Hi all, just wanted to share a couple of thoughts about using Netflix for learning Modern Standard Arabic. At least on the material that I can see in our geographical region there is a reasonable list of Arabic produced shows. The big problem is that all (or virtually all) of these are in a colloquial. If you are focussing on MSA (which is the case for me) this isn’t much help. However there are a lot of shows dubbed in Modern Standard Arabic (unfortunately none from Arabic speaking countries). These are mainly children’s shows or young teen shows. This makes the language a little easier in some cases and some of it isn’t too bad. Madagascar 2 in Arabic is just as funny as in English.
There are also weird cross cultural experiences available. e.g. Japanese anime dubbed into Arabic - or the show the New Legends Monkey - originally a Chinese story - with an Australian/NZ remake - watched with Arabic dubbing. There are about 30 or so shows (including some series so plenty of material).
I’ve noticed that with Arabic audio and English subs running I can understand most of the Arabic (i.e. actually hear the words and understand their meaning - which is sometimes different to the english subs). At least at the moment, with English subs off, it is more challenging and my comprehension goes down. I’m hoping that with time the hours of listening (which can be accumulated quickly) will mean I can take the training wheels off. I hope this theory is right!
Unfortunately using the Arabic subtitles isn’t optimal as the written subtitles are different to the Arabic dubbing.
If anyone has come across shows in modern standard arabic actually from arabic speaking countries on netflix would be interested.