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Levantine or Saudi | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| JPike1028 Triglot Senior Member United States piketransitions Joined 5398 days ago 297 posts - 337 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Italian Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Swedish, Portuguese, Czech | Message 1 of 13 02 August 2010 at 6:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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So FSI only has programs for Saudi or Levantine Arabic and I'm wondering which road would be the better one to go down. I would ideally like to be able to study Egyptian Arabic as it has the largest number of speakers as I understand it, but b/w Saudi and Levantine there are approximately the same number of speakers. Since Egyptian is not offered, which would be more beneficial do you think?
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| CaucusWolf Senior Member United States Joined 5273 days ago 191 posts - 234 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Arabic (Written), Japanese | Message 2 of 13 03 August 2010 at 1:57am | IP Logged | ||
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Do you know MSA? If you do the Saudi dialect is supposed to be closer to MSA but If you're seriously considering Egyptian it is understood very well throughout the Arab world because of TV shows and Movies and listening to shows and movies with the dialect will definitely help; However I'd seriously consider which particular area in the Arab world you're interested in and choose that. Personally I'm learning MSA first and then hope to learn the saudi, Levantine and Egyptian dialects. حسن حظ (Good Luck!)
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| JPike1028 Triglot Senior Member United States piketransitions Joined 5398 days ago 297 posts - 337 votes Speaks: English*, French, Italian Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Swedish, Portuguese, Czech | Message 3 of 13 25 August 2010 at 7:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have no real, strong preference. In general I would like to find a dialect that will be most widely used, which sounds like Egyptian (although there is no FSI for this dialect).
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| daristani Senior Member United States Joined 7145 days ago 752 posts - 1661 votes Studies: Uzbek | Message 4 of 13 25 August 2010 at 8:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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There's really no FSI course in Levantine Arabic; what the FSI site provides is merely an introduction to Levantine Arabic pronunciation. There's no grammar, vocabulary, etc.
I think it's useful as an introduction to Arabic pronunciation for anyone studying Arabic, as most of the sounds are not really unique to the Levantine dialect, and the practice materials to learn difficult sounds like the "ayn," etc., are useful. So if you're determined to use FSI materials, you're pretty much restricted to the Saudi course. (But various people, on this board and elsewhere, have commented on it as a really excellent course, so you can hardly go wrong with it, I think.) Edited by daristani on 25 August 2010 at 8:19pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| liddytime Pentaglot Senior Member United States mainlymagyar.wordpre Joined 6230 days ago 693 posts - 1328 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written) | Message 5 of 13 25 August 2010 at 9:09pm | IP Logged | ||
The FSI Saudi course is "OK". It doesn't have the same degree of recorded drills as some of FSI's other courses but it is adequate. You should also check out this course: Iraqi Arabic A BASIC COURSE IN IRAQI ARABIC with MP3 Audio Files (Georgetown Classics in Arabic Language and Linguistics) [Paperback] You can pick up a used copy for about $15 including the 25 hours of mp3 files. I found it much more comprehensive than the Saudi course and it is written in the FSI style. Iraqi and Saudi Arabic are pretty similar dialects as well. Edited by liddytime on 25 August 2010 at 11:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| etracher Triglot Groupie Italy Joined 5335 days ago 92 posts - 180 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish Studies: Modern Hebrew, Russian, Latvian | Message 6 of 13 25 August 2010 at 9:47pm | IP Logged | ||
As others have said, FSI doesn't really offer a Levantine Arabic course; the course they have is only a pronunciation course, which is useful for general Arabic - if you are a native American English speaker. As for Egyptian Arabic, why not try the Michel Thomas course, which presents specifically Egyptian Arabic? There is also a Pimsleur Egyptian course if I am not mistaken. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| liddytime Pentaglot Senior Member United States mainlymagyar.wordpre Joined 6230 days ago 693 posts - 1328 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written) | Message 7 of 13 25 August 2010 at 11:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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You should also check out these DLI links if you really want to learn the Egyptian dialect: ( I still think the
Georgetown course is a better course though!) Egyptian: http://www.4shared.com/file/127950277/79528412/Egyptianpdf.h tml http://www.4shared.com/file/128181914/e063cc9f/Egyptianaudio 1.html http://www.4shared.com/file/128732916/bd51d051/Egyptianaudio 2.html http://www.4shared.com/file/128861585/d783518d/Egyptianaudio 3.html http://www.4shared.com/file/128866947/1f5be70/Egyptianaudio4 .html http://www.4shared.com/file/128870355/e37c1da7/Egyptianaudio 5.html Iraqi: http://www.4shared.com/file/128934423/f1afdae2/iraqipdf.html http://www.4shared.com/file/128943796/4f80ad56/iraqibcaudio1 .html http://www.4shared.com/file/128955593/2465fbdb/iraqibcaudio2 .html http://www.4shared.com/file/129025835/c69a35b/iraqibcaudio3. html http://www.4shared.com/file/129122893/496e05f8/iraqibcaudio4 .html http://www.4shared.com/file/129136246/333fb40b/iraqibcaudio5 .html http://www.4shared.com/file/129141809/e58c0de1/iraqibcaudio6 .html Syrian: http://www.4shared.com/file/129466790/f114b35b/syrianpdf.htm l http://www.4shared.com/file/129593029/10a170f7/syrianaudiomo d1-3.html http://www.4shared.com/file/129597567/1adccd48/syrianaudiomo d4-6.html http://www.4shared.com/file/129604269/611a49fb/syrianaudiomo d7-10.html http://www.4shared.com/file/129724875/cdbc3182/syrianaudiomo d11-12.html 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6273 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 8 of 13 26 August 2010 at 10:58am | IP Logged | ||
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FSI really only covers Saudi (Hejazi) among the colloquials. There are pronunciation drills for Levantine, and some written guidelines for Egyptian, Levantine and Moroccan colloquial Arabic, but that's it.
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