CaucusWolf Senior Member United States Joined 5273 days ago 191 posts - 234 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Arabic (Written), Japanese
| Message 1 of 5 02 March 2011 at 12:33am | IP Logged |
So, I'm finally nearing a close(about 7 lessons away) to the second volume in the FSA Modern Written Arabic course. I now ponder of what comes next. It seems that the third volume has no audio, so I'd really only benifit from reading.
I was wondering if anyone had completed all three volumes and could tell me if and how it was beneficial even without the audio. I was also wondering about those who had just completed the two and been able to easily attain vocabulary from reading or listening through context or dictionaries, along with their respective stories. XD
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HenryMW Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5175 days ago 125 posts - 179 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, French Studies: Modern Hebrew
| Message 2 of 5 02 March 2011 at 5:37am | IP Logged |
What's your opinion of the course? Arabic is a language I may study in the future.
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CaucusWolf Senior Member United States Joined 5273 days ago 191 posts - 234 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Arabic (Written), Japanese
| Message 3 of 5 03 March 2011 at 3:09am | IP Logged |
HenryMW wrote:
What's your opinion of the course? Arabic is a language I may study in the future. |
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Well, so far I feel pretty good about the amount of vocabulary I know. I'm able to read fairly quickly as long as I know the words.(although sometimes I have to think a little longer about a particular sentence.) My listening skills are improving as well, although its not near the level my reading is at. I've also used http://madinaharabic.com/(up to lesson four)and I tried the RS free trial, which I didn't like. Other than this I have nothing to compare FSI with.
I'm hoping to be able to read newspapers with little to no help from a dictionary after Vol two of FSI.(which, according to vol three you're already supposed to be able to read newspapers.) I'm hoping that I can gain a little extra vocab from reading newspapers and using http://madinaharabic.com/ and possily the Madina books to get a better grasp of grammar.(as the MWA FSI course alone does teach grammar, but not in depth. I assume this is because its only meant to teach people how to read newspapers.(which use simple language.) I can already read alot in newspapers, so I feel pretty confident that I'll be able to read at least 85-95% by the time I'm done Vol two.( I just wanted to be 100% certain about it.)
Edited by CaucusWolf on 03 March 2011 at 3:13am
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apparition Octoglot Senior Member United States Joined 6651 days ago 600 posts - 667 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), French, Arabic (Iraqi), Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Pashto
| Message 4 of 5 04 March 2011 at 12:31am | IP Logged |
Depends on what part of newspapers you read. If you're reading the opinion section, the
level jumps up quite a bit. Straight news stories don't have a lot of variation day-to-
day so they're easier to grasp. Very linear. Give the opinion articles a go and I think
you'll find them rather challenging as a way to increase your vocab, etc.
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CaucusWolf Senior Member United States Joined 5273 days ago 191 posts - 234 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Arabic (Written), Japanese
| Message 5 of 5 08 March 2011 at 3:56am | IP Logged |
apparition wrote:
Depends on what part of newspapers you read. If you're reading the opinion section, the
level jumps up quite a bit. Straight news stories don't have a lot of variation day-to-
day so they're easier to grasp. Very linear. Give the opinion articles a go and I think
you'll find them rather challenging as a way to increase your vocab, etc. |
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Thanks for the input.
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