Learning Arabic starting from scratch : how long?

It all depends on your own ability and also the techniques you apply.

But -thinking positive is part of good techniques.

So - yes, you will be able to hold basic conversations in Arabic after three months!
ıf you apply yourself of course.

reading and writing, I would say haltingly.

numbers letters and ordering a meal can be done in a few days, so you will definetely pass that stage.

I'll be much less encouraging than #1.

Three months is a very, very short amount of time to study any language, even one closely related to your own. Arabic isn't closely related to any European language. In fact, along with Chinese and Japanese, it's consistently rated as one of the most difficult languages for speakers of Indo-European languages to learn. The US State Department rates Arabic on exactly the same level as Chinese in terms of the number of classroom hours required to achieve "fluency" for its diplomats.

Further, the different dialects of Arabic are extremely different. If you learn MSA (Modern Standard Arabic)--as most people do when studying abroad--you may find you have serious difficulties communicating with the local population of any given Arab country.

In the best case scenario, after three months you should be able to hold basic conversations about everyday topics in MSA, but it will be on a very simple level. Nobody serious about the language imagines that anything approaching fluency can be achieved in anything less than a year, even while living in an Arabic-speaking country.

Hi....

I picked up a little more than just the basics, when in Egypt for a month.
The reading and writing however, I struggled badly with.

Zashibis is about right.

What other languages do you know? I think if y tripled the amount of time it would take you to get to a certain level in German, you'd be in the right neighborhood for Arabic.

Thanks for your advice , very appreciated. I am Italian mother tongue, fluent in both English and French , can get by well in Spanish. Buth I Iearnt all these languages 15-20 years ago and I lived both in the US and in France...
I am still tempted to give it a try . Does anybody have experience with online training or "Rosetta stone" ? Maybe I could already start with this before I move to the middle east.

I've heard many mixed reviews about Rosetta Stone, some praising it - and others who don't like it at all.
My thoughts are that it's down more to people's language abilities, rather than the actual product.
Some folks can pick up a language and it's alphabet reasonably quickly. Others just never grasp it.

Forget MSA, learn Egyptian Arabic. They'll all understand it.

Call me a skeptic, but I'm doubtful of battybilly's claim to have picked "more than the basics" (whatever he might mean by that) of Arabic in a month

Pretty ripe coming coming from someone who says Rosetta Stone is rubbish.
Gotta say, I'm rather sceptical about that statement and claim.
I did OK in Egypt with the lingo. In fact, the waiters and guides were also impressed with what I learned.
You have every right to be sceptical though. It's called something like 'Freedom of Speech', I believe.
Alsalam alaykom. Or if you prefer.... Ahlan Wasahlan.

Very good....

my own experience of studying Arabic

For someone who states on their profile that they don't speak Arabic, you've picked it up very quickly.
Isn't Google great ? ? ! !
Oh - and you are showing your total lack of the language openly.
Alsalam alaykom and Ahlan Wasahlan.... Two differemnt greetings.
One is Arabic and the other is Islamic. But you already knew that - didn't you?
Incidentally my daughter, who was 12 at the time - learnt even more. Sorry to disappoint you.
Are you perhaps one of those sceptics who doubts that a language can be picked up quickly?
I have a Bulgarian friend who came to stay with us recently (he speaks around 10 languages).
We went to Wales for a couple of days - and when we left, he was already doing the lingo quite well.
No doubt you're sceptical about that as well.
I'm not here for an Arabic lesson. I merely quoted what I was able to learn in a month.
Believe it, disbelieve it at your leisure.