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French or Arabic for North Africa | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Jappy58 Bilingual Super Polyglot Senior Member United States Joined 4637 days ago 200 posts - 413 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, Guarani*, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Maghribi), Arabic (Written), French, English, Persian, Quechua, Portuguese Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 17 of 26 01 November 2012 at 11:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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@stelingo:
I agree with liddytime in that the Kalimni 'Arabi series is decent for studying the Egyptian (especially Cairene) dialect. I would be most likely to recommend Kalaam Gamiil as well, since it comes with an excellent CD and can get you arguably to a B1+ level. It is, however, even better if you have some background in MSA, (though it's not necessary, since most parts of Arabic are provided in both the script and transliteration). Unless you are traveling to an Arabic country within a short to moderate span of time, and have an interest in learning Arabic in its entirety, I would recommend learning MSA at least to an intermediate level. It allows you to be literate in the language, and there are more resources for it. Furthermore, it is definitely true, that knowing MSA makes learning several dialects far more intuitive and accessible than just making a jump, from say, Egyptian to Moroccan or vice versa. Also, Egyptian, Sudanese, and Hijazi are all very highly mutually intelligible with one another. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Travis.H Triglot Groupie United States Joined 4455 days ago 59 posts - 91 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, Sign Language Studies: French | Message 18 of 26 02 November 2012 at 6:18am | IP Logged | ||
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Has anyone tried to learn both French and Arabic at the same time? I know that learning
two languages is typically frowned upon, and usually good reasons (jack of all trades, master of none). But considering French and Arabic are very different languages, is there a situation where learning both at the same time would beneficial? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4888 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 19 of 26 02 November 2012 at 7:22am | IP Logged | ||
That's a classic combination! Once upon a time we had the The French and Arabic Study Group. It faded out after a few months, but there's some good info in there, and a lot of the group are still here. I've used Méthode d'arabe maghrébin moderne, and it was good, although the recordings weren't the best. Again, this is in French, and I think you'd want some Arabic under your belt before you attempt it. I would give it another shot if I were traveling to North Africa. I didn't realize at the time that the second volume contained an answer key; that would have been very, very useful! In your case, thought, I'd recommend that you start with a traditional Arabic course: Living Language, or Teach Yourself, or Colloquial. None are great, but for whatever odd reason my favorite language courses (FSI, Assimil, Pimsleur) all suck for Arabic. I haven't tried Michel Thomas Arabic, so that might be a good introduction. I think it's in the Egyptian dialect, though I am not completely sure. Edited by kanewai on 02 November 2012 at 7:26am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| liddytime Pentaglot Senior Member United States mainlymagyar.wordpre Joined 6228 days ago 693 posts - 1328 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written) | Message 20 of 26 02 November 2012 at 5:21pm | IP Logged | ||
Oh yeah! I forgot about that group! That was fun going over some of those posts. I might have to dust off some of my Arabic books again! So, yes, the Michel Thomas Arabic is Egyptian dialect. I did it a while back and didn't like it as much as some of the other MT offerings. I think the scope of Arabic is so broad, it is hard to condense it into an 8 hour course like one could with, say, French (the French MT is excellent BTW!) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jappy58 Bilingual Super Polyglot Senior Member United States Joined 4637 days ago 200 posts - 413 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Guarani*, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Maghribi), Arabic (Written), French, English, Persian, Quechua, Portuguese Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 21 of 26 02 November 2012 at 11:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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@Travis.H: Although I have experience with both Arabic and French, I studied them separately. I studied Arabic (MSA, Egyptian, Moroccan, and Levantine) for a little over five years, and after studying Persian for a few years, I moved onto French.
I think Arabic is a language in which you want to dedicate yourself thoroughly to, especially once you get to the dialects and up to or past the B2 level on the CEFR scale. However, I doubt you will be hurt by studying both to an intermediate level and then choosing to focus on one and maintain the other. However, it all depends on your goals. If you don't mind learning both at a perhaps slower rate, then splitting your efforts will most likely be alright for you personally. I'd decide based on what you think would work for YOU. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| zorglub Pentaglot Senior Member France Joined 6999 days ago 441 posts - 504 votes 1 sounds Speaks: French*, English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: German, Arabic (Written), Turkish, Mandarin | Message 22 of 26 09 November 2012 at 6:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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definitely French.
Others told earlier. I'd recommend an AUdio only programthat quickly gives you the survival core courtesy basic needs. I know Pumsleur does that. Then Assimil. As usual. My feeling is you can do some survival arabic at the same tie , not like Italian and POrtuguese at the same time. The threee dialects are quite different and I 've seen Algerian doctors having trouble with moroccan ou tunisian patients. Basic Arabbic such as that in Pimsleur's Syrolebanese will give you some courtesy and basic needs skills that will lubricate your social interaction. It's close to "standard Arabic" and it does help. I use it with educated North Africans and although it's far form their dialects the courtesy sentences ansd short sentences you can make show respect to their culture. I found it helps. You won't be able to understand them however. Just and intorduction befor switching to french. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6271 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 23 of 26 21 November 2012 at 12:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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I watched a couple of Algerian satellite TV channels today. It was an interesting experience from a linguistic point of view.
The first one was showing a Turkish soap opera, dubbed into Algerian colloquial Arabic. I understood very little, though I did note that this variety of Arabic has quite a few French loanwords. (One female character repeatedly addressed an older woman, obviously her mother, as maman.) On another channel, there was a book discussion programme, and this was entirely in French. An Algerian French-language writer named Hamid Grine was being interviewed in the studio. This was followed by a current affairs programme with a female presenter who spoke in MSA. I did not detect the French influences in her speech that were clear in the colloquial soap opera. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| mezzofanti Octoglot Senior Member Australia mezzoguild.com Joined 4747 days ago 51 posts - 112 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Arabic (classical), Arabic (Egyptian), Irish, Arabic (Levantine) Studies: Korean, Georgian, French | Message 24 of 26 23 November 2012 at 2:09am | IP Logged | ||
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Tunisian Arabic and Egyptian Arabic are very similar. I've held conversations with
Tunisians and had no problem at all - same with Libyans. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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