 guys what is going on we have another how I learn Arabic episode from one of the Andru's Institute students in the program of Arabic like an Arab now this student he's a special student because he's one of the first I think from the first 10 students that ever joined Andru's Institute about one year and so ago and and since then he stuck to the program Allahumma Barak he came into the program with literally like I remember in the beginning the weekly conversational sessions me trying to speak to him only in Arabic so he can get used to it and he not understanding anything like I would just have to say in English until you know he got used to it right now in the weekly conversational sessions he makes new students feel like they are you know feel bad basically like they not advanced and that they that they not as you know they are not as proficient as as you know other students when he comes to speaking and whatnot so so I hope you guys enjoy his journey and how and how he's going so far now keep in mind that he's still on module number two out of out of sorry a module number two out of three modules and and and yeah even though he's still in module number two he is Alhamdulillah able to speak right now to understand most of what is being said in Arabic to to just take the classes all in Arabic literally all in classical Arabic so so I hope you guys enjoy and apologize again for not being as responsible as I would like to put in this the stories of the students out there but but yeah he's a hustle but I hope you guys appreciate this this episode and yeah let's get straight to it thank you Allah here by the alameen Assalamu alaikum warahmatullah how is everyone doing welcome to all the viewers to another episode of how I learned Arabic with my brother Tierno Salam alaikum warahmatullah how are you bro Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah okay so so let's go straight into the point based on the experience that we have gained with the other episodes people they like to go you know to hear straight away the the story so so just tell us a little bit give us a little bit of background by yourself you know you from what you do and so we can so we can get some context basically my name is Cherno I'm from originally from Guinea I came to America when I was around 14 years old and I live in Brooklyn right now and I just graduated from college yeah for your college I got my bachelor's degree and yeah so it was like just started learning Arabic language in my sophomore or imagine in my junior year of college that's when I started learning Arabic language and then you know I came into this program like we know no no no background Arabic language except that you know reading and writing because you know as all of us Muslims you know we learn how to read and write as kids you know so I know how to read or add but then I didn't understand anything from the Arabic language and like literally when I came in the program I didn't know anything I did actually kind of took like class like a YouTube I watched like some videos on YouTube from like a chef not like a chef but like a teacher I think a lot of people who actually want to learn Arabic language probably know this guy it's like a guy he's Indian he's from he actually used to teach in Toronto even Hanan was talking about this guy I used to watch him like he was teaching the Medina book so I kind of like watching for like maybe like a few weeks before I actually started learning about this I heard about this program when I actually went in the program I've been following me before like you know you started the program so you know I've been following me like you were actually at that time doing you know the Amazon FBA thing so you know it's kind of like you know checking you out and seeing like you know what you were doing and then like I saw one time in your story that you posted that you have like an Arabic program and then that you know you just you know that was like in like the testing phases you know I just kind of like replied like I'm like wow you know I guess I want to learn the Arabic language because at that time I just like had started practicing the religion you know I just like I wanted to learn more about Islam because I was like watching some Tafshir videos and like I saw how deep like the Quran was how the understanding of the Quran was how important it is with the Arabic language so I told myself you know if I want to learn the Arabic language if I want to understand this Quran I have to learn the Arabic language I was also watching like some videos of a sheikh and mess I think everyone knows him sheikh Mohammed Alsharaoui now I used to watch his videos but you know the translated ones like he used to be so deep in the way he explains the Quran and I tried looking more videos of him but I couldn't find any more English so you know man if I really want to understand what this sheikh is saying because you the things he was explaining the Quran the way he was explaining it it was really you know deep so I was like yeah I need to learn the Arabic language if I really want to you know understand this but you know that's why you know I just came in and like I started I like you know I want to join the program and then I just started my journey that's actually that's actually interesting when you said that you just kept looking for more translations but but you couldn't find any more and I feel like that's that's the situation when you really want to seek knowledge like no more and go deeper into knowledge and Islamic knowledge you always feel like now yeah you in the beginning there's a lot of translations for the most basic stuff but then the more you go deeper is like you get stuck like why is this book not translated yet into English why is this book and yes he's always um you know you always get get uh you always I mean stay short on on basically uh knowledge if you don't learn the Arabic language so uh so you give us a lot of uh a lot of information now uh what would you say that was your uh your experience with the program when you when you start because I remember when you started in the weekly conversational sessions uh it was literally like I could even talk to you and I would have to just say it in English at the end so uh and right now and Alhamdulillah you are um you are understanding most of what's being said in Arabic and if you don't understand a word you just you are able to ask in Arabic what that word means or what is the context of that word so what was the whole you know what was the whole uh experience like since the beginning yeah so when I first joined you know the program like I could literally not even say one word you know in Arabic nothing I remember last time I was like watching like one of my first you know weekly conversation sessions because you know like I heard a brother I was talking about he was saying like you know I'm not making any effort in the language so you know I just kind of like went back and I watched the video and I said to him I was like you know this was me like you know literally like you asked me something basic in like I forgot what kind of word it was but like when I saw it I was like wow how come I didn't know this word you know like like literally you have to like you know repeat it over and over and over again for me to understand because literally I didn't understand like zero what was going on you know in that thing but so then I just kind of like you know I went on went to the program and then I just got learned more words because I think pretty much for Arabic what you need is just vocabulary you know because you know a lot of people grammar is important but I think to just get started I think vocabulary is good you know I know a lot there's a lot of people who might say you know like you know don't start with vocabulary but I think personally I like this thing this method because you know once I have words I can at least say something you know even though my grammar might not be good someone can correct me but still at the end I can still get my way around and tell people you know what I want to say even at the end of the day even though there's might be some grammatical mistakes I didn't that should get my point across so you know as I started to learn more words and everything started memorizing and practicing the way the conversation which really allowed me to practice because you know it puts you on the spot you know it's like there's no way out you have to speak to get your way out so now right now everything that we talk about in the conversation understand everything like most everything except you know like you said a few words that I might just ask like everything that's going on I just understand it you know or when I look back from before and now I'm like you know sometimes you might think that you're not making any progress but when you look back from where you were at the beginning and from where you are right now you can see that you know a lot has changed yeah no no it's actually interesting what you said about you know at least you can get your cross up again I mean you can get your point across when you have vocab because there's this uh this known uh in the you know in the linguistics world this known uh proverb that says um wiles without grammar very little can be conveyed without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed like I mean if you don't even know how to say you know me go there you don't even have these three words there's not even grammar in there but the person understands oh you want oh you want to go there okay yeah I will help you so uh so I mean you know for the person who haven't gone through this process through this uh way of learning it might look like okay should I do the grammar uh approach should I do the the vocab approach should I but once you are in and you actually try it out it's like how not this actually makes sense you know like just I just need to keep building my vocab to the point where I might read something and I don't I don't have any I don't get stuck on any word I know all the words I hear your conversation I hear I understand all the words that are being used so Alhamdulillah so what would you say it was um it was the most difficult part because I I mean I know in Allahumma Barak you you was uh you was uh pretty consistent but for many students the most challenging thing is the is just staying consistent really because I mean there is no secret to it the more you memorize the vocab the more able you are to speak to understand to so what would you say it was the the most difficult thing and the thing that helped you to to stay uh to stay focused I think it's like kind of like you know when when the program starts like you know you start to tell to us talk to us about you know like uh the mindset like you know what kind of mindset you should have how you should go like you kind of give us a lot of resources where we can organize our work like you know like calendar things and like everything with like the you know the duets that you know did you give us in all of those sorts you know this really helps but I think also uh the things that you talk about also is you know self-discipline you know I think I feel like you have to be self-discipline I choose you know self-discipline of motivation because you know motivation it goes up and down you know you don't feel motivated to things but even though sometimes you might not feel motivated to something once you're self-discipline you know you have to do it regardless you know so I know some people they have to be self-discipline you know when it comes to the program you know I should have like a schedule so what I used to do before is like I used to try every week I would just do like one lesson every week I started by two but I was like you know this is not going to work out for me you know because I was still in school you know I had classes so I had to find like something that fit inside of my schedule so I told myself you know maybe like uh Monday I would watch like like you know just a lesson I would watch it and then on Tuesday or Wednesday I would write it down and like you know between Thursday and Friday we just memorize the words and then Saturday and Sunday I would just take the test you know so like the whole week I kind of like you know organize it where I was able to like you know watch the lesson write down the words memorize and also come to the test and take it so you know once you need to have like you know a way to like you know kind of organize yourself and then you have to for example you know you have to know like what is your goal like you know if you really want to learn Arabic language then you have to you know force yourself and then that means you know taking some sleeping for less hours you know even if you have to do that you have to make some sacrifices you know you have to make a lot of sacrifices you really want to get to you know to get your goal so let's get into the logistics how because many people they ask okay I don't even know if with my schedule with my responsibilities whether it's work whether it's children whether whatever it might be you know whether it's stay at home mom whether it's a brother who works 12 hour shifts so how many hours would you say that you was able to put in which allow you to have this progress I mean I know you said did you have any day off or how many hours was actually you know I have you know Saturday and Sunday off you know but even though I had Saturday and Sunday off that is I mean I was not putting in some hours during the week I would just mean I would put in like less hours but I would still put in some hours you know to work so you know I've kind of like you know a lot of people they have you know kind of depends on a person because you know for example somebody once you're married you know it's kind of like different because you know you have to give rights to your wife and or your husband and your kids you know you have to give them the rights but yeah at the end of the day you can still squeeze in some few hours you know I don't one can say they don't have like at least 30 minutes that's free like an hour that's free whether even if that means you know cutting off social media cutting off you know television you know I don't really watch TV like you know and I also try to stay away from social media that's how I think I use that time to put into like you know there are big language because you know you have to like make some sacrifices you know at least you have to you know try everyone has 30 minutes or an hour you know where they can put in some work you know for example just that I just mean maybe let's say if you work you know on the weekdays that doesn't mean that you cannot take like 30 minutes or an hour even like wait when you're working or you're gonna break it when I used to actually when I used to be working I used to bring you know my kitabu tabi with all the words I used to bring you with me you know you have it around the kitabu tabi yeah yeah have it around can you show it yeah I like have a lot of papers in here this is kind of like how it is so for those who don't know kitabu tabi is basically the is pretty much a dictionary we build along the way going through the program in all the words that the person memorizes yes I used to bring this with me you know I have like a order with me so I have it right here I have everything here I used to bring it with me actually you know when I was at work and when I had some free time for example at lunch I would just you know just to review it you know constantly review it so you know I always make some time you know to to do this you know 30 minute and then you know once you have free time for example on the weekend just put in more hours that's gonna like compensate for the hours that you're getting have during the whole week yeah so I think that's that's the way for people to do it and I think for example yeah for young people young if you're young like there's no excuse for you man like you used to use this time actually to actually before you get married or before something else happened before you can use to use this time right now because you have a lot of free time you know and then you know for example you know I'd probably sometimes tell us about you know how to like you know use your free time before you get busy you know so for young people like you should have no excuse you know you have a lot of free time right now like me so you have to you know use these hours you know to compensate for your because you don't have a lot of obligations yet you know so now is it time to do it no I'm definitely definitely plus I think as you said I mean pretty much all you said could be summarized to just make it part of your life because otherwise and that's what I tell you guys all the time to just optimize your whole life towards the goal that you're trying to to achieve I mean it doesn't make much sense to perhaps you know have every day a meeting with all your friends to just sit down and drink tea or watch sports or whatever it might be if that's not really something is going to help your your Akhira then just start deleting all those stuff of your life because those doing those stuff it makes you say oh I don't have time but if you really look at what you are actually doing throughout the day you realize that well I don't really need to be doing this well I don't really need to be doing that I'm just doing that because whatever it might be so Alhamdulillah definitely making a part of your life it helps it helps a lot so what would you say right now to someone who who might be watching this and he's saying and he's saying yeah but subhan Allah you know I don't know like you always have that there's always a pattern when you are in a habit routine or in the rat race as they say it that it needs there should be something that happens to impactfully make you stop and and you know get out of your routine and and literally just give time for yourself to think like okay subhan Allah let me look at what is important for me to do what is not important and I realize that wow actually learning Arabic is something that is really important for me in my life so so okay let's do it right now but most of the times that only happens when there's something that happens in your life that makes you stop from the routine and and actually makes you start thinking in and reorganizing your whole life so what would you say to the person that is in that routine who doesn't even like as they say in Arabic he just keep going in that routine what would you tell them that you know in terms of like why would they want to start learning Arabic and based on how it helped you on how or how it changed your uh just your iman and your your way of of life I would say I would just you know personally talk to myself you know like I speaking for myself like before like you know I just started like you know practicing the thing it was like I would say it was probably like two years ago you know I already know you know how to you know I was used to pray you know and everything like you know I had the basics down because you know my parents you know they teach everything but then after the basic like I didn't have anything else you know like I didn't know anything else about Islam except that you know I have to pray I have to fast you know I need a fabulous lamb you know basically but then beside that I didn't know anything else so you know like and then two years ago like I was saying and that's just you know I just started to learn about it didn't like I don't know why you know like people always ask me you know what happened because a lot of people say did something happen to your life or anything I'm like no nothing happened you know I think last time when we're talking about like you know the dictate that we did yesterday about like you know how like the fingers the hadith power sallallahu sallam how like the heart of the person is between the two fingers of Allah like he changes it how he wills you know that's what I felt that hadith because I feel like that's what happened to me personally you know I just started learning about a deal like it wasn't any tragic moment that happened to me you know but then since I started learning this I was like subhan Allah man I guess my in man increase you know when I pray right now or when I read the Quran I understand a lot before I never just understand anything you know when I'm listening to Quran I listen to where I'm praying like right now when I go to the message how like I just want the you know the amount to probably get a prayer you know like don't cut it short you know at the time that you know he's just he's reading some surah and then he just got to show him like come on yeah you know just add a little bit more verses you know and I was also excited just to come down to actually you know go to the message but because of the coronavirus you know it makes true if you enjoy it that a week you know I was like to probably start with gonna be different man I'm gonna be feeling I'm gonna be understanding a lot a little bit like a lab that I used to before from the Quran and exam you make me you know understand a lot of the Quran so he allowed me and he's gonna increase you know and it's also gonna help you you know I should like watch a lot of videos not from the scholars and you know like just learning straight from them you know Arabic is just different when you hear it example for example the du'a is right when I make du'a subhan Allah like if you're reading a du'a in Arabic it's way different than reading a translation like you never really feel it you know like you actually feel what you're saying I can actually you know sometimes I make du'a in Arabic you know and I just like kind of you know use this you know to come close to Allah and then when I read the Quran you know the Quran translation is good you know I mean that's just a lot of scholars say the translation is like someone who's not Muslim I saw some scholars who say that translation is for people who are not Muslims you know to get them to learn but as a Muslim you should know the Arabic language you know that's like that's because Allah swt says in the Quran for the apple how can you understand the Quran without the Arabic like we send down the sport in the Arabic language so that you can you know that you like what is the word for that in Arabic so you know yeah and it's a healer so you can understand with understanding so you know how can you understand Arabic language without the Quran without the Arabic language like there's no way if you really want to understand it you have to understand the Arabic language so you know I always tell a person to you know just stop yourself and ask yourself you know We all want gender right if you want gender then you have to work for it because you're not gonna get gender by doing nothing It's not by saying oh, I believe you know, and I want to do this But you don't actually put in the work because that's just calm. There's no oven You have to put in the work for you to get to gender. So you have to ask yourself stop yourself and ask yourself, you know What is important for me? Do I want to go to gender or like this one? I you know follow this dunia and everything else is inside of it So why don't you kind of tell yourself, you know, I want to get to gender So for you to get the gender you have to understand the dream and for you to understand with the Dean You have to you cannot understand without the Arabic language So that's why I would sell a person, you know, just understand that, you know, this is Something that you have to learn for you to get close to Allah and appreciate you man No, I'm for sure for sure for sure. Okay, we shall la so So we will conclude here will end the the little interview here and I would like to see who is the real Viewers so as you guys already know when we do How I learned how learn Arabic episode I'll tell you guys always to put to comment something So I see who's the real viewers who watch all the way until the end. So this time I want you guys to to to comment Just under this Institute Just under this Institute Arabic under this Institute Arabic. Let's see who's the real viewers and and I appreciate your time to share with us your Your you know your ongoing journey because we didn't we not finish yet with the with the program But Alhamdulillah when you that's the thing with with the program is that on module number two when you start building a lot of vocabulary You start seeing that's when you start seeing the most clear Progress but then later on, you know, we we finish Finding the the missing Parts of the puzzle to make everything to make everything a hundred percent a hundred percent good so inshallah, do you know about a classic for your time and And I'll see you around and a salam alaikum to the viewers