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FSI Modern Written Arabic

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kanewai
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 Message 17 of 27
23 September 2011 at 10:16pm | IP Logged 
I started Chapter 5 last night, and I can already sense some major challenges ahead. The sentences are still very simple, but I had to pull out my old "Teach Yourself" book to refresh my memory, and that book is horribly organized. I found a little explanation on p. 69, an little on page 81, a little in the intro - and I was just trying to find details on simple sentences with "this" and "that!" And I'm still not sure I have it 100% right.

FSI doesn't give translations, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do when the going gets rough.

In the mean time, I want to pass on a link to Basic Arab Grammar (Nahu) I found on "ummah forum."   It's the easiest breakdown I've seen - most other forum posts on Arabic seem to break down into pedantic arguments. Stick to the_middle_road's posts, and ignore the rest; he keeps it basic and simple for us beginners.
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liddytime
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 Message 18 of 27
23 September 2011 at 10:38pm | IP Logged 
kanewai wrote:
I started Chapter 5 last night, and I can already sense some major challenges ahead. The sentences are still very simple, but I had to pull out my old "Teach Yourself" book to refresh my memory, and that book is horribly organized. I found a little explanation on p. 69, an little on page 81, a little in the intro - and I was just trying to find details on simple sentences with "this" and "that!" And I'm still not sure I have it 100% right.

FSI doesn't give translations, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do when the going gets rough.

In the mean time, I want to pass on a link to Basic Arab Grammar (Nahu) I found on "ummah forum."   It's the easiest breakdown I've seen - most other forum posts on Arabic seem to break down into pedantic arguments. Stick to the_middle_road's posts, and ignore the rest; he keeps it basic and simple for us beginners.



Funny, after going through this thread I decided to pull out the 'ol FSI Written Arabic myself. I'm on Chapter 4 right now. It really is pretty good - way better than a lot of the other stuff out there. I am using it in conjunction with FSI Saudi/Hijazi Arabic and they compliment each other quite well.

Thanks for the ummah link. What a great simplified explanation!!

If you are looking for a little more depth in grammatical explanations, you can also check out this DLI course:
DLI Modern Standard Arabic Basic Course
It may be a more depth than you need, but the grammatical explanations in the texts are really good. I think it goes over the whole Haddha/Haddihi Dhalika/Tilka thing in the first few Units.

Edited by liddytime on 23 September 2011 at 10:56pm

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Doitsujin
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 Message 19 of 27
24 September 2011 at 2:01am | IP Logged 
For those interested in a more traditional textbook I can recommend Arthur T Upson's grammar book "Arabic simplified: a practical grammar of written Arabic in 200 lessons," which is out of copyright and can be downloaded from archive.org. It's very detailed and seems to have been written with self-study in mind.
A more concise grammar is the DLI grammar book All the Arabic you never learned the first time around (download links are at the end of the thread).
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napoleon
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 Message 20 of 27
24 September 2011 at 10:04am | IP Logged 
It would be to our mutual advantage if the formation of the French/Arabic Study Group were sucessful IMHO. But how does one form this group, may I ask? Do we start a group log, what?
Oh and If you have time to spare check out the video lessons @ lqtoronto.com; the grammar lessons are pretty intensive but they are fun to watch nonetheless. I second the idea of using the DLI lessons. Although they are pretty intensive, the drills add spontaneity to your speech.

Edited by napoleon on 24 September 2011 at 11:18am

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Emiliana
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 Message 21 of 27
24 September 2011 at 10:48am | IP Logged 
yeah, maybe we can start a log thread... (like one of these TAC threads- though I never really understood what TAC actually means ;))
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napoleon
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 Message 22 of 27
24 September 2011 at 11:21am | IP Logged 
Emiliana wrote:
yeah, maybe we can start a log thread... (like one of these TAC threads- though I never really understood what TAC actually means ;))

Me too. I know that TAC stands for 'Total Annihilation Challenge' but could someone please tell me what it really is. :-)

Edited by napoleon on 24 September 2011 at 12:28pm

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kanewai
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 Message 23 of 27
24 September 2011 at 8:45pm | IP Logged 
The TAC seems to more of a race, for who can do the most hours in six weeks. I don't
know if that would work for me; I'm thinking of something more slow and steady. I agree
that setting up a log and call it a "study group" would work.

My questions is, Arabic/French, or should we focus on novice-level Arabic?   I could do
either, but it's the Arabic that most of us would need the help and support with!
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Emiliana
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 Message 24 of 27
24 September 2011 at 8:53pm | IP Logged 
@kanewei
I agree. But on the other hand we have a bunch of people who learn both languages and I think there is nothing bad about discussing about two languages at the same time. Of course it would be nice if we could have the main focus on Arabic as there are already a lot of treads dealing with French. But-yeah-as I said a lot of us learn Arabic AND French so I think there is nothing bad about discussing both languages in one "study group" (that's a good expression, btw)


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