections with you. As for the books you should start with? If you don’t want to go searching for yourself…here are our favorite Egyptian Arabic books to get you started.
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Happy learning,
Cleo Lingo
