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FSI Modern Written Arabic | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| 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 9 of 27 20 September 2011 at 10:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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Emiliana - I had the same reaction when I first looked at the text. The letters looked too small to make out. But I have the same reaction when I read Arabic online or see a newspaper. I miss the big clear and crisp letters of a text book, and I think it's impossible to read those smudgy scribbles.
It's not so bad once you dive in. For each lesson you listen and read along once, listen and repeat once, and then listen and read along once again. There are then supplemental sentences that aren't recorded - you read and translate those on your own. The vocabulary is introduced slowly, and I think I'm recognizing words more from "pattern recognition" than from actually reading each letter. But I've read that that's the way people read any language, even using the Latin alphabet. I spent two sessions (20") per lesson on the first three lessons. I might slow it down to four sessions per lesson moving forward. I'm thinking: First: Listen to the tape, repeat when asked to. Second: Copy the arabic, do my own transliteration, then translate to English Third: Listen to the tape. Fourth: Do the supplemental sentences. A note on transliteration: I HATE the FSI style. It's fugly. I don't like seeing θ for ث, or H for ح, or 9 for ع; it throws off the flow of the words. And my computer doesn't even have the symbol they use for ط ظ غ or ص I think the United Nations' system for Romanization looks much more elegant, but there are still letters I can't recreate in MS Word. So since every other textbook has their own style, and since I don't like any of them (and most won't even work in Word), I decided I would design my style. edit: ... which apparently I can't recreate in this forum. It just came out messy, so I deleted it. grrr. Edited by kanewai on 20 September 2011 at 10:22pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emiliana Diglot Groupie Germany Joined 5112 days ago 81 posts - 98 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Arabic (classical) | Message 10 of 27 20 September 2011 at 11:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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kanewai, thank you for your very useful information! Just one last stupid question: where do you have the tape from? On http://fsi-language-courses.org/ I only find the student texts- but no tape for the written arabic course!
Maybe you'd like to tell once in a while how your progress is with this course. At the moment i am still busy with French but in a few weeks I'd like to work on Arabic again, so I'd be really interested! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| 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 11 of 27 20 September 2011 at 11:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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I found the recordings on the al3arabiya website.
Volume 1 Volume 2 But this site appears to be down. Here are the direct links to the audio downloads on Media Fire (note: these are .rar files; you need to download the complete set for them to open) Volume 1 (Lessons 1-32) Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Volume 2 (Lessons 33-64) Part 1 Part 2 I also found Volume 2 at Arabic Courses Online. I can't find any recordings to Volume 3. Maybe there aren't any? (and I'm doing the French / Arabic combo too! I'll be posting weekly on my log, under French by any Means Necessary. Good luck!) Edited by kanewai on 20 September 2011 at 11:41pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Emiliana Diglot Groupie Germany Joined 5112 days ago 81 posts - 98 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Arabic (classical) | Message 12 of 27 21 September 2011 at 12:28am | IP Logged | ||
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Great, thank you! I just had a short glimpse again into lesson 1 unit 1 with the audio settlement and I now think it is really not that bad. When listening you can follow or read the script a lot better. I also like that with quite less vocabulary a lot of sentences are built. That makes it easy to remember both vocab as grammatical constructions. Ok maybe that is a bit much of interpretation regarding that I only took a short glimpse ;) but anyway. When I re-start with Arabic, I will definetly try the FSI course.
Really funny that we both learn the same languages at the moment :). Maybe we should share some insights via PM ;). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| napoleon Tetraglot Senior Member India Joined 5014 days ago 543 posts - 874 votes Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 13 of 27 21 September 2011 at 5:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi,
Its quite a coincidence that I'm learning French and Arabic (MSA) too. :-) Anyway, here's my take on the FSI MWA Series: FIRST IMPRESSIONS: The small size of the letters and the type-written feel may scare you off at first but after a few days the book grows on you. Give it some time, and you'll realize that the microscopic script and the not-so-good presentation don't seem to be much of an impediment to the learning process any more. PROS: This book really forces you to think in Arabic. If a book can teach you to read an Arabic newspaper, this is it. This book is no primer of grammar. I'll be honest, the grammar explanations provided seem insufficient for a complete beginner. I didn't have much problem with it though; most of the grammar needed to comprehend the text was known to me already. The grammar explanations that were provided were very precise. Short enough to refresh my memory yet not so tedious as to bore me to sleep. I would recommend that a complete beginner follow a suitable grammar book of his/her choice. Many are available (legally) online for free: 1)All the Arabic You Never Learned the First Time @ http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=18395&PN=1&TPN=1 2)The Madinah Series has a superb accompanying video series. All the books, solutions, videos are availble @lqtoronto.com CONS: The presentation has a rough "patchwork" feel to it. The material is quite dated given how the first lesson teaches you to say:"Libya is a republic." in Arabic. Diacritic marks are not used anywhere in the course, however this may really be a blessing in disguise. Real Arabic newspapers don't use diacritics, do they? The only place they are used are in The (Glorious) Koran and in a few children's books. Napoleon Edited by napoleon on 21 September 2011 at 5:51pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Emiliana Diglot Groupie Germany Joined 5112 days ago 81 posts - 98 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Arabic (classical) | Message 14 of 27 21 September 2011 at 6:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi napoleon!
Thanks for the insights! Maybe it is time for a Arabic/French learning group ;) I think with the help of the tapes diacritics are not necessary anymore. In fact, as you pointed out, one should get used to the "raw" script anyway (although it seems to be a pretty hard journey). I also followed the threat about the "all the arabic you never learned the first time" book and I downloaded it, but it seems to me that you have to be at least at a high beginner or even intermediate level to use it. And I am certainly not. ;-) How far did you proceed with the FSI written Arabic course yet? Currently I can't believe that I will ever be able to read Arabic newspapers, but maybe it will be possible. Anyway, I think it needs a lot of time to complete this course. With the help of the vocabulary section I assume that Volume I teaches about 400 words. Regarding "self-explanatory" words like lubnaan or tuunis and all the numbers that are listed seperatly I don't believe that you can learn that much with the 30-something lessons... (Of course there is also Volume 2 and 3, I am just wondering how long a normal person would need to work through these approx. 1500 pages.) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| 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 15 of 27 21 September 2011 at 10:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm on lesson 4 now, and I agree: this book is not for complete beginners! FSI gives a one sentence explanation on most grammar points so far. This is fine if you only need a refresher. I can't imagine understanding any of it if this were all new to me.
Maybe a French/Arabic group is in order! It sounds like we're all at roughly the same level, and even using the same resources (I'm on lesson 75 of Assimil, and lesson 10 of FSI French). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| liddytime Pentaglot Senior Member United States mainlymagyar.wordpre Joined 6227 days ago 693 posts - 1328 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written) | Message 16 of 27 22 September 2011 at 12:07am | IP Logged | ||
Count me in for that group! This fall I am (hopefully depending on the schedule) taking an Arabic Class which focuses on Gulf Colloquial. I can use the extra practice! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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