CaucusWolf Senior Member United States Joined 5274 days ago 191 posts - 234 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Arabic (Written), Japanese
| Message 9 of 14 20 February 2014 at 7:05am | IP Logged |
I disagree with trying to learn a dialect first because there are few resources to be able to
keep your interest such as news and books.(unless it is Egyptian, but even then you are still
limited to hearing the language and not reading it.) Also, I don't think you should feel
obligated to one resource such as Rosetta Stone
in fact you should use multiple resources. I used multiple resources such as FSI MWA
V.1&2(free on the internet.), Busuu.com, livemocha.com, madinaharabic.com and of course
multiple dictionaries. Just remember that one method is never the only method in learning any
language.
Edited by CaucusWolf on 20 February 2014 at 7:09am
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fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4717 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese
| Message 10 of 14 20 February 2014 at 2:49pm | IP Logged |
After trying and struggling a lot with the Egyptian dialect, I would say that I think you should start with Fusha. MUCH more resources, and they're usually more interesting than the ones for Egyptian.
The downside is that it might take some time for you to understand movies and have online conversations (unless the other person is willing to write in Fusha), since no one speaks Fusha. That's what actually made me drop it.
Anyway, I definitely wouldn't go with Rosetta Stone. There are tons of online resources, all of them better than Rosetta Stone.
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MixedUpCody Senior Member United States Joined 5258 days ago 144 posts - 280 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin
| Message 11 of 14 20 February 2014 at 4:33pm | IP Logged |
fabriciocarraro wrote:
Anyway, I definitely wouldn't go with Rosetta Stone. There are tons of online resources, all of them better than Rosetta Stone. |
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So you actually think RS is bad enough to not even do it for free? That's pretty much what I expected to hear, so I guess I'll look into other classes. Maybe I could self study Fusha and take the Linguaphone Egyptian?
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fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4717 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese
| Message 12 of 14 20 February 2014 at 5:44pm | IP Logged |
MixedUpCody wrote:
fabriciocarraro wrote:
Anyway, I definitely wouldn't go with Rosetta Stone. There are tons of online resources, all of them better than Rosetta Stone. |
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So you actually think RS is bad enough to not even do it for free? That's pretty much what I expected to hear, so I guess I'll look into other classes. Maybe I could self study Fusha and take the Linguaphone Egyptian? |
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It might work for someone, but I personally think that Rosetta Stone is extremely slow, and does a lousy job when it comes to teach you the structures of the language. It would probably just slow you down.
Yes, you could do that! I don't know Linguaphone, but I guess it woudn't hurt that much. If you can get your hands on Michel Thomas (audio course), you should try it as well. It teaches Egyptian Arabic, but it does a great job explaining the language, in a very natural way.
I only worry that it might be confusing to learn both Fusha and dialect (be it Egyptian or other) at the same time, especially at the beginning of your studies. Maybe it would be better to give more focus to one of them (preferably Fusha) and try to do some dialect on the side, just not too much. It's easier to learn the dialects when you already know Fusha than the other way around, since Fusha has many complex grammar structures that the dialects simply don't.
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MixedUpCody Senior Member United States Joined 5258 days ago 144 posts - 280 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin
| Message 13 of 14 20 February 2014 at 5:47pm | IP Logged |
I understand what you're saying, but the problem is that there are only certain materials available at my school. If I start with Fusha, I will be using Rosetta stone, and if I do Fusha on my own and a dialect at school I might be confused. Maybe I should just scrap the independent study idea.
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CaucusWolf Senior Member United States Joined 5274 days ago 191 posts - 234 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Arabic (Written), Japanese
| Message 14 of 14 21 February 2014 at 10:53pm | IP Logged |
"The downside is that it might take some time for you to understand movies and have online
conversations (unless the other person is willing to write in Fusha), since no one speaks
Fusha. That's what actually made me drop it."
I honestly had no problem speaking with egyptians and saudis with MSA. Its true that
technically MSA is not a native language, but it is used to read and write and online people
use MSA with the occasionally throw in of dialect here and there. Also, MSA has much of the
same vocabulary in common with Egyptian, levantine and saudi dialects so youll have little
problem
with learning these. In fact the hardest part is learning their accents. However, morroccan
and other north west african dialects are a different
story.
Edited by CaucusWolf on 21 February 2014 at 10:57pm
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