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Rosetta Stone- Arabic | ||
Tags: Rosetta Stone | Arabic | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| MixedUpCody Senior Member United States Joined 5067 days ago 144 posts - 280 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 1 of 14 19 February 2014 at 3:19am | IP Logged | ||
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Hey all,
I'm enrolling for my last quarter at university and I'm thinking about taking an independent study class in Arabic. At my school you go through the materials on your own and take a proctored midterm and final for these types of classes. They offer MSA and several dialects, but MSA uses Rosetta Stone. I've heard almost all bad things about Rosetta Stone on this site and I've done the demo on their site and it wasn't impressive, but it is hard to tell if something is good just from the demo. So, does anyone think that it is worthwhile to do Rosetta Stone if it is free, as it will be for me (or rather, part of my exorbitant tuition), or is it bad enough to justify just doing something else? Also, I could use the dialect materials, so if anyone has any thoughts on starting with Egyptian I'd be glad to hear it. Thanks for your time. Cody EDIT: Typo Edited by MixedUpCody on 19 February 2014 at 3:21am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4679 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 2 of 14 19 February 2014 at 3:58am | IP Logged | ||
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Pro: You will reliably get a couple of sentences drilled into your head.
Con: It gets boring and really isn't the most efficient method out there... I don't know the Arabic version, but I worked with their Hebrew program a few years ago. The problem was that they did not pay attention to the specific structure of the language. Instead they seem to use a very generic, euro-centric approach to teaching all their languages, where the different versions are simply translations. If only they had geared their "intuitive" exercises to the actual language, they might have payed off more. I also had some knowledge beforehand (2 evening classes) and if I hadn't I don't think I would've figured out the grammar through Rosetta Stone. I'm not sure whether they've improved the program since or whether they paid more attention to Arabic. Getting credit for self-study seems like a good opportunity nevertheless. You could use other resources and make sure that you cover the same material that Rosetta Stone covers - or at least supplement it with other sources. But if the dialects are taught with better programs, I'd go for those instead. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| MixedUpCody Senior Member United States Joined 5067 days ago 144 posts - 280 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 3 of 14 19 February 2014 at 4:14am | IP Logged | ||
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Interesting. Thank you for your advice. The dialect material they offer is:
Frank A. Rice and Majed F. Sa'id, Eastern Arabic (EA) J. Heyworth Dunne, [Linguaphone] Egyptian Arabic Merrill Y. Van Wagoner, Spoken Iraqi Arabic Richard S. Harrell, A Basic Course in Moroccan Arabic Merrill Y. Van Wagoner, Arnold Satterthwait, Frank Rice, Spoken Arabic (Saudi) Anyone have experience with these courses? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4526 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 4 of 14 19 February 2014 at 5:02am | IP Logged | ||
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You should try Assimil, it's seems quite good for Arabic!
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| MixedUpCody Senior Member United States Joined 5067 days ago 144 posts - 280 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 5 of 14 19 February 2014 at 5:27am | IP Logged | ||
Unfortunately, I am limited to the materials that my school has. Otherwise I would try something like Assimil. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4700 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 6 of 14 19 February 2014 at 8:59am | IP Logged | ||
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What an interesting choice.
I have an older, used copy of Linguaphone, but couldn't make heads or tails of it. I almost wonder if parts of it were missing, or if I had a mixed set of different versions - I couldn't match up the Arabic-only texts with the recordings with the English texts. It looked comprehensive, at least. I also took an independent study course in Arabic in school too, and ... didn't do well. I learned the alphabet, at least! And some very basic structures. t's a cool language, but it's one that might actually be easier with a class. But if you are going to go for it, I'm partial to the Eastern and Egyptian dialects, assuming the courses are good. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Lusan Diglot Newbie United States Joined 3753 days ago 35 posts - 53 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Polish | Message 7 of 14 19 February 2014 at 2:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have used the latest RS Polish for a month so far.
Pro: . Very good pronunciation. My wife, who is polish, likes the way I learned to pronounce her language using RS. . Very intense exercises. I like their pace and their immediate feedback . I sense that my listening skills are improving and I can speak slowly. (which means that my active vocabulary is not so good.) . Control of my lessons. I study first thing in the morning and after dinner. Con: . Need to be complemented with a notebook and a pen. I mean write those sentences down, use a dictionary, get involved with the language. RS is just a set of exercises. . Anki's practice . it will not teach to write at all . it will not teach grammar (many people believe that it is not needed?) . need to be complemented with drill exercises found somewhere else I heard many people saying that it is boring. I am puzzled. I do not believe that study needs to be fun; after all, I hate going to the gym but I go 5 times a week. Learning is learning. Similar to chess: Full of challenges and surprises. I have not found RS boring at all. I look forward to seat in front of the computer and do my lessons. Going for 600 hours. So far 33 hours and counting. This is a marathon! I calculated that it can take one to maybe A2-. Surely, there are many other ways to learn a language. I have the feeling that what count is to be involved with it. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| MixedUpCody Senior Member United States Joined 5067 days ago 144 posts - 280 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 8 of 14 19 February 2014 at 11:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks to everyone for the input, I really appreciate it.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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