How an Emirati is teaching the world her native Arabic dialect

How an Emirati is teaching the world her native Arabic dialect

Abu Dhabi: You may have come across her on Instagram and TikTok, smilingly translating common spoken phrases from English to Arabic. In fact, Hanan Al Fardan considers it her mission in life to spread the Emirati dialect — an Arabic vernacular used by the people of the UAE. With more than 340,000 followers on her TikTok page, and another 72,500 subscribers on YouTube, it will be apt to say that Al Fardan’s bright and snappy videos have been teaching Emirati Arabic to the world. Forever passionate about education, the 35-year-old first found her calling when she was working as an education sector regulator in Dubai. “I had colleagues from many different nationalities and they would often ask me how to say things in Arabic. One day, a colleague who hailed from Scotland said there were many people like her who wanted to become fluent in spoken Arabic, but simply could not find an easy way to learn,” Al Fardan, 35, told . “This got me thinking. Indeed, there were a number of language-teaching institutes that taught formal Arabic speech and writing. But Emirati Arabic is itself distinct and I couldn’t find any place that specifically helped people learn it,” she