Lebanese You Tube series: Shankaboot

If you're interested in learning authentic Lebanese Arabic, the type that is spoken by everyday people in Beirut then check out the You Tube series Shankaboot. It's a low budget show that is really high quality. It looks even better than a lot of the shows I've seen on Arabic TV. The story is interesting and the Arabic in it is great. The show has English subtitles that you can select as well. The series stars a delivery boy, Suleiman Shankaboot, in Beirut who gets involved with the mafia. It's not a conservative show which makes it more interesting. It has everything that you would find on American TV. The show also shoots in Bekaa البقاع for a few episodes so you get to hear what some of the rural Lebanese dialect sounds like.

The language is much different from the kind of thing you'll see on Lebanese talk shows and shows dubbed in Lebanese. Even though those shows are in Lebanese dialect the language contains less slang and is more proper. The thing I'm most interested in right now is Arabic slang and sayings. I've learned how educated upper class people talk, but I'm not as good as I'd like to be with slang. It's harder to find resources for that kind of thing because people have an aversion to teaching a way of speaking that they feel is wrong. It's just like how most Americans view Ebonics. It is viewed as bastardized form of English and no one teaches it. I've met a lot of foreigners who try to understand African Americans when they speak to them on the street but can't. That's how I feel when it comes to Arabic spoken in everyday life. I've learned a lot of everyday Arabic in the past year or so, but I still understand the news better than I do 2 friends just talking and joking with each other. I'm trying to change that.

And, if you can find it, another good show for learning authentic spoken Arabic is called Dunia دنيا. It's a comedic Syrian drama about a girl who comes from the country side to work as a maid and earn a living in Damascus and her dialect reflects that. She speaks with an accent that I hadn't heard before and it took a while to get used to. I still don't understand everything that it said in the show, but that means that it's something I can learn from. I stopped watching dubbed shows because I noticed that I can understand the vast majority of everything that's said. Dubbed shows have a more simplified and less "slangy" form of the language. Anyway, I found Dunia and a lot of good shows on arabseries.org, but they only accept new registrations from time to time. I would keep checking if you're interested because that site has tons of shows. I paid $20 a while ago for unlimited downloads.