We’re expanding our horizons from our usual Levantine Arabic focus this week to introduce you all to Bilmasri, a resource for learning the Egyptian dialect. Nesrin Amin truly does it all with Bilmasri, which began as a podcast and blog and is now transitioning to a YouTube channel.

For the general template for the show, Nesrin takes a text in Fusha and translates it into the Egyptian dialect. Episodes begin with a little intro, then transition to Nesrin or a featured guest reading the Egyptian text. In the Youtube version of the show, the text plays across the screen as it’s read. Afterwards, Nesrin breaks down some of the phrases found within the text, emphasizing and explaining the colloquialisms. The texts are posted in their Fusha, Egyptian, and English forms on the Bilmasri blog. I love that a written version of the colloquial text is provided. There’s a lot more colloquial Arabic written content available on the internet than their used to be, but large collections are still a pretty rare find.

Bilmasri is designed primarily for people who studied Fusha and are interested in expanding into colloquial Arabic, but is accessible for a wide range Arabic learners. Even if Egyptian isn’t your main dialect, I’d recommend listening. As someone without much formal Arabic education and experience mostly with the Levantine dialect, I’ve found Bilmasri to be a useful resource. At least until someone launches Bilshami :)

If you’re looking for podcasts focused on the Levantine dialect, visit our posts about Levantine Arabic Made Easier and El Bulbul.