Keefak App: Teaching the Lebanese Dialect One Download at a Time

Having been born and raised in the states for some 17 years of my life, I often lament my somewhat shaky Arabic skills. Though I took Arabic classes growing up, I’ve never felt like I’ve had the same proficiency and fluency as other Arabic speakers who grew up in the Arab world.

I’m just one of the hundreds of thousands of cases of almost-but-not-quite native Arabic language speakers. Thankfully, an app launched in January of last year aims to address this ever increasing problem.

Appropriately called Keefak, the application (available for download on adroid phones and the iphone) offers 16 language courses at the surprisingly affordable cost of only $5. Promising to leave users with a steady level of conversational Lebanese Arabic, the app targets a demographic much like myself: people who have Arabic roots but who haven’t grasped the language fully.

Executive-magazine.com interviewed founder Hadi el-Khoury, who shared his insight about the app’s creation, usage, and future plans.

In fact, el-Khoury hopes that Keefak will eventually be used as “the main connector between the diaspora and Lebanon,” and has plans to launch Keefak junior for younger users.

Sounds like it’s definitely worth the download.