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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7019 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes  Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 33 of 49 10 August 2006 at 4:33am | IP Logged | |||||
You're right, it won't. You need to acquire a fairly substantial vocabulary in order to understand radio broadcasts and even then, the speed will be almost overwhelming. I wouldn't recommend Pimsleur* for starting Arabic since it teaches you one particular dialect rather than MSA. There are plenty of good textbooks with audio out there, it's just a question of researching them and finding one which you enjoy. Also, a personal tutor or language classes wouldn't hurt. Above all, make sure that you have plenty of audio (very important in a language which is so "foreign" to English speaking ears). * this is my opinion and, as JFA mentioned above, it is possible to go from a dialect to MSA, it's just not the more common route. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Talib Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6665 days ago 171 posts - 205 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (classical) Studies: Arabic (Egyptian) | Message 34 of 49 10 September 2006 at 11:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I have been studying Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic (fusha) in an intensive program for the last year. I would agree that Classical and Msa are basically the same thing, with slight differences. For example, the word tadhkerah means "a reminder" in the Qur'an, but it means "a ticket" such as a plane ticket in MSA. The derivation from classical is that a ticket is there to remind you about your information such as the depature, seat, etc. There are also new words now that didn't exist in classical times, but I would say that overall the differences are minor, although the grammar used in newspapers tends to be dumbed down from masterpieces that exist in classical works.
Before moving to the middle east, I had some unsuccesful attempts in learning arabic. Based on my experience, I would concentrate intitially on learning simple sentences, paragraphs, a lot of vocabulary, and only learning simple grammar that is relevant in understanding basic arabic. I think that doing this will make the language and grammar easier in the long run. I remember trying to work out the iraab (case endings) of the khabar of inna (a grammatical unit) before I knew simple words like he, she, car, dog, etc. Learning this grammar first approach didn't really work for me and it was discouraging. I would look for books that give lots of easy examples in context, so you can see how words fit into the way Arabs use the language. Having some kind of tapes or personal interaction with someone who knows Arabic is exteremly necessary because many sounds in the Arabic alphabet don't have an english equivalent. In terms of specific tapes, I am curious about a program called, "Arabic Advantage." www.arabicadvantage.com Although I haven't tried it myself, the website says that it comes with 24 tapes, 33 hours of prerecorded matierial, and it teaches 2500 of the most common words. This program sounds more comprehensive than Pimsleur, and I think that it costs less than Pimsleur (especially when you consider how it is now being advertised as coming with a free Hans Wehr dictionary, which is argubly the best arabic-english dictionary and the dictionary that I rely on, and plan on relying upon until I can make the switch to an arabic-arabic dictionary.) In addition to tapes, it would be also important to work on reading. I think that anybody who is serious about learning the Arabic language will have to learn how to read it. I use the written form of the language when I communicate with people in Jordan. Everybody seems to understand fusha, although many of the people tend to communicate with the local dialect when they speak. I have no regrets about learning fusha first, and it actually makes learning the dialect much easier. For example the phrase, "Le Ay Shay" is typically pronouced as "Laysh" in the dialect and means 'why' or literally 'for which thing'. Some words are even closer to fusha or exactly the same, while others are radically different such as the diference between 'madha tureedu' and 'shoe biddak' which both mean 'what do you want'. In this way, the dialect often has some kind of connection with fusha. Edited by Talib on 10 September 2006 at 11:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7019 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 35 of 49 11 September 2006 at 5:09am | IP Logged | |||||
Check this thread for some more (limited) information. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| sumabeast Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6930 days ago 212 posts - 220 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written) | Message 36 of 49 12 September 2006 at 3:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
Actually "shoo biddak" is not that far from MSA either. It's derived from MSA ayyu shayin (shoo) bi widdik (biddak). literally: which thing is of your desire? (whatcha want?) :) Edited by sumabeast on 12 September 2006 at 3:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Walshy Triglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6946 days ago 335 posts - 365 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German | Message 37 of 49 24 September 2006 at 11:14am | IP Logged | |||||
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Hey, in my browsing I came across a handful of Classical Arabic clips in the OhioLINK Digital Multimedia Center. I probably wouldn't have posted it here except that I noticed that the videos each have grammar notes highlighting grammatical concepts used by the speaker (e.g, 'self-identification sentences', 'progressive past tense'), implying material for learners.
Anyway, enough chatter, here's the link 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7019 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 38 of 49 24 September 2006 at 4:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks for the link.
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| zorglub Pentaglot Senior Member France Joined 7004 days ago 441 posts - 504 votes 1 sounds Speaks: French*, English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: German, Arabic (Written), Turkish, Mandarin | Message 39 of 49 06 August 2008 at 7:52am | IP Logged | |||||
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Well well well,
I'm still wondering what my next step with Arabic will be. I started with Pimsleur eastern (lebano-syrian) arabic, 2 levels (60 x 25 minutes lessons), I've learnt and understood the structure better with Michel Thomas Egyptian arabic (foundation and "advanced". As I have Assimil's second Arabic edition " L'arabe" ( http://wpc3123.amenworld.com/jspv3/uk/uk_fiche.jsp?paramIdCo deArticle=1528¶mAppelant=0¶mIdLBas=0¶mIdLApp=15& paramIdColl=-1¶mIdMedi=-1 )I had a look at it. It's MSA and looks rather complicated, and in addition, the audio tracks are too slow. I was considering Linguaphone with it's full course, with a 40 % August discount , still 200 euros. But I suppose it will be the same kind of MSA than in Assimil.But 10 CDS...(Assimil 4) From many posts read here I understand that : With MSA you'll be understood almost every where in the Arab world, but will have difficulties understanding people. Those who can speak MSA to you may do it. With a dialect such as Lebanese or Egyptian, from what I heard and read, most Arab speakers will understand me and those who won't will be the same who would not understand my MSA. In addition I'll be OK when in the lebano syrio jordan palestinian areas or in Egypt respectively. Thus, a dialect migh eventually prove more useful. But I'm still to find a mainly audio material to improve on Egyptian or eastern arabic. ANy advice around ? Anyone acquainted with the Linguaphone Complete course of Arabic ? Thanks AZ 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7019 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 40 of 49 06 August 2008 at 8:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
For Egyptian arabic there's "Kullu Tamam! An Introduction to Egyptian Colloquial Arabic" (and the follow-up course "Kallimni Arabi") and "The Colloquial Arabic of Egypt", all of which include CDs (not many though).
I've had a look at it. I only got as far as using the introductory booklet which dealt with the alphabet and, since this was very poor, it put me off the rest of the course. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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