Hikayat Simsim (حكايات سمسم) is the Jordanian co-production of Sesame Street. Much like the original Sesame Street, Hikayat Simsim episodes feature muppets, kids, and adults exploring basic ideas like shapes and colors, as well as diving into more serious life lessons of how to be a considerate citizen and a good friend.

The show debuted in 2003, with episodes airing sporadically until 2007. Those episodes have been trimmed into 76 shorter clips, which are available to watch and rewatch for free on the Hikayat Simsim YouTube channel. The image quality of these videos looks 20 years old but the quality of most of the content has aged well. In each clip, the characters clearly state the theme, conflict, and solution to the storyline. This direct communication and the repetition makes it easy to follow, even for beginners, and introduces viewers to different phrases and grammatical structures that can be used to communicate similar information.

In this video about sharing, for example, the characters all individually declare that they like blocks. They soon realize that they have a problem: how will they share the blocks so that they can all play with them? The characters proceed to narrate their ideas and sharing plan. Towards the end of the clip, they review how they successfully shared the blocks, then explain the process again when the adult returns and asks what they’ve been up to.

For those of us who did most of our Arabic learning as an adult, these videos are helpful for filling in some of that vocabulary that’s often taught to kids but rarely focused on for adult learners. Topics like colors, sharing words, and different adjectives for feelings.

I usually have a hard time staying engaged and focused when watching children’s programming but Hikayat Simsim is different. Maybe it’s the short nature of the video clips or that it tickles some nostalgia of watching Sesame Street as a kid. Whatever the reason, Hikayat Simsim manages to be a fun resource for both kids and adults learning Arabic.