Arabic Lessons in Toronto

Among the more than 200 languages you can hear around Toronto, Arabic is one of the most commonly used. This is hardly surprising, as the city has big immigrant communities that come from countries like Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Palestine. In fact, according to the 2016 census, there are almost thirty thousand Arabic native speakers in the city, which places this beautiful language as the twelfth-most widespread language in Toronto after English.

If this wonderful language has sparked your interest, Toronto is a great place where you can study it. This multicultural city has many institutions, festivals, stores and restaurants that celebrate the fascinating Arab culture and its language, and by learning it you’ll be able to meet some of the friendliest people in the local foreign-born community. What’s more, if you become a fluent Arabic speaker, you’ll start to see Toronto in a different way, and you’ll have many new opportunities open up for you across the city that will change the way you experience it dramatically.

Learn Arabic for Work and Travel

Being multilingual in a city as diverse as Toronto will allow you to access great positions that are exclusive to bilinguals, like Arabic-speaking Social Media Content Analyst for Cognizant, Arabic Bilingual Research Analyst for RepRisk AG and Banking Advisor for RBC. Even if you don’t want to work for local companies and already have your own business, speaking a popular language like Arabic will allow you to get closer to the vast Arab community in the city and find potential business partners, employers and employees. It would also allow you to build business relationships with foreigners in Arab countries with strong economies like Qatar that can help you expand your business or even find work there.

Learn Arabic for Social

Every year in November, you can immerse yourself in Arab culture at the Festival of Arab Music and Arts. The festival showcases the best local and international Arab artists in a series of concerts, performances, plays, film screenings and art expositions. Whether you’re interested in Arabic classic music played by an orchestra, Byzantine music or to listen to traditional music from Iraq, this festival is for you. The program changes every year, so if you live in Toronto you’ll get to enjoy performers from a vast array of Arab countries, which will help you get in contact with the many Arabic dialects. Events that are part of the festival take place at venues across the city, so if you want to attend, check this year’s program here.

Fortunately, there are other ways to explore Arab culture in the city that are available all year round, like visiting some of the local restaurants that serve traditional food from Arab countries. If you want to try Lebanese food, you should visit Tabule, located at 810 Queen Street. They offer mouth-watering dishes from Lebanon like falafels, fattüish salad and an award-winning house-made hummus you simply can’t miss.

Learn Arabic for Culture

Learning Arabic grants you the unique opportunity to expand your social circle and meet people within the local community who are just as passionate as you are about this wonderful language. A great place to do this is at one of the events organized by the Toronto Arab Group. They hold all sorts of events like bowling nights, meet and greets and language exchanges at local bars. The main aim of this group is to promote Arab culture and help provide a relaxed atmosphere for Arabic speakers in the city to develop their skills and make new friends. If you choose to become a member of this group, you’ll get the chance to visit local Arabic restaurants, nightclubs and Middle Eastern events with a friendly group of people that come from many parts of the world and share your love for the Arabic language.

Where to learn Arabic in and around Toronto?

If you want to study Arabic as part of your university degree, you should check out some of the courses available at the University of Toronto. In addition to offering great conversational courses, they offer Arabic script courses and general Egyptian and Modern Standard Arabic courses that go from beginner to advanced levels. You should also stop by the Toronto Public Library, located at 171 Front Street, which has a great collection of texts in Arabic that you might find interesting, like Hānsil wa Ghirital, the translation of the classic Grimm brother’s fairytale Hansel and Gretel that’s great for people who are just beginning to read in Arabic. You’ll also find a lot of great albums in Arabic that will make you fall in love with the language like Arabic songs from North Africa by Chalf Hassan and Arabic Groove, a great collection of funky, contemporary music from the Middle East that features many different artists like Abdel Ali Slimani, Abdy and Hisham Abbas.

Using these or any of the resources in Arabic you can find at the library will make your journey to become fluent easier, but if you really want to take your skills to the next level, the best thing you can do is study at Listen & Learn. Here you’ll find lessons that stand out from the rest because they are based on your own interests and language goals. If you choose to learn with us, you’ll no longer need to use outdated materials, as you’ll be paired up with a qualified tutor that will create a completely personalized Arabic course just for you. Just send us a quick inquiry now and one of our team members will contact you within 24 hours to answer any question you might have!