There are 4 million Lebanese living in Lebanon, but there are 15 million Lebanese scattered throughout the world. The Lebanese language is also understood throughout the Middle East region, by more than 60 million people, or double if Egypt is included.

Learning Lebanese is as easy as learning any other foreign language, but you need to know where to start. Many confuse the Lebanese language spoken with Arabic. Although the two have common roots, Lebanese is to Arabic what French is to Latin. Lebanese is a living spoken language, while Arabic is a written language only.

Some may refer to Lebanese as the Lebanese dialect of Arabic, but to foreign ears it is a language in its own right.

To learn Lebanese, we recommend the following steps:

First of all, you should forget about the idea that you will have to learn Arabic script to learn Lebanese.

The Lebanese have developed a way to transliterate the Lebanese pronunciation into the Latin alphabet. Many have invented specific Latin characters.

You can consult a Wikipedia article on the Lebanese Arabic language at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanese_Arabic

Lebanese is a spoken language. Therefore, learning Lebanese must be based on conversational foundations. Stay away from tedious formal grammar rules. There are some attempts to build academic foundations for spoken Lebanese, but all are under construction and none have gained universal legitimacy.

I recommend you find a website or school that uses Lebanese transliteration with only English accents (no specific keyboard required). With such sites and tools, you don’t need to learn a specific alphabet to write Lebanese words. Just use a regular QWERTY (English) keyboard.

You must listen to conversations, and even memorize the basic ones. Since you are learning a spoken language, you should repeat the conversations as often as possible to get comfortable with the way they are said.

Finally remember, you cannot learn a language overnight. You can’t learn a language from a phrasebook, and memorizing tones of grammar rules doesn’t mean you’ll be able to apply them easily.

Give yourself time and organize it in such a way that you don’t overload yourself and get discouraged. Make your learning experience a pleasant journey. Lebanese are very outgoing and friendly, willing to communicate with you. Do not hesitate to practice with them, they will be very proud.