About ArabyBuddy
Anyone can learn Arabic. We use research-backed methods to make it genuinely approachable — and actually fun.
Our story
Built by someone who needed it
ArabyBuddy started with a frustration — and a surprise.
Ahmed Gadir grew up in London as part of the Sudanese diaspora. As a software engineer who didn't speak Arabic, he often felt quietly embarrassed by the language barrier.
During the 2021 lockdown, he decided to change that. He threw himself into Modern Standard Arabic and began reading authors like Kamil Kilani and classics like Alf Layla wa Layla (One Thousand and One Nights). What he discovered amazed him: a rich tradition of hilarious, imaginative storytelling that completely pulled him in. (He wrote about the books that hooked him.)
But despite all the reading, a major hurdle remained: he still struggled to actually speak with people, and the online options for learning regional Arabic dialects left him cold.
Realizing there should be a fun, intuitive app to bridge that gap, Ahmed decided to build it himself. ArabyBuddy is the exact resource he wished he'd had.
What we believe
Joy first
Arabic has a rich tradition of humour and wonder. If learning it ever feels like a chore, we've failed.
No one starts fluent
We design out the embarrassment — no jargon, and you can start before you can read a single letter.
Backed by research
Built on evidence-based language-learning methods — you take things in before you produce them, and revisit ideas until they stick.
On your own time
Bite-sized lessons made for your phone. Five minutes on the bus genuinely counts.
The team
Ahmed Gadir
Founder & Engineer
British-Sudanese software engineer based in London. He built ArabyBuddy as the app he wished he'd had, and writes at gadirlabs.io.
Mennan Salih
Curriculum Developer
Writer, translator and language consultant, and the founder and voice of The Arabic Pages. A PhD researcher at the University of Westminster studying metaphor in Arabic literature through a psycholinguistic lens. She holds a BA (Hons) in Arabic and Linguistics and an MA in Advanced Arabic.
Sebastien Varin
Animator
An Algonquin College graduate with 7 years of animation experience, bringing the ArabyBuddy cast and world to life.
Come learn with us
Start your 7-day free trial and see how fun learning Arabic can be.
