Learn Syrian

Systems: Online Access (PC, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS)

Suitable for: Beginners and Advanced Learners, Students, Professionals

Content: 1300 words (basic course), 5200 words (complete course), grammar, verb conjugations, exercises

Prices: USD 29,95 (Basic Course), USD 97 (Complete Course)

Overall Value:

The Syrian Basic Course contains a vocabulary trainer for the basic Syrian vocabulary (1300 words) with native-speaker audio, as well as grammar explanations and various exercises.

The vocabulary trainer works with a long-term memory method, in which the new vocabulary is checked at increasing intervals.

You can choose between text input, multiple choice or simply confirming whether you knew a word or not.

The exercises include text comprehension questions, filling in word gaps or just vocabulary lists where one side is covered.

The basic course corresponds to the official language levels A1 and A2 (explanation of CEFR language levels).

The Complete Course contains:

• Basic course for beginners (basic vocabulary with 1300 words)
• Intermediate course (1800 more words)
• Advanced course for experts (2100 words)
• Additional specialized vocabulary
• Covers the official CEFR language levels A1 to C2

Summary: Much cheaper and even better than the famous Rosetta Stone. There is a free demo version available and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Link: Syrian Basic Course and Complete Course

Systems: Android and iPhone apps, online version (PC and Mac)

Content: Syrian exercises with native speaker audio and speech recognition

Prices: USD 9.99 (1 month), USD 100 (12 months), USD 200 (unlimited), USD 400 (163 languages)

Overall Value:

The Bluebird App offers 146 source languages and 163 target languages and dialects, including Syrian Arabic.

The Syrian language course in this app includes the following:

• Daily video lessons in three difficulty levels
• Basic Syrian vocabulary on several dozen topics
• Common Syrian verbs with conjugations
• Analysis of your own pronunciation (with speech recognition)
• Tests: listening comprehension, filling in word gaps, vocabulary quizzes

There are about 500 video lessons for learning Syrian, each 5 to 60 minutes long. For languages with other scripts, the words can also be displayed transliterated in the Latin script.

The Bluebird app has no grammar lessons. Instead, you are supposed to understand the grammar "implicitly" from the examples, like in Rosetta Stone.

Summary: The video lessons and the interface take some getting used to, but the exercises are quite varied. Especially for smaller languages, this app is a viable alternative.

Systems: Android and iOS Apps, Online Version

Content: Syrian lessons with native speaker audio, grammar, culture

Prices: USD 7.99 (1 month), USD 80 (1 year),
USD 18 (1 month and 70 languages), USD 180
(1 year and 70 languages)

Overall Value:

The Mango Languages App offers 70 languages, including Syrian.

This app also has some grammar lessons and cultural explanations. The explanations in English are all recorded and well done.

However, the number of lessons for learning Syrian Arabic is quite small, which means that this app is only suitable for absolute beginners.

There are no exercises, except for the repeated vocabulary tests.

You can also record your own pronunciation in the app and compare it with the recording of a native speaker.

Summary: Good quality, but not much vocabulary. Only for absolute Syrian Arabic beginners.

Systems: Android App, iPhone App, Online-Version (PC and Mac)

Content: Syrian lessons and vocabulary trainer with native speaker audio, grammar

Prices: USD 8,99 (1 month), USD 60 (12 months), USD 110 (unlimited)

Overall Value:

With the Memrise App you can learn over 90 languages.

This includes even very small languages - however, in such cases the language courses are often limited to just a few lessons.

One special feature of the Memrise learning app is the large number of lessons created by users (native speakers).

The quality of these lessons varies greatly though. For example, only the basic forms of verbs are usually taught, without the conjugations. Some languages also do not have an audio recording of the words at all.

Another good idea of the Memrise app are the user-generated tips and mnemonics for each word to help you memorize them.

Summary: User-generated lessons are a good idea. In practice, the quality of the lessons leaves a lot be desired.

Systems: PC and Mac (incl. Mobile App)

Suitabe for: Beginners, advanced, students, travel vocabulary

Content: Eastern Arabic vocabulary, lessons with native-speaker audio and speech recognition

Price: USD 150 (Basics)

Overall Value:

The Pimsleur App is very similar to Rosetta Stone in that it does not give grammar explanations, verb conjugation tables, etc.

Instead, the Pimsleur method is supposed to let you learn the Eastern Arabic dialect intuitively, just like your native language - by combining pictures, reading and speaking (speech recognition).

The complete course includes a total of five courses (levels 1 to 5). The beginner course is level 1. Each of the five courses offers 30 daily lessons of 30 minutes each and there are various interactive exercises.

This Eastern Arabic learning course for PCs and Macs also includes a mobile app for Android and iOS systems.

Summary: The most expensive beginner course, even though it is unlikely that learning with it is much better than with the cheaper apps.

Learning App	Subscrip- tion?	Price	Systems	Value
17 Minutes (Basics)	No	$29	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
17 Minutes (Complete)	No	$97	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Bluebird	No	$200	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Bluebird	Yes (1 month)	$10	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Bluebird	Yes (12 months)	$100	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Mango	Yes (1 month)	$8	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Mango	Yes (12 months)	$80	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Memrise	No	$110	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Memrise	Yes (1 month)	$9	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Memrise	Yes (12 months)	$60	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Pimsleur (Basics)	No	$150	PC, Mac, Android, iOS

Best Syrian Arabic Online Course:
17 Minute Languages