I've gotten thoroughly conversational in both German and Russian in the course of about a year by my own, somewhat unconventional method, which I see no reason couldn't also be applied to Arabic (though it'll probably take a decent bit longer):
1) Learn to read the alphabet, including as much pronunciation as possible (Trivial with German, slightly harder with Russian)
2) Learn just enough grammar to be able to recognize units of meaning and general semantic structure(ie be able to recognize generally when somethings a new word vs a new form of an old word, as well as word order). If you spend more than a week on this, you've spent far too much time.
3) Scour the web for children's stories and other material aimed at beginning readers. Pop the stories into google translate, and go word by word, making sure to distinguish each's meaning. Don't worry about consciously memorizing words, just cram in the volume. Aim for an hour a day. Subvocalise so you get the idea of the sounds of words
4) Once you're getting through stories with relative ease, search out video material where both the audio and the subtitles are in that language (This may be hard, depending on the language. Anime is a GREAT source of this type of thing for Russian). Speak along with the dialogue.
5) Once your comprehension's gotten good, seek out native speakers, and pester them to all ends of the earth (I admit unfair advantage in having a ready supply of conversational partners in both languages). Quantity, quantity, quantity.
I feel this approach trades off comprehensibility and fluency for absolute grammaticaloty, though I wonder if it might have gotten me past the toil threshhold (the line at which it is pleasurable, rather than a chore, to consume media/converes in a lanuage) a bit faster, with commesurate long term learning benefits.
1) Learn to read the alphabet, including as much pronunciation as possible (Trivial with German, slightly harder with Russian)
2) Learn just enough grammar to be able to recognize units of meaning and general semantic structure(ie be able to recognize generally when somethings a new word vs a new form of an old word, as well as word order). If you spend more than a week on this, you've spent far too much time.
3) Scour the web for children's stories and other material aimed at beginning readers. Pop the stories into google translate, and go word by word, making sure to distinguish each's meaning. Don't worry about consciously memorizing words, just cram in the volume. Aim for an hour a day. Subvocalise so you get the idea of the sounds of words
4) Once you're getting through stories with relative ease, search out video material where both the audio and the subtitles are in that language (This may be hard, depending on the language. Anime is a GREAT source of this type of thing for Russian). Speak along with the dialogue.
5) Once your comprehension's gotten good, seek out native speakers, and pester them to all ends of the earth (I admit unfair advantage in having a ready supply of conversational partners in both languages). Quantity, quantity, quantity.
I feel this approach trades off comprehensibility and fluency for absolute grammaticaloty, though I wonder if it might have gotten me past the toil threshhold (the line at which it is pleasurable, rather than a chore, to consume media/converes in a lanuage) a bit faster, with commesurate long term learning benefits.