ClaireB Triglot Newbie France Joined 5047 days ago 4 posts - 10 votes Speaks: French*, English, Japanese Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Finnish, Arabic (Egyptian)
| Message 1 of 4 01 March 2014 at 11:39am | IP Logged |
I own both generations of Assimil Arabic, the 1970s 2-volume one and the newer 1-volume
one. So far my study plans for other languages (at least Russian and German) for which
I also have several Assimil courses has always been :
- study the old Assimil book (1950s German and Russian)
- use the newer Assimil for reading practice, but not grammar, since I always found
that explanations and content was much better in the older books
- move on to more difficult material with the "Méthode 90" books (these are french book
from publisher Le Livre de Poche, available in a smaller selection of languages than
Assimil, but really good grammar- and vocabulary-wise; however, the 1-lesson-a-day
plan is sometimes difficult to stick to when the lessons get harder) and Assimil
Perfectionnement series (the russian book has just been released ! Yay !)
I planned to do the same with arabic, but when I dug up the newer Assimil course, I was
a bit disappointed to see the contents of the early lessons. There really seems to be a
gap between the two generations; in the newer course especially, the arabic alphabet is
explained a few letters at a time, in each lesson, and it seems that the contents
suffer because the early texts are only written with letters you already know. I am not
sure lessons consisting in a single sentence, or sometimes two, make such great reading
practice. Moreover, the text is vocalised in the whole book. It is not the case in the
old edition.
I am wondering if I should reverse my usual sudy method, and use the newer Assimil
before moving on to the older edition. Or just ditch the new one completely. I can't
read or write arabic at the moment, but I learned japanese kana and the cyrillic
alphabet in a few hours so I am not completely sure you need up to a month of lessons
to learn the arabic script...
Has anyone here experience and/or advice about the two generations of Assimil Arabic ?
I also have the Methode 90 book, but not the tapes, and good as it may be I don't at
the moment have the time to do it full justice in my studies...
Thank you in advance for your comments !
Edited by ClaireB on 01 March 2014 at 11:44am
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napoleon Tetraglot Senior Member India Joined 5021 days ago 543 posts - 874 votes Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu Studies: French, Arabic (Written)
| Message 2 of 4 01 March 2014 at 1:18pm | IP Logged |
Salut!
I love Assimil. I used it when I first studied French.
I think Assimil works best when the base language and the target language are similar.
I tried both the versions you mentioned but I found the going to be terribly difficult.
Anyway, you should follow the method that works best for you.
Vous avez de la chance.
Bon apprentissage!
Edited by napoleon on 01 March 2014 at 1:33pm
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Al-Malik Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member United Kingdom arabicgenie.com Joined 7139 days ago 221 posts - 294 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German*, Spanish, Arabic (Written), Dutch, French, Arabic (classical) Studies: Mandarin, Persian
| Message 3 of 4 02 March 2014 at 5:26pm | IP Logged |
I would recommend the following approach: Learn the Arabic script first. Then go through the old Assimil Arabic (and especially the second part, which I believe is only available in French?) - it's much more interesting than the new one and has a storyline running through it. The new one is not too bad, though some of the voice artists have a rather special accent. So you can always take a look at the new one after you've gone through the old one. To follow up, the Perfectionnement Arabe is quite good, though I would imagine the learning curve to be rather steep for someone who has only done the basic Assimil course.
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pushkin Tetraglot Groupie France Joined 5524 days ago 49 posts - 60 votes Speaks: French*, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), German, Modern Hebrew
| Message 4 of 4 02 March 2014 at 5:36pm | IP Logged |
The best way to sart learning Arabic is to use 40 leçons pour parler arabe de Boutros
Hallaq, collection Langues Pour Tous / Press Pocket
http://www.amazon.fr/40-le%C3%A7ons-pour-parler-arabe/dp/226 6189107/ref=sr_1_1?
ie=UTF8&qid=1393778022&sr=8-1&keywords=40+le%C3%A7ons+pour+p arler+arabe
Edited by pushkin on 02 March 2014 at 5:40pm
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