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What next for MSA?

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9 messages over 2 pages: 1 2  Next >>
nebojats
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 Message 1 of 9
18 January 2011 at 6:53am | IP Logged 
I've worked through Read and Speak Arabic for Beginners... awesome!

I am working through Mastering Arabic... awesome!

I am working through Easy Arabic Grammar... quite good, but more of a reference book with accompanying exercises in my opinion.

I've been watching Arabic cartoons (Adnan wa Lena is sweet, Grendizer is meh-ish, and Sinbad is freaking great), watching some Aljazeera kids' shows, and listening to Arabicpod and BBC Xtra in Arabic podcast.

I'll be done with Mastering Arabic in about three weeks. I'll still have Easy Arabic Grammar and the media to keep me company, but I would like to get another main book to work out of, preferably something that is fun to use with pictures, audio cds, and plenty of practice. It's very important to me to not have a book that makes me want to fall to sleep. My goal right now is to improve my MSA comprehension and output. In three months I will be working with dialect in Fez, Morocco... living with a host family, studying four hours a day. Any suggestions for a new book?

The following seem like they might be good, maybe roughly in this order:

Mastering Arabic 2

Ultimate Arabic

Basic Arabic Revision

Tales from Kalila wa Dimna

Focus on Contemporary Arabic

Anyone used any of these or have suggestions? Thanks!

Edited by nebojats on 18 January 2011 at 9:32am

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apparition
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 Message 2 of 9
19 January 2011 at 11:06pm | IP Logged 
Sounds like a good start. Once you're above beginner level, the good books turn a bit
scarce and you're better served using authentic materials, IMHO.

I would suggest picking up some media Arabic to round out your MSA knowledge a bit. You
could work with bbcarabic.com along with Google Translate to pick a lot of that up free
of charge. There's also Top 1,000 Words for Understanding Media Arabic. It's just a
word list, but it's a handy start to wrapping your head around how the Arabic media
describes events in newspapers/online.

And, as I always advise but rarely see mentioned by others on this forum, there's
naturalarabic.com, as well.


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translator2
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 Message 3 of 9
20 January 2011 at 12:31am | IP Logged 
In addition to Mastering Arabic 2 and Ultimate Arabic I would suggest these:
Intermediate Arabic for Dummies
First Arabic Reader

I have the other books on your list and they would probably be too advanced for you right now.
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translator2
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 Message 4 of 9
20 January 2011 at 3:01am | IP Logged 
I almost forgot the most important book of all:

All the Arabic You Never Learned the First Time
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liddytime
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 Message 5 of 9
20 January 2011 at 12:26pm | IP Logged 
translator2 wrote:
I almost forgot the most important book of all:

All the Arabic You Never Learned the First Time



I second that!!    This book is incredible. The title should be:

" All the Arabic that Confused and Mystified You the First Time Made Ridiculously Simple!"




Edited by liddytime on 20 January 2011 at 12:32pm

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nebojats
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 Message 6 of 9
22 January 2011 at 5:29am | IP Logged 
Thanks for the responses! Really very helpful to hear what you more advanced people have gone through and think is useful.

These definitely look like useful resources, and I'll check them out to see what works for me. Like I say, at this point I'm looking for FUN materials that don't put me to sleep. Cartoons, humor, lots of exercises, audio...

Thanks again. I'll update when I finally get something.
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strikingstar
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 Message 7 of 9
22 January 2011 at 8:29am | IP Logged 
liddytime wrote:
translator2 wrote:
I almost forgot the most important book of all:

All the Arabic You Never Learned the First
Time



I second that!!    This book is incredible. The title should be:

" All the Arabic that Confused and Mystified You the First Time Made Ridiculously
Simple!"




I third this!! I'm using this right now after dabbling with the likes of Rosetta Stone,
Pimsleur (Egyptian) and a slew of books.

Besides, the author is funny. A breath of fresh-air after slogging through books which
were dull as ditch-water.

Some of his best expressions (not verbatim):
"Many students of Arabic do not know the difference between an idaafa and a French
horn. The idaafa will be covered in the following chapter. The French horn will not."

"Since there is a directive against ever pronouncing Arabic words correctly on the
news, you'll hear words like 'jihaad' pronounced like 'jee-had' or 'hee-haw'."

"Here is the conjugation for sound verbs... And the conjugation for hollow verbs... And
assimilated verbs... And doubled verbs... And defective verbs... And duschal verbs.
Just kidding, there are no such things as duschal verbs."
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Ygangerg
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 Message 8 of 9
24 January 2011 at 11:48am | IP Logged 
I used the "Al-Kitaab" books in university. They come with DVDs. The beginner one has a cheesy soap-opera-ish video series to follow, but it sounds like you're past the very beginner stage. The intermediate Al-Kitaab book has a lot of real-world texts and good video as well.

Edited by Ygangerg on 24 January 2011 at 11:48am



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