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Becoming fluent in Arabic? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| EricaRC Newbie United States Joined 4770 days ago 16 posts - 16 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 9 of 15 09 April 2011 at 11:46pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Thanks everyone for answering my question :)
Isn't it hard to try to learn arabic on your own? I bought a textbook called "Alif Baa (Intro to letters and sounds)" by Kristen Brustad and attempted to learn the alphabet on my own. I got pretty far, too, but was reading on some websites that Arabic was extremely difficult to learn on your own and that it's better to have a classroom setting. Is the textbook series by Brustad good to use? I think its made up of 5 or 6 books and is used in college classes. Can you recommend me any more textbooks (with audio) or websites (with audio) that aren't too expensive, like no more than $50-60. Or if it's really expensive, a very good site/textbook that can guarantee a basic speaking and reading level. Also, has anybody ever heard of the "Tell Me More" website for Arabic. They provide 600 hours of learning for $299. Edited by EricaRC on 10 April 2011 at 12:17am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||||||||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 6807 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes  Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 10 of 15 10 April 2011 at 2:17am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||
Yes, but it doesn't mean that you shouldn't.
Were those websites linked to "learn arabic schools"? If so, need I say more?
I think so, although, like everything in life, there are those who don't.
There are three further books apart from the one you already have, namely Al-Kitaab 1, 2 & 3. As far as I know, it is rather widely used in US universities. Try searching on Amazon, the latest editions should be available (personally, I wouldn't bother with book 3)
The Linguaphone series is good, but it's a bit more than $50-60.
I don't think that's been invented yet!
Never heard of it but for that amount of money, I'd expect a pretty damned good program. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||||||||
| EricaRC Newbie United States Joined 4770 days ago 16 posts - 16 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 11 of 15 10 April 2011 at 2:25am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Here's the website for tellmemore:
http://www.tellmemorestore.com/TELL-ME-MORE-Arabic-Software- p/5-009-1234.htm The program says that it teaches writing, reading, speaking and listening: its comes with a workbook to practice writing, has speech-recongnition to practice speaking, and is used by universities, companies, etc. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||||||||
| apparition Octoglot Senior Member United States Joined 6442 days ago 600 posts - 667 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), French, Arabic (Iraqi), Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Pashto | Message 12 of 15 10 April 2011 at 3:30am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||
Which websites, if you remember? I don't think any independent website would simply say 'it's better' and leave it at that. I do understand many people are intimidated by the script and perhaps a classroom environment can alleviate that, but on the whole, independent learning is really the way to go, IMHO.
If you're trying to learn Arabic on the cheap, start with Alif Baa (or the Teach Yourself or Living Language series), then get into authentic materials like bbcarabic.com, aawsat.com, aljazeera.net, as soon as you can handle them. Learning to use the Hans Wehr dictionary is also valuable, but it can wait until you're out of the beginner stage. Do at least one authentic Arabic text or audio segment a day. After you're comfortable reading and listening to MSA (might take 9 months to a year), pick up some Levantine dialect books secondhand and head to Skype for speaking practice. Do this diligently and you'll be basically fluent in a year or year and a half. That's all I got for ya, for now. P.S.- Don't go for the software gimmicks. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||||||||
| stelingo Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5624 days ago 722 posts - 1076 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Czech, Polish, Greek, Mandarin | Message 13 of 15 10 April 2011 at 1:29pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||
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If you decide decide to go ahead and buy Al-Kitaab fii Ta callum al-cArabiyya by Brustad et al you should wait till they bring out the 3rd edition due out in July this year. It seems there will be lots of new features, and also a companion website. However it will cost more than your budget. Take a look at the link:
http://press.georgetown.edu/book/al-kitaab/al-kitaab-fii-ta- callum-al-carabiyya Edited by stelingo on 10 April 2011 at 1:36pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||||||||
| EricaRC Newbie United States Joined 4770 days ago 16 posts - 16 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 14 of 15 10 April 2011 at 6:17pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||
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For a degree requirement I have to have 2 years of a language class. So I think complete self-teaching is no longer an option. But if I use the Al-Kitaab books I can do my own studying outside of class, right? Edited by EricaRC on 10 April 2011 at 6:26pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Woodpecker Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5603 days ago 351 posts - 590 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Arabic (Egyptian) Studies: Arabic (classical) | Message 15 of 15 10 April 2011 at 6:35pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Don't use Al-Kitaab. It's okay pedagogically, and it gives you large quantities of
helpful audio, but it's not systematic. My personal recommendation, if I were going to learn Arabic again, would be to do the following. 1. Look up Prof. Arguelles' shadowing method and make sure you understand it. 2. Work through Linguaphone and the Elementary Standard Arabic Course (both available fairly cheap if you just keep your eye on eBay) side by side, spending most of your time shadowing and then doing scriptorium. 3. After a few months, start reviewing the grammar with the book, "All the Arabic You Never Learned the First Time," or some other methodical grammar book. Once you've done all that, come back and I will suggest some readers that are good continuations of the above. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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