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Which Pimsleur Arabic course to choose? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Vagabondette Diglot Newbie Mexico Joined 4515 days ago 5 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 1 of 6 13 July 2012 at 7:13pm | IP Logged |
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I have access to both the Eastern and Egyptian versions of the Pimsleur courses but I'm not sure which I should do.
In the fall I will be spending 3 weeks in Morocco, 3-4 days in Egypt, and 3 weeks in Jordan. I would like to at least learn a some of the basic spoken phrases to use while I'm there so I figured doing one of the Pimsleur courses would be a good start but I'm not sure which one is best. I'd appreciate any suggestions on which to choose or an alternative course. I need an audio-only course as I'll be listening to it while I'm walking the Camino de Santiago. Thanks! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| arturs Triglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 5269 days ago 278 posts - 408 votes  Speaks: Latvian*, Russian, English | Message 2 of 6 14 July 2012 at 3:08pm | IP Logged |
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I'd say Eastern, since you will be spending 3 weeks in Jordan, and the Eastern course covers the Syrian/Jordanian dialect. Moroccan Arabic, from what I've read, is very different from Egyptian or Jordanian, because it is influenced by French and also has many loanwords from Berber language, so neither of the courses would help you out in this country. And your time in Egypt is not going to be so long, so learning Egyptian dialect is quite useless.
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| Jappy58 Bilingual Super Polyglot Senior Member United States Joined 4636 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 3 of 6 14 July 2012 at 8:18pm | IP Logged |
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Yes, I would go for Eastern Arabic, since in this case, it covers the Levantine dialect(s) (spoken in Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Jordan). Since you're spending more time there than in Egypt.
Moroccan Arabic is indeed relatively divergent. While French and Berber loan words are a key reason, one of the tougher reasons, in my experience, is that the pronunciation is more slurred, vowels are eaten, there are more consonant clusters, etc. If Moroccans spoke closer to how most Middle Easterners speak, I wouldn't be surprised if mutual comprehension increased significantly. I would still learn some basic Moroccan Arabic phrases, since you'll be there for weeks. Loecsen's share of Moroccan phrases is good for basics: http://www.loecsen.com/travel/discover.php?lang=en&to_lang=6 2 Egyptian and Levantine (and most other Eastern/Middle Eastern dialects) have much in common with one another, though I would still opt for Levantine due to your situation. It's one of the more widely understood dialects in the Arab world as well, alongside Egyptian. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Vagabondette Diglot Newbie Mexico Joined 4515 days ago 5 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 4 of 6 14 July 2012 at 10:09pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks to you both! I appreciate the feedback.
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| Jappy58 Bilingual Super Polyglot Senior Member United States Joined 4636 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 5 of 6 16 July 2012 at 5:34pm | IP Logged |
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@Vagabondette: No problem, and if you ever end up being interested in Arabic as a whole, I'd be glad to recommend resources and strategies to learn the language! :) Have fun on your trip, I've visited each of those countries and enjoyed them.
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| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4887 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 6 of 6 16 July 2012 at 7:36pm | IP Logged |
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Pimsleur Eastern, definitely, but I'd also really try & find time to do at least the first couple chapters of a
grammar book (TY or Colloquial or Living Language). Or even the Desert Sky PDFs that others have linked to. Pimsleur Arabic can be frustrating without context; it doesn't stand alone as well as Pimsleur for Romance languages. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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