In Arabic...what are some main differences between MSA and colloquial.?

MSA is understood by every Arabic speaking individual. Would it sound weird if you used it? Yes. But it's still not that hard to learn any of the other dialects; Egyptian for instance. Listening to a couple of songs, watching movies or talking to natives would do it for you in case you speak the standard Arabic fluently.

There are A LOT of differences between MSA and colloquial when it comes to terms, sentence structure, and pronunciation, which usually make it so hard for any Arabic learner to understand the every-day talk.

Here is a simple example concerning sentence structure differences (As well as pronunciation of course)

The way to say "How are you?"

1. Egyptian.

Ezzayek (To a female)

Ezzayak (To a male)

2. Khaliji.

Eshlonek (F)

Eshlonak (M)

3. Algerian.

Weshraki (F)

Weshrak (M)

4. Levantine.

kifik (F)

kifak (M)

Always keep in mind (Kaif halok?) would be understood by all of the above.

Accordingly, learning an Arabic dialect would entirely depend on the country you're intending to move to in the ME.

I can help a lot with Egyptian and Levantine dialects, so if you intend to learn any of them just contact me and i'll do what I can.

Hope this helps.

~Peace~

I learned the Levantine dialect at university, the great thing was the way all the verb endings suddenly didn't matter! So much easier that MSA.

Before I went out to the Middle East a lecturer said to me, you will have a tough time if you speak fusha. Can you imagine he asked somebody for a cab, and they looked blankly at him because what he basically said was, 'prithee wouldst thou procure for me a chase?'! I mean, it's like talking Shakespeare sometimes.

Don't you have access to a language laboratory? Maybe I'm too old, but that's what we did in our day! How about watching some TV stations from the country you intend to go to?

Dialects do have different words. We lived in Oman for a year and my husband published a book on the dialect there. But it's not that hard, you have the basics! You sound to me like you'll take to it like a duck to water.

Your definition of science is dreadfully naïve, and your definition of religion is obviously wrong. Religion =/= Christianity. Even if it did, most churches ignore the Bible most of the time. Science isn't carried out by robots - Scientists have ambitions, and careers, and bosses, and various other motivations to fudge results a lot of the time. When you say, "science openly admits that it does not have all the answers" - 'science' doesn't admit anything, 'science' can't talk. Only scientists talk, and on a debated topic, they will more often claim to the public that their personal favourite theory is true, rather than admit that the answer is unknown. I've heard life on mars, multiple universes, flat space, and many other highly debatable claims all presented as fact by the scientists who favour them. They do NOT admit that they don't really know, and they are NOT 'extremely open to changing their views'.

Ezzayak is in Egyptian, we say it in Syrian: Kifak

both words mean: How are you? in English

we all understand each other, and there is no need to learn all dialogs just learn one and the rest will understand you perfectly