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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| lackinglatin Triglot Groupie United States randomwritingsetc.blRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5983 days ago 62 posts - 146 votes  Speaks: English*, Esperanto, Modern Hebrew Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 15 09 March 2010 at 6:15am | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm living in Jerusalem doing university, thinking about languages. Doing intensive Hebrew. Want to someday be an English teacher, have a great appreciation for languages. Want to learn Arabic, though.
Levantine, obviously, being as that's what I'm around. How should I go about this? I've never seriously self-studied a language. I self-taught Esperanto, but that didn't really take much dedicated work, just a couple courses, and then figuring a book out and hanging out at chat rooms. (I also started the FSI Spanish recently, because I have a background in Spanish and a Chilean friend willing to teach me right now, and I want to have that language done with since I think I will be able to eventually reach native/near-native fluency in it, as I grew up around it and have a knack for the accent.) Materials? Method? Advice? Warning? Obviously this won't be as hard for me as just any native English speaker, as I have a fairly strong grasp of Hebrew at this point, which helps. I can more or less make out the writing system, just need to spend a couple hours on it to formally learn it. I might need to work on some of the sounds, but I guess sitting down with a native and going over the alphabet, making my own recording on the ipod is probably best for that. Is the FSI levantine thing worth looking at? The title didn't make it look too meaningful. And while I want to learn written Arabic, exactly what is that FSI written arabic course aiming to teach? So yeah, I'm just talking out loud. How should I start this? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6275 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 2 of 15 14 March 2010 at 3:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
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FSI Arabic is pretty good, especially the Saudi Arabic - 50 glorious lessons. They also provide tips on the differences between Levantine and Egyptian varieties, and which types of vocabulary vary most between the various colloquials. There is also information about Moroccan Arabic. Edited by William Camden on 15 March 2010 at 2:35pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| lackinglatin Triglot Groupie United States randomwritingsetc.blRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5983 days ago 62 posts - 146 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, Modern Hebrew Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 15 14 March 2010 at 9:19pm | IP Logged | |||||
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But how helpful will Saudi Arabic be for me in Jerusalem Dialect colloquial Arabic? I don't want to learn all of my vocab in an accent that will sound funny here. That'd be like learning a British accent in America, no?
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| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6275 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 4 of 15 15 March 2010 at 2:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
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FSI deals in greatest detail with Saudi, esp. urban Hejazi Arabic. This seems to be the most widely understood dialect there, and it has apparently been influenced by Egyptian and Levantine versions, which makes me think it is close enough to be comprehensible to speakers of those versions.
I am primarily interested in Levantine (I need to correct my profile). My idea is to complete FSI Saudi, then study the description of Levantine, moving on to another programme when I find one. As a guide to the ways and means of Arabic, I find FSI to be pretty good, in addition to being free. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ManicGenius Senior Member United States Joined 5484 days ago 288 posts - 420 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, French, Japanese | Message 5 of 15 15 March 2010 at 9:37pm | IP Logged | |||||
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As far as I know most Arabic dialects are pretty similar. If you're living in Jerusalem, get some Arab buddies as fast as possible to help you out. They'll fill in the gaps and help you form the right accent regardless of what course you use to learn.
There is no substitute for actual people when it comes to language. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Paskwc Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5680 days ago 450 posts - 624 votes Speaks: Hindi, Urdu*, Arabic (Levantine), French, English Studies: Persian, Spanish | Message 6 of 15 15 March 2010 at 10:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
I have to disagree.
While certainly a good idea, this might be one of those things that are easier said than done, particularly in an environment such as Jerusalem. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ikasu Bilingual Pentaglot Newbie United States Joined 5615 days ago 2 posts - 3 votes Speaks: French, English*, Arabic (Levantine)*, Spanish, Greek | Message 7 of 15 16 March 2010 at 12:01am | IP Logged | |||||
It won't. Palestinian Arabic is very different from Saudi. The difference is much wider than British/American English. Have you tried shopping around in bookstores in Jerusalem? Unfortunately, there are not many sources for colloquial Palestinian Arabic. You're best bet is to learn MSA first and then learn from the dialect from native speakers, but that would be a challenge in Israel. Here's a few online sources though: http://www.pcdc.edu.ps/textbooks/index.htm (Palestinian school books) http://langmedia.fivecolleges.edu/collection/lm_jordan/joInd ex.html (Some audio files here) Note that Jordanian is essentially the same as Palestinian, so you can look for Jordanian Arabic sources as well. http://www.fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?page=Arabic% 20Levantine I heard the above FSI Intro to Levantine pronunciation is a good place to start. Edited by Ikasu on 16 March 2010 at 12:18am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| lackinglatin Triglot Groupie United States randomwritingsetc.blRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5983 days ago 62 posts - 146 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, Modern Hebrew Studies: Spanish | Message 8 of 15 16 March 2010 at 12:17am | IP Logged | |||||
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I was hoping I could get by on free resources. There are, of course, books around here I'm sure. And actually, I have plenty of Arab buddies, as I lived in East Jerusalem for a year and taught at Arab schools--even here at the Hebrew University, though, the majority of the people in my dorms are Arabs. Finding Arab friends in Jerusalem is a lot easier than, say, Tel Aviv, though that still wouldn't be *so* hard. Plenty of non-west-bank Arabs live in Israel in the north and enjoy full citizenship. They integrate nicely.
You won't hear so much about that on the news, granted. Learning MSA first, and then switching, sounds awful. It's frustrating that I'll have to learn both to be fluent in the Arab world, though, to any degree. :\ I don't really need an intro to pronunciation much, as I more or less have the alphabet down, and can imitate Arabic sounds pretty darn well for a Texan. I want something with grammar and vocab. And indeed, most Arabic dialects are not similar. I think that some of them are further apart than Portuguese and Italian, actually, and if Linguistics wasn't the domain of the west, might be characterized in some cases as separate languages. Thanks for the resources Ikasu. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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