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Where to begin in learning Arabic? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| pigsonfire Newbie United States Joined 5066 days ago 26 posts - 37 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), Cantonese | Message 17 of 26 15 February 2012 at 1:55am | IP Logged | ||||||||
You ever heard of a library? Most I know can get Alif Baa (and other Arabic texts) for you for free. Also you can get copies used online for less than 10 bucks - hardly bank breaking. Why use one of these instead of free internet material? There is some great material to be found on the internet but there is also a lot of crap. If a learner is willing to sift through all of this to find the gems - go for it! Otherwise, why not use the materials developed by professionals in Arabic instruction that have been recommended by other learners? Makes more sense to me. I also would not downplay the complexity of Arabic. It may have been easy for you, but most learners struggle quite a bit with it. I think this is important for learners to recognize when taking the plunge to tackle a language such as Arabic. Otherwise they could be an easy set up for frustration and disappointment. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| stelingo Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5823 days ago 722 posts - 1076 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Czech, Polish, Greek, Mandarin | Message 18 of 26 15 February 2012 at 2:17am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Oh well, if you say it's nonsense, then that must be fact. Silly us and silly FSI for being so deluded. Edited by stelingo on 15 February 2012 at 2:18am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| mezzofanti Octoglot Senior Member Australia mezzoguild.com Joined 4739 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 19 of 26 15 February 2012 at 7:29am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Sift through all the crap to find gems? I just searched 'learn arabic alphabet' on Google and the number 1 result that came back was an excellent, free source for learning the alphabet. I didn't have to sift through anything and guess what? I saved myself $10 and a trip to the public library! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| mezzofanti Octoglot Senior Member Australia mezzoguild.com Joined 4739 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 20 of 26 15 February 2012 at 7:44am | IP Logged | ||||||||
If you're referring to the FSI Language Difficulty Categories, they're not accurate and I'm sure a lot of people would agree with me. God knows why they ranked languages like Icelandic, Finnish and Georgian as easier to learn than Arabic. Arabic should be in category 3, not 5. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| liddytime Pentaglot Senior Member United States mainlymagyar.wordpre Joined 6220 days ago 693 posts - 1328 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written) | Message 21 of 26 15 February 2012 at 8:13pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Well, regardless how you choose to go about it, I think even mezzofanti would agree that you need to get a good
grasp on the alphabet before charging ahead. One resource that I forgot to mention which is outstanding is "All The Arabic You Never Learned The First Time" It is the clearest description of Arabic grammatical structure that I have read. I do recall that the Arabic is written in Arabic script but aside from this I think it would be fine for a beginner. It was produced a while back by DLI and appears to be public domain so you don't need to shell out your hard-earned cash for it ( or go to a library if you have an aversion to them like mezzofanti ;-) ) I believe this link still works for it : http://www.mediafire.com/?1hepkzzczlj5z4i & mezzofanti.... I must admit , I do like your blog! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| endation Triglot Newbie United States mattgrabermusic.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6290 days ago 28 posts - 28 votes Speaks: English*, Modern Hebrew, Spanish Studies: French, German, Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 22 of 26 15 February 2012 at 10:50pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Has anyone here used the Assimil Arabic course? If so, what did you think of it?
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| zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6543 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: EnglishC2*, Spanish*, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew | Message 23 of 26 16 February 2012 at 1:07am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I'm a big fan of Assimil and this is no exception. It is excellent. However, the first lessons are artificially slow and will drive you crazy. I suggest you mix and match with Living Language and another book for learning the Alphabet first -- you'll find some references and my impression in my current log. here 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| mezzofanti Octoglot Senior Member Australia mezzoguild.com Joined 4739 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 16 February 2012 at 9:11am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Thanks :) Yours is really interesting too! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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