Our Story

Like most Syrians outside of the country, and notably the 5 million-plus who are living in neighboring countries, Syrians in Lebanon cannot easily get work permits, making their capacity to work and sustain a livelihood incredibly difficult. The same daily struggle with varying legal realities holds true for Venezuelans living in Argentina, people from Burundi living in Europe or the Middle East, or Yemenis displaced inside their own country, and millions of other displaced people in the world.

Aline thought of connecting her need to access conversational Arabic to that of displaced Syrians to access an income. She was joined by her former classmate, Reza Rahnema, himself, French-born, to Iranian parents, and with a background in economic and political development, and thus came to life the idea of NaTakallam, pioneering the concept of leveraging the digital economy and refugees’ language skills to provide language services to users worldwide, who, through their engagement, help support displaced persons’ livelihoods.

Thanks to our talented pool of conversation partners, we offer language sessions in French, Persian, Spanish, Kurdish and Armenian besides Arabic in multiple dialects.