Product Description
The beauty and richness of the history and cultures of the Middle East are matters of increasing interest to the English-speaking world. As nations make their way into this new century, there must be dialogue and understanding--and language is the doorway into that new understanding.

This revised and updated second edition of Al-Kitaab contains new video and audio material on three DVDs, along with revised and updated texts and exercises. Following naturally on the introductory text, Alif Baa, for theAl-Kitaab Arabic language program, this initial Part One text further develops skills in standard Arabic while providing additional material in colloquial as well as classical Arabic.

The audio vocabulary portion of the DVDs allow learners to hear a new word followed by a sentence using it in context along with previously acquired vocabulary and grammatical structures, enabling students to build new vocabulary skills while reviewing previously exercised material. The video portion offers the option of seeing and hearing the video of each lesson in both Modern Standard Arabic and Egyptian Colloquial Arabic. The DVDs also contain substantial material exposing the learner to Egyptian Arabic (the most widely used and understood Arabic dialect), a short dialogue in Egyptian Colloquial Arabic appears at the end of each lesson. New video materials also feature subtitled interviews with Egyptians about various aspects of Arab culture, such as gender issues, fasting in the Muslim and Christian traditions, social clubs and their significance, and more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (59)

An excellent textbook for serious language students
I'm a little confused by some of the negative reviews of this book, particularly the one in which the reviewer complained that he couldn't tell someone his name in Arabic after reading several chapters, or the many people who have ridiculed the book for introducing the Arabic expression for "United Nations" in chapter 1.

If you are thinking of purchasing this book, you should be very clear: This is NOT a casual phrase-book for travelers who are going to the Middle East for a week and need to know how to find the bathroom or order a plate of chicken. This is a serious university-level language textbook intended to accompany a two-year program of introductory and intermediate Arabic, and is designed to be used with the accompanying DVD as well as the introductory primer "Alif Baa," which introduces the reader to the alphabet as well as to basic phrases such as "My name is..." and "Where is the...?" It is NOT designed or intended to be used by the self-learner studying at home alone.

We are using this textbook (along with Alif Baa) in my college class, and after only 8 weeks I am amazed at how much Arabic I can read, write, and understand. The textbook is well organized, the DVD materials are helpful, and when combined with regular classroom lectures (three times a week in my case), I think it does a great job of introducing this very unfamiliar language to English-speakers. It's as good, if not better, than any other language textbook I have ever used. My only reason not to recommend it is that the authors are supposedly coming out with a third edition sometime in 2011 that will have updated online resources, so if you don't need it right away, I would advise waiting for the next version.

Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-'Arabiyya with DVDs: A Textbook for Beginning Arabic, Part One Second Edition
This order has been delivered in a timely fashion to be used when needed. As I was promised on the website, everything went very well. I am looking forward to continue doing business with the website, Amazon.com. Thank you!

Seller and shipping
I was very pleased with the timely manner of the shipment. I bought all my books online for school and this was the first book that was shipped to me. The book itself had a few writings in it as claimed but all in all a great seller.

It is probably impossible to learn much from this book
I bought two copies of this book, one for when I am in London and one for when I am in the Gulf. I was looking for a good textbook for a beginner who knows the arabic alphabet. Most of all, I wanted a book into which I could pour my effort and which would reward me with progress in Arabic. I have since learnt from experts in language teaching that whereas the field of books for English speakers who wish to learn, say, French or Latin is mature, the field of Arabic language textbooks is not yet mature and has many gaps. This book and its series seemed from the description and from reviews, and from its undoubted commercial success, to be what I wanted. I propended for three months, spending about 20 minutes a day on learning Arabic, sometimes with flashcards, sometimes with a great personal tutor, and sometimes with other books. Al-Kitaab was attractive, and it has all the right elements, including a story, a video, interactive lessons with grammar structured in a way that worked for me. But I found that despite this book being most the most attractive one to me and despite my putting much effort into it, I was making more progress with _Teach Yourself Gulf Arabic_, which had more obvious limitations. After a couple of months I began to notice the problem with Al-Kitaab. It tests the reader on grammar and other features of the language which it has not yet taught. So while all the elements of the textbook are good, they don't fit together, and it is probably not possible to learn the language from this book, although it might have some value as a side attraction to a student following another book as a main text. Having discovered what I thought to be the problem, I asked a top language teacher to review the book for me and assess its suitability for my purpose, i.e. learning Arabic with this as the main textbook. Her verdict was that it is not suitable, for the reasons I suspected: this book expects the reader to know critical things that it has not yet taught. I was surprised by this, because I had assumed that like, say, maths textbooks, most of the popular language textbooks would be reasonably well designed. My expert language teacher said that this is in fact not the case at all, and many of the most popular language textbooks suffer precisely this flaw. As part of my effort to learn Arabic, I had bought every popular textbook I could find, because the problem is not time or money in learning a new language, but rather how efficiently one's effort (time) converts into facility in the new language. I asked my expert language teacher to look through all the books I had, and with her help I selected Schulz, Krahl & Ruschel _Standard Arabic_, which I owned but which I had not paid much attention to. Since switching my effort to Schulz & Co, I have made faster progress and my understanding of Arabic has a much better structure. This is my personal experience of trying to learn Arabic and I hope my views may be of some value to others who want to learn this great language.

perfect conditions
Book arrived in 2 days, it was very fast. The book is in good conditions ... Read more

Product Description
This Conversational program contains 8 hours of interactive audio-only instruction, effective language learning with real-life spoken practice sessions.

The Pimsleur Method provides the most effective language-learning program ever developed. The Pimsleur Method gives you quick command of Egyptian Arabic structure without tedious drills. Learning to speak Egyptian Arabic can actually be enjoyable and rewarding.

The key reason most people struggle with new languages is that they aren't given proper instruction, only bits and pieces of a language. Other language programs sell only these pieces -- dictionaries; grammar books and instructions; lists of hundreds or thousands words and definitions; audios containing useless drills. They leave it to you to assemble these pieces as you try to speak. Pimsleur enables you to spend your time learning to speak the language rather than just studying its parts.

When you were learning English, could you speak before you knew how to conjugate verbs? Of course you could. That learning process is what Pimsleur replicates. Pimsleur presents the whole language as one integrated piece so you can succeed.

With Pimsleur you get:

• Grammar and vocabulary taught together in everyday conversation,
• Interactive audio-only instruction that teaches spoken language organically,
• The flexibility to learn anytime, anywhere,
• 30-minute lessons designed to optimize the amount of language you can learn in one sitting.

Millions of people have used Pimsleur to gain real conversational skills in new languages quickly and easily, wherever and whenever -- without textbooks, written exercises, or drills.

Conversational Egyptian Arabic includes the 10 lessons from Pimsleur's Basic Egyptian Arabic plus an additional 6 lessons.

The 16 lessons in Conversational Egyptian Arabic are the same first 16 lessons in the Pimsleur Comprehensive Egyptian Arabic Level 1. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

mixed feelings
I have tried both the Eastern Arabic and Egyptian Arabic courses.I have some mixed feelings about this methodology. On one hand, I like the idea of teaching new vocabulary and then going back and reviewing it. What I think Pimsleur calls "Build and Review".

What I have a problem with though is the lack of text to go with the full audio course. Often times I had trouble understanding the speakers and feel like I would have benefitted from having some text to follow or at least verify which words were being said. Case in point... The speaker was introducing the word "imta" (interrogative form of "when"). This word when pronounced by the speaker sounds a lot like "inta" ( masculine "you"). Thus making it hard to know what they were really saying. And I suppose one could argue that if you know enough Arabic, you could figure it out from the context. But since this course is aimed at a "beginner", it would stand to reason that the listener is NOT going to know these words and would be helped by reading some text.

Apparently though, the philosophy behind Pimsleur is to NOT provide any text but force the user to listen. I've tried many times listening to this course and just can't remember the vocabulary enough to make their $250+ price tag justified. And for $250 for the full course, you'd think they could include some text to go along with the audio.

pimsleur egyptian arabic review
This is the 3rd Pimsleur language cd set I have purchased.I tried the instant immersion arabic and really did not enjoy it.It was too advanced for my abilities and I could not understand the nuances of what the professor said.The Pimsleur, on the other hand, breaks it down simply and makes it easy for me to understand and imitate.From now on, I will stick with Pimsleur.

Just great!
I had a basic foundation in Arabic and needed to refresh and become familiar with the Egyptian dialect.This course was simple, inexpensive and worked.Minimum time; maximum results.Really, really pleased.

I'm actually learning
I haven't taken a lot of time thus far, but even so this method seems to be working better than Rosettastone. I am quite pleased.

great for those who know arabic and need the egyptian dialect
Because of the difficulties of Arabic, I am unsure how this method would work with complete beginners.People do need to conjugate verbs in some order or they get lost, and to map material learned orally into written Arabic would be trickly. But for someone who knows arabic and needs to learn egyptian, this is neat. All the content is in audio, so one can listen to it in the car or on the bike. The primsleur method of systematically bringing up reviews of vocabulary seems to help with memory consolidation. ... Read more

Product Description

Colloquial Arabic (Levantine) offers you a step-by-step approach to the Arabic spoken in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. Levantine Arabic is widely recognized as one of the major languages of Arabic radio and television. Specially written by an international authority on teaching Arabic as a foreign language, Colloquial Arabic (Levantine) is the ideal course for self-study or class use and requires no previous knowledge of the language.

What makes Colloquial Arabic (Levantine) your best choice in personal language learning?

• Interactive – lots of dialogues and exercises for regular practice.
• Clear – concise grammar notes.
• Complete – including answer key and dictionary section
• Helpful – provides invaluable guidance on everything related to language in its social, cultural, and religious contexts.
• Innovative – the course also teaches the skills of reading Arabic script.

Accompanying audio material is available to purchase separately on CD/MP3 format, or comes included in the great value Colloquials Pack.

Customer Reviews (5)

A good companion to learning Levantine Arabic.
You're not going to learn how to speak, read, or write Arabic (Levantine or otherwise) from this book.However, it is an excellent companion to a larger study of the language, especially for those interested in the Levantine dialects and those wishing to learn colloquialisms and expressions.

No way
I have tried to learn many languages with teach-yourself books in the past. I must say this one is the worst book of this kind I have ever found. I only could learn some things from it because I had studied some Egyptian Arabic before. After completing it I found out that the Lebanese it teaches had nothing to do with the language my Lebanese friends speak. Don't even consider buying it

A Useful Survey and "Taste" of Lebanese Arabic
I discovered this book (without the cassette) in my public library a few months ago and liked it enough to track down the full boxed book-with-cassette edition and buy it (on Amazon, of course!).

I was pleased with it and learned a lot from it, but I should say, for starters, that I didn't come to either Arabic or language learning as a total beginner.I had studied literary Arabic over twenty years ago and knew a smattering of words and phrases in various dialects (and had also studied a whole slew of other languages and had no fear of grammatical terminology).

The book is useful if you want a brief survey of colloquial Arabic grammar (I had wondered how verb tenses other than the past worked, for instance, and I'm much less mystified now, thanks to McLoughlin's book) and some fairly interesting, lively, accessible sample texts (the usual greetings and polite expressions, a telephone conversation involving a wrong number, a humorous story about an Englishman who couldn't learn Arabic, a collection of proverbs and [mild!] curses...).I thought the story about the Englishman alone worth what I paid for the book and cassette (which was considerably below retail).

On the authenticity of the language used, I'm not really competent to judge, but clearly the target is spoken Lebanese Arabic; for 'what's this?' the author gives the Levantine "shu haada", rather than the literary "maadha haadha?", or forms used in Egypt or Morocco or somewhere else. The only basis for the statement by a previous reviewer that the author mixes modern standard Arabic with Levantine seems to be the slightly conservative spelling: "kayf" instead of "keef" (in the author's transliteration) for 'how', "ma9a salama" instead of "ma9a salame" for 'goodbye', "jadeed" instead of "jdeed" for 'new', etc. (though the speaker on the cassette uses the more colloquial, Lebanese pronunciations I listed second).

Some of the book's shortcomings are the fact that grammatical forms and vocabulary are really not worked with enough to be mastered, and that the transliteration system is a little odd and not conveniently summarized (for some reason, it uses standard Latin values for the short vowels, but flip-flops to a "SEE-it and SAY-it" sytem for the long vowels and diphthongs).The biggest drawback, though, is that the dialogues and story seem to have been an afterthought; there's no attempt to build up the vocabulary or structures needed for them.

So if you're looking for a single, good textbook (and you're a beginner), this isn't it--though you can learn polite phrases and some basic grammatical structures in the first few lessons.This is a book for someone who's "having more than one".Fortunately, my local library also had three other good items for the dialect: Pimmsleur's CD course in "Eastern Arabic" (Syrian dialect, no book), Hugo's "Arabic in Three Months", and "Just Listen and Learn Arabic" (the last two focusing on Jordanian Arabic).

Don't bother!
This book is absolutely useless for learning Levantine Arabic! I won't repeat the points made in the other reviews which are all quite good, but I will say that this book DOES NOT feature the Levantine dialect AT ALL! It is simply a vaguely colloquial version of the Classical language, written in Latin script, which bears little resemblance to the actual dialect of the Levant. If you want to learn Classical Arabic (the written language) there are hundreds of books available, if not, try Hussein's 'Levantine Arabic for Non-Natives' if you already know some Arabic, Classical or one of the other dialects. If you don't, try another dialect - Egyptian is very widely understood (although Syrians seem quite amused at Westerners using it) and there is a lot of material available out there to learn it (the Routledge 'Colloquial' course is NOT the best one for that dialect either, though it is much better than this one). Arabs don't expect you to speak a word of their language, and will reward any effort on your part with enthusiastic encouragement which is generally not the experience of the someone who tries out their newly-learned English or French in Paris, London or New York.

Interesting proverbs - nothing else
Unfortunately, I can't recommend this book. There are three Colloquial Arabic books published by Routledge, but only one (Colloquial Arabic of the Gulf) lives up to the high standard in Routledge's Colloquial Series. This book is unsatisfactory since:

1. Learning a new language is reasonably hard, and most Colloquial books published by Routledge are about 300 pages. This one in barely 100 pages and, what is more, it's smaller than most of the other books. This means that the material in this book compares to 1/5 in another Colloquial book. I don't think Arabic is that much easier...

2. In this very short book, one half deals exclusively with proverbs. No doubt interesting, but that means that the actual page number for grammar and vocabulary is nothing short of scandalous.

3. The grammar is explained very briefly, and you don't get any understanding of it.

4. Very few vocabularies are featured on the tape, so you'll finish this book without being able to pronounce Arabic (nor understand it, nor speak it)

I'm very interested in Arabic, and the Arabic of the Levant in particular, so it's very disappointing that this book don't live up to the most rudimentary expectations. Routledge is renowned as the worlds leading publisher of high quality language courses (justified in 99% of the cases) and I sincerely hope that they will remove this disgrace and replace it with a book worthy their reputation.

If you want to learn Colloquial Arabic, go to Colloquial Arabic of the Gulf and Saudi Arabia. ... Read more

Product Description
Comprehensive Arabic (Eastern) III includes 30 additional lessons (16 hrs.), plus Readings, which build upon the language skills acquired in Levels I and II. Increased spoken and reading language ability.

Level III will increase your vocabulary and grammatical structures and triple your spoken proficiency. Upon completion of a level III, you will be able to:

• participate in most informal and some formal discussions on practical, social, and some semi-professional topics,

• form longer sentences while maintaining the target language syntax,

• be understood even by native speakers unused to dealing with foreigners,

• handle increasingly difficult grammatical structures,

• enjoy fluent conversations with a variety of strangers,

• have a near-native accent, and the subtleties of the language will be apparent in your speech,

• read at the same level at which you speak.

Note: In order for the Pimsleur Method to work correctly, you must first complete the Level I + II language programs before proceeding to the Level III language program. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Fun and challenging
Eastern Arabic III is fun and challenging, like all Pimsleur courses.I just wish 1) there was equivalent-level material for other dialects (Egyptian, Sudanese), and 2) I knew what to do after finishing level III.Visit Syria, I guess :)

Incredibly easy to start learning a language
I have just completed the Comprehensive Eastern Arabic III and I am truly amazed by its results.

Thanks to such a method one manages with practically no effort to speak and read arabic at an intermediate level.

Having previously purchased Comprehensive Arabic I & II (through another online site however) I was looking forward to the III one...I was anything but disappointed.

In the III series, we are being repeated knowledge acquired through the I & II while introduced to a new vocabulary of approximately 500 words.

My only objection: this is not a method to complete within 30 days as by the Pimsleur advertisements. It was sometimes taking me up to 3 days to comprehend a lesson and move on to the following one. Still, this was worth the effort...

great conversation builder
I enjoy the repetition of Pimsleur. It helps you recall what you've learned and remember the new words/phrases.

Mismatched Pronunciation makes it a bit difficult
I have used other Pimsleur programs with great success. I also managed to use this one, but with significantly more struggling. One of the main problems is that the speakers, after carefully pronouncing a word out for you, will say it at regular speed and it sounds quite different. The male voice says the exact same word differently than the female voice, which is frustrating. The female voice is also nasal, high-pitched, and frankly it was grating on my nerves by the end. I also had difficulty because it seemed as if the speakers weren't repeating themselves as often as they do in the other language CDs by Pimsleur.

I do highly recommend any Pimsleur program and own two different languages by them, and I am definitely adding more. The Eastern Arabic, if practiced, will make you sounda lot like someone from Syria, which will probably go over better than sounding like an American that is trying to speak Arabic. I like the program but this particular set... not so much.

Learn Arabic at home
The Pimsleur method has been working very well for me so far. It really makes learning foreign languages easy. ... Read more

Product Description
As the national language of nearly 20 countries in Africa and Asia, including Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, Arabic is the lingua franca of the Middle East.

• Contains 4,000 total entries
• Uses a standard Arabic recognized throughout the Middle East
• Incorporates the Arabic script and its romanized transliteration
• Basic Arabic Grammar
• Practical cultural information
• Perfect for travelers, businesspersons, and foreign aid workers

Customer Reviews (18)

arabic-english dictionary
FAbulous book for me who knows no arabic to try to convey words and ideas.It also has arabic to english so our friends can communicate with us and english to arabic so we can communicate to them.Love that it is all alphabetical. Easy to use.

English Arabic Dictionary
I had this shipped to my son in Iraq when he was stationed there. It helped him to communicate with the guards there and came in very handy! Thank you so much!

Disappointed
I am disappointed with the delivery of this item. Since I still have not received it I cannot possibly review it. I do not understand how paying for 1 day shipping takes 6 days to get here. Oh wait it isn't here. I will never pay expedited shipping with Amazon again. I have purchased from Amazon before and just shipped regularly more quickly than this. Maybe I will have to find another source.

The best book I have come across for learning Arabic
I have purchased many books on the Arabic language in the last seven years, since I converted to Islam. There
are many books that focus on classical Arabic that are useful, but this book tops them all for a few reasons. Firstly this is easy to read and follow. The Arabic font is actually readable with the transliteration alongside the English. This alone is a rare commodity considering the amount of books that are undecodable. Secondly the book has two dictionary directories. One from English to Arabic, and the second from Arabic to English. This makes it practical to find words that catch your ear, in passing, if you live in the Middle East. Or you can choose the English word and find the Arabic equivalent. The phrases in this book, far and wide, supersede the phrases I have read in other travel handbooks. I have lived in Egypt for Six Years, so I am speaking from experience on this matter. This book seems to be valuabe for the beginner, the intermediate, and the advanced class of learner. I have nothing to gain from this review, nor do I know the publishers. Hands down the best Arabic learning tool I have ever purchased. Mark my words friends! Asalaamualaikim!

Sincerely,
William Beattie

Use at your peril
I don't know whether it's an issue with editing or if the authors really don't know what they're talking about. Either way, there are far too many errors and simply incorrect words and definitions to make this book useful. Examples: Their dictionary says "ibn" means "brother" ("ibn" is "son," and "ukh" is "brother") lists "ahlan" as "hello" and "marhaban" as "welcome" [as in welcome to my home] when the meanings are actually reversed; and many other examples.
This book would be disastrous for a beginner, DO NOT BUY. ... Read more

Product Description
This book/CD pack will teach you how to speak and understand the spoken Arabic of the Gulf region (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, southern Iraq, Qatar, Bahrain, the Emirates and Oman). It is not a manual of standard, or literary, Arabic, which is not a spoken language - for that use Teach Yourself Arabic. However, so that you will be able to read road signs, shop names etc, there is a simple guide to the Arabic alphabet.In the first ten units of the book you will find all the important information that you will need for good communication in Gulf Arabic. The last four units refer to specific situations in which you might find yourself if you are visiting or living in the region, and build on the words and grammar you have already learned.Each unit contains several dialogues which introduce the new language in a realistic context. The new words and phrases are given in both Arabic script and English transliteration. The grammar points are fully explained and illustrated and gradually build up to provide you with all you need to understand and speak Gulf Arabic.There are plenty of exercises to check your progress and the answers for these are at the back of the book or on the recording.The final section of each unit contains the Arabic script which gradually takes you through the Arabic alphabet so that by the end you will be able to recognise simple road signs and so on.The double CD (ISBN 0340912472) is available separately, as is the book (ISBN 0340868015). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Brilliant value for money
I have basic knowledge of Modern Standard Arabic and bought this to familiarise myself with the Gulf dialect. I have found it simply brilliant, have even put it into practise conversing with Gulf Arabs, namely from Saudi Arabia and UAE.

All the lessons and conversations/dialogues in the CDs are produced in the book that accompanies it. However, the only complaint I have is that it is all Romanised and does not come with the Arabic script, which would've saved me the time and trouble of having to refer to my Arabic tutor to get certain pronounciations and spelling in Arabic spot on.

Other than that, I'd recommend it highly for beginners. ... Read more

Product Description
This concise but practical introduction to Arabic, Persian, and Hindustani furnishes anyone interested in comparative languages with a clear and comprehensive view of their structure; and after only a few hours of diligent study, students should be able to analyze sentences in any of these languages. The text carefully examines the structures of these three languages and meticulously explains the underlying principles. All technical terms are excluded and the old classifications into declensions, conjugations, etc., are omitted. For each language the alphabet, numerals, verb parts and tenses are given, along with the English equivalent and pronunciation; the formation of compound words and more are clearly explained. Unabridged republication of Simplified Grammar of Hindustani, Persian, and Arabic, originally published by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., London, 1890.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Dry Looks of Book conceal a swashbuckling character
I agree wholeheartedly with the positive reviews of the grammatical merits of the book.Its dry nature gives no hint of the many events that E. H. Palmer packed into a short life of 42 years, cut short by a tragic ending in the Arabian desert.To quote Wikipedia:

In the close of the year 1871 he became Lord Almoner's Professor of Arabic at Cambridge University, married, and settled down to teaching. His salary was small, and his affairs were further complicated by the long illness of his wife, who died in 1878. He was called to the English bar in 1874, and early in 1882 he was asked by the government to go to the East and assist the Egyptian expedition by his influence over the Arabs of the desert El-Tih. He went to Gazawithout an escort; made his way safely through the desert to Suez, an exploit of singular boldness; and was highly successful in his negotiations with the Bedouin. He was appointed interpreter-in-chief to the force in Egypt, and from Suez he was again sent into the desert with Captain William John Gill and Flag-Lieutenant Harold Charrington to procure camels and gain the allegiance of the sheikhsby considerable presents of money. On this journey he and his companions were led into an ambush and murdered (August 1882). Their remains, recovered after the war by the efforts of Sir Charles (then Colonel) Warren, now lie in St Paul's Cathedral.

Palmer's highest qualities appeared in his travels, especially in the heroic adventures of his last journeys. His brilliant scholarship is displayed rather in the works he wrote in Persian and other Eastern languages than in his English books, which were generally written under pressure. His scholarship was wholly Eastern in character, and lacked the critical qualities of the modern school of Oriental learning in Europe. All his works show a great linguistic range and very versatile talent; but he left no permanent literary monument worthy of his powers. His chief writings are The Desert of the Exodus (1871), Poems of Beha-ed-Din (Ar. and Eng., 1876-1877), Arabic Grammar (1874), Jerusalem, the city of Herod and Saladin (1871), by Walter Besant and Palmer (the latter wrote the part taken from Arabic sources), Persian Dictionary (1876) and English and Persian Dictionary (posthumous, 1883); translation of the Qur'an (1880) for the Sacred Books of the East series, a spirited but not very accurate rendering. He also did good service in editing the Name Lists of the Palestine Exploration.

Simplified grammar of Arabic, Persian and Hindustani
I'm sorry, but I havn't got up till now this and other English -Albanian dictionary, as a result I cannot write the necessary for you review. I order this to books for the second time and I'm not sure, that I'll receive it some day

Great Concise Reference ...
A very valuable concise reference for someone interested in Arabic, Persian and Urdu grammars. Packed with useful knowledge.

vERY GOOD BOOK
this book is outstanding but a little complicated at time. unless you are a linguist or a language major of somesort, you might find this book a little confusing. The book is excellent and goes in great detail in each respectrive langaue and the differences in the other languages, but there is no basic phrases or vocabulary listings, etc. Overall good book for studying languages comparatively, but not recommended for a student or traveller or someone who is studying the language in depth.

Great value for the price
This is the Dover, 2002 edition of this 1890 classic by E. H. Palmer. Despite being published almost 115 years ago by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, and Co., this is still one of the best concise grammars of Arabic I've seen. I only know the basics about Persian and Hindustani, and was most interested in the Arabic part. Except for being written in the same Arabic script (with some minor modifications), those two languages don't have much in common with Arabic, except for many lean words, since Arabic is a Semitic family language, and Persian and Hindustani are Indo-European languages. I did learn, though, that the alphabet for Hindustani is almost the same as for Arabic, except that Hindustani has Arabic letters with up to four dots over them, the maximum in Persian and Arabic being three.

The book is only 100 pages long, but half of it is devoted to the Arabic grammar. It emphasizes the "algebraic" approach to the word root, which I found very helpful, and which the modern introductory grammars of Arabic by Ingle and Awde that I have don't seem to use. For example, using the letters X, Y, and Z to denote the tri-syllabic word pattern, the author gives the basic pattern for a root and then discusses how the variations on the root change the meaning. For example, the simplest verb form in Arabic is the pattern, XaYaZa. An example of a verb that meets that pattern would be the verb for "does," orfa:ala (the ":" denotes one of the glottal-type Arabic sounds). Katala (he killed) and dharaba (he struck) are other examples.

One often reads that the triliteral root patterns are helpful in inferring and gleaning other knowledge about the words, but from my experience, still being a comparative beginner, this is something that doesn't become that helpful until one has reached the intermediate stage of study, although there are exceptions, such as in the pattern for adjectives that I mentioned above. But as the author's approach emphasizes the root patterns and their derivations more than the other books I have, that aspect of the language has become more apparent to me. In general, the author avoids technical grammatical and linguistic terms.

The author includes some nice tables of the verb conjugations, such as the"Table of Derived Forms, " "Table of Forms of the Simple Verb," and a "Table of Broken Plurals." (There is no consistent way to form the plural of nouns in Arabic, so the best way is to just learn it with the word, as with the gender for nouns in French, German, and Spanish). There are also tables for numerals and ordinals.

I only have one complaint about the book, which is that the print is a little faint or spotty occasionally, probably because it was reproduced from camera-ready copy from the original book, but considering the price is only nine dollars, it's a lot of value for the price. I also like the Arabic font better than the ones in several other modern Arabic books, which is somewhat more compact (less distance between consonants and letters), which I found easier to read). And if you actually need the Persian and Hindustani grammars, you really can't beat it. As they say, you can beat the author, but you can't beat his price. :-) ... Read more

Product Description

Arabic: An Essential Grammar is an up-to-date and practical reference guide to the most important aspects of the language. Suitable for beginners, as well as intermediate students, this book offers a strong foundation for learning the fundamental grammar and structure of Arabic.

The complexities of the language are set out in short, readable sections, and exercises and examples are provided throughout. The book is ideal for independent learners as well as for classroom study.

Features of this book include:

• coverage of the Arabic script and alphabet
• a chapter on Arabic handwriting
• a guide to pronunciation
• full examples throughout.

Customer Reviews (2)

Arabic - an essential grammar
I have found this to be a fascinating book. I do not wish to learn Arabic, but I am an amateur linguist who wanted to learn more about Arabic. I have looked at several books that purport to answer my needs but none of them came up to the standard offered by Abu Chacra's book. It offers a colourful journey into an unfamiliar grammar, with exercises for translation that give an insight into Arab thought. Most grammars tend to be dry and depend on the mastery of one chapter before progressing to the next, but this is a book that can be opened at any page and provide interest. I found it easy to read and would recommend it to both those who need to go deeply into the structure of Arabic and to those who, like me, simply want to know about the language. It seems to be the definitive answer to the study of the language.

Geoff White,

St. Albans

Concise and useful
I bought this book because it seemed like a great way for me to maintain the grammar I've learned so far in Arabic. So far it has been great. The book is much more concise than the Arabic textbook I used in class and doesn't require a teacher.

There are a few small errors in it, though, but nothing big. For example, Exercise # 12 in chapter 10 vowels the last word wrong, and pg. 263 says that 'rigal' means 'girls' and 'banaat' means 'boys', when it's actually the other way around. When it counts, though, this book is very useful and was worth every penny. ... Read more

Product Description
"An Introduction to Moroccan Arabic and Culture" and the accompanying content-based multimedia DVD are designed to enable students to communicate effectively using Moroccan Arabic. Since Moroccan Arabic is rarely written or used in formal communication, the strength of the book lies in training learners in speaking and listening skills that can be used in everyday situations. Upon completing this course, students should be able to: greet people; introduce themselves; ask and reply to simple questions; use days and numbers in context; order food; shop; make appointments and reservations; give directions; talk about future plans; and, use common idiomatic expressions. Each chapter of this title includes: cultural introductions to social, religious, or cultural aspects of Moroccan society; listening comprehension exercises; vocabulary exercises; dialogues and texts; conversation practice; grammar instruction on how native speakers structure their speech; and, interactive and video materials to support cultural understanding, listening, speaking, and grammar.The book uses Romanized transcription alongside Arabic script for the first three chapters and thereafter only the Arabic script. It also includes a glossary and answer key. It covers approximately 120 contact hours, plus 180-240 additional hours of preparation outside class. A novice student should reach the intermediate mid-level of proficiency by the end of this course. ... Read more

Product Description
Comprehensive Arabic II includes 30 additional lessons (16 hrs.), plus Readings, which build upon the language skills acquired in Level I. Increased spoken and reading language ability.

Level II will double your vocabulary and grammatical structures while increasing your spoken proficiency exponentially. Upon completion of a Level II, you will be able to:

* engage in fuller conversations involving yourself, your family, daily activities, interests and personal preferences,

* combine known elements into increasingly longer sentences and strings of sentences,

* create with language and function in informal situations,

* deal with concrete topics in the past, present, and future,

* meet social demands and limited job requirements,

* begin reading for meaning.

Note: In order for the Pimsleur Method to work correctly, you must first complete the Level I language program before proceeding to the Level II language program. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Outstanding language training
Pimsleur's programs are the best.He carefully studied how children acquire language and built the intervals for moving words from short-term to medium-term to long-term memory into his programs.They work. I reactivated my college French (my best second language), and became pretty fluent in Spanish (not so hard for a Californian), then learned pretty good Italian from scratch. I am now in the middle of Pimsleur's Eastern Arabic III. I can chatter with an Egyptian colleague, and Egyptian taxi drivers tell me I sound like my parents are from Syria but I grew up in the US. Hey, that's good!

Learned by ear, Arabic is more similar in structure to the romance languages than you might think. In fact, the definite article is "il" or "el" (with a few logical variations for euphony), same as in the romance languages. For effective writing and reading, you need more than Pimsleur, but to learn to speak, there is nothing better. (Although for learning the Arabic alphabet and learning to sound out words, it is outstanding.) Rosetta Stone programs are by comparison a waste of time.Yeah, you hear the words and you say the words, but the gentle and strategic repetition needed to create accessible memory is absent.

Egyptian and Syrian (Eastern) Arabic are less different from each other than are American and British English. I have no difficulty communicating with Egyptians. This program is not effortless.You must pay attention, and you must speak.Towards the end of a 30 minutes lesson, this is a bit wearing, but just a bit.More wearing if you are driving a car. I'd say it is not easy, but also not hard. Moo sehel, bes moo sa'ab. If you listen and speak, you will learn, and learn far more than you realize you are learning.

Though there are precious few cognates, every once in a while there is a big epiphany.In most of the romance languages, "to buy" is some variation on comprare or comprar, obvious Latin root.So where did acheter (French for "to buy") come from?Doesn't look Latin. Okay, here we go --"to buy" in Arabic is eshturi. And it is not the only Arabic word in French. Have fun.Learning a new language is always a thrill.

Not a waste of time
My husband taught himself Arabic while in Iraq and he is keeping up with this.The only thing is the disc will only play on a computer.It is well written curriculm for the do it "yourselfer."

A STEP FORWARD
This was an overdue release of a much needed course. Learning Arabic is challengingbecause in all Arabic countries two languages are used: Colloquial and Standard Arabic. There are many varieties of Colloquial Arabic such as Egyptian, Syrian, Gulf, and Yemeni among other forms of the spoken language. For business, educational, and literary purposes Modern Standard Arabic (or Fus-Ha) is the primary choice. If you want to communicate with friends, relatives and people in the streets, the Colloquial is the best way to go. Deciding upon where to start and what to learn is a challenge in itself. This second level of the Pimsleur Eastern Arabic is a great continuation to the excellent level one. Some of the dialogues are of questionable usefulness such as spending a lot of time on the issue of playing cards. Of course, one can always generalize the skill acquired in a less than useful linguistic situation to better master the mechanics of a language. Once the Comprehensive Arabic I is completed, I would suggest to download the book and mp3 files from the "Syrian Arabic" website for a more traditional introduction to the Syrian Arabic. The "Syrian Arabic' website method is well designed and free (although I suggest a donation to maintain the site running). For those interested in Lebanese Arabic, I suggest the purchase of "Arabic You Need" by Hadia Harb (CD's and text). Syrian and Lebanese colloquials are close enough to use the Pimsleur course for conversations with Lebanese people. A teacher eventually is a must. A serious student of Arabic will eventually have to take the plunge and study Modern Standard Arabic, but this is a different story. For now, let's pray that the folks at Pimsleur will take less time to release the level III course than they took to release level II. Despite its minor flaws, the level II follows the steps of level I and deserves five stars.

Awesome immersion - limited vocab.
I have been given this entire course, Levels I and II, by my partner as a gift. I have to admit it gives you a kick off, helps you improve your accent considerably, and makes you start thinking in Syrian Arabic. For me this is an effortless and fun way to get started and get to quite a level, provided you have some supplementary material to build your Syrian Arabic vocab. To be honest, if I had a suggestion to make to Pimsleur for this course it would be to release level III, make the dialogs a bit longer, and ease it on the price. Other than that this course is AWESOME, at least for Syrian Arabic it is, on the contrary the Egyptian Arabic level I, which I got to hear from a friend is not as good. So, if any of you want to learn Syrian Arabic, get the Comprehensive Pimsleur Eastern Arabic I, II (and hopefully III) course, get the excellent Syrian Arabic grammar and dictionary by Georgetown University Press also on sale at amazon, and once you complete all three levels, also in between, get a hold of a native speaker and you'll be set to discover the beauty of Syrian Arabic, my favorite colloquial. I give this course 4 stars because of the length of the dialogs and the price, quite pricey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TOP OF THE LINE!!!!
Review updated 19 August 2009
This is the second installment of Pimsleur's Eastern Arabic I, 2nd Edition.
NOTE: If you completed Pimsleur Arabic (Eastern) I, 1st Edition, copyright 2003; you will not make a smooth transition into this product, namely Pimsleur Eastern Arabic II. You need to get Pimsleur Eastern Arabic I, 2nd Edition.

The dialect used in the Pimsleur Eastern Arabic II CDs is the one of Damascus, Syria.
The pronunciation is from natives of Syria and is crystal clear.

If you are going to Egypt, you need to get Pimsleur Egyptian Arabic.

After you complete this course, you will smoothly transition into Pimsleur Eastern Arabic III which was released in July of 2009. ... Read more

Product Description

It's easy to teach yourself spoken Arabic!

Complete Spoken Arabic with Two Audio CDs: A Teach Yourself Guide provides you with a clear and comprehensive approach to Spoken Arabic, so you can progress quickly from the basics to understanding, speaking, and writing spoken Arabic with confidence.

Within each of the 24 thematic chapters, important language structures are introduced through life-like dialogues. You'll learn grammar in a gradual manner so you won't be overwhelmed by this tricky subject. Exercises accompany the texts and reinforce learning in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. This program also features current cultural information boxes that reflect recent changes in society.

The accompanying audio CDs include audio exercises--performed by native speakers--that reinforce communicative skills.

Features:

• Lots of instant help with common problems and quick tips for success, based on the author's many years of experience
• Tests in the book and online to keep track of your progress
• Extra online articles at www.teachyourself.com to give you a richer understanding of the basics of the language

Product Description
This new edition, updated and with additional exercises, equips those who work, travel, and study in Arab countries with an educated form of spoken Arabic that functions flexibly in the face of various regional colloquial variants in the Arab world. Because the Arabic language has a number of very different spoken vernaculars, being able to speak and be understood in all Arab countries has become a challenge for English speakers. Ryding and Mehall have designed a course that teaches a standardized variant of spoken Arabic that is close to, but more natural than, the literary Modern Standard Arabic. With a nongrammar-based approach, this book fosters communicative competence in Arabic on all levels and develops speaking proficiency without abandoning Arabic script. It has proven to be clear, effective, and relevant to the needs of Americans living and working in the Arab East.Task-based lessons feature basic dialogues between Americans and Arabs; explanations of new structures, vocabulary expansion, and exercises; and provide gradual access to the sounds and script of Arabic by emphasizing listening and reading comprehension first, then slowly adding oral exercises and activities until the student has achieved basic proficiency. Not intended for self-instruction for beginners, Formal Spoken Arabic Basic Course with MP3 Files assumes some previous knowledge of Modern Standard Arabic, Arabic script and phonology, and previous or simultaneous instruction in orthography. This new edition includes a CD of MP3 audio exercises that are keyed to the text and drill students on listening and speaking. Lessons cover topics including: Heads of State Cities and Countries Official Titles Geography Systems of Government Lost Luggage Getting Acquainted Establishing Common Ground Seeking and Giving Information Personal Needs and Family Handling Problems Eating Out Bargaining and Buying ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

met expectations
took a little while to ship, but the book was in perfect condition and was exactly the edition I wanted.

Good book to study with a tutor
There aren't many good Arabic books to learn MSA - so far I've found little - but this one is surely a recommended. I'm now living in one of ME counturies where no proper academia to learn MSA. My tutor who is just graduated from university found this book easier to teach than Kelsey one's so far. Maybe because it's she is a Muslim. She found Kelsey books are yet uncomfortable to deal with. Anyways, this book is highly recommended with a tutor.

Excellent for Colloquial Arabic
I was required to purchase this book for my Colloquial Levantine Arabic course at university.I find it to be an extremely good resource for many reasons.The mp3 CD included really helps when it comes to listening and recognizing new vocabulary, as well as helping pronunciation.Also, as opposed to some other Arabic texts, the words in the book are actually in Arabic and not transliterated into English letters, which helps with reading as well.I'm enjoying the class immensely because of this book and the dialogues and teaching methods it employs.Five stars!

Great Lessons
This is a great book for learning Arabic.I love the CD I listen to it and can hear how to correctly pronounce the words and follow the lessons in the book. My teacher is also great and helps his students with the lessons in the book.

Great book
This is a great course.The dialogs in this course are interesting and sound similar to modern standard Arabic yet they have a more authentic feel.That seems to be the intent of the authors in their using an educated form of spoken Arabic.It is not as dialectal as pure amiyya, and it is not as formal as modern standard Arabic.

After learning a dialog one can go back and listen to it in its entirety without having to listen to one sentence spoken in Arabic and the next sentence in English and then back and forth in this manner.This a big plus for me.(There is only a little bit of recorded translation in the opening of the book.)

The lessons are very explanitive.The basic dialouges have detailed commentaries.Besides the audio, there is the text written in Arabic (no transliteration into English is found anywhere in the book), a detailed list of vocabulary, and sometimes the audio is given a second time at a slower pace so that one can repeat after the speaker.

The matrix dialouge is not explained at all, but it is made easier in that the subject matter is very similar to the basic dialouge's material.It is supposed to be hard, and it forces you to stretch out your ears a bit to try to catch all of the phrases.I found that the matrix dialouge is much easier after completing the unit that it is in, and it often contains the most natural sounding material.

There are also drills and grammar explanations.There are no answer keys for the drills, but they should be beneficial anyways.

Overall, this is arguably one of the best books for learning Arabic.One should have a fairly decent command of modern standard or classical Arabic before starting the course.(Don't attempt this book if you are a beginner.)It is good for building upon the knowledge of a literay form of Arabic in order to learn a spoken form.It doesn't teach any dialect of Arabic in particular.It is suppossed to be a somewhat neutral/educated form of speaking Arabic, but it does have somewhat of a Levantine feel to it at times.

... Read more

Product Description
What is the Arabic term for "suicide bombing"? What phrase would be used to describe "peacekeeping forces" in the Arab media? Or "economic sanctions"? In light of recent developments in the Middle East, it is essential that scholars, journalists, government workers, military personnel, businesspeople, and diplomats familiarize themselves quickly with Arabic-English translations for many of these key words and phrases. Media Arabic - the language of printed or broadcast news items - emphasizes contemporary terms like multiculturalism or globalization that are not covered by most Arabic dictionaries. This concise and accessible volume provides easy-to-learn lists of the most relevant vocabulary, providing key terms for translating from and into Arabic. Organized by topic, these word lists furnish the reader with an invaluable knowledge of key vocabulary to comprehend, translate, write, and speak Arabic.Topics include: General (reports, statements, sources, common media idioms) Politics Elections Military Economics Trade & Industry Law & Order Disaster & Aid With access to the most contemporary media vocabulary, guesswork disappears and students and professionals can begin to discuss and understand the most recent developments in the Arab news media. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

Best compact study tool for media arabic yet
This book has been very useful for learning vocabulary - and a great list from which to make flash cards.I read a couple other reviews complaining about the book not being in alphabetical order, perhaps they didn't (or did!) read the introduction, but it expresses clearly that the randomization of vocabulary is on purpose, for the benefit of learning, effectively and efficiently. This volume does not resemble a reference book, as you're not supposed to keep it at your side when you're reading the paper - as it's clearly not a dictionary. It's a study tool that you're supposed to use to learn vocabulary - e.g. I used it in conjunction with a college course on media Arabic. And lists that are in alphabetical order encourage you to only start at the beginning of the alphabet ... and perhaps stop stop at G today... and never get to the end of whatever section you're on.There is less than 20 words/phrases/expressions on each page, so it hasn't been hard at all to go through each section, of which there are only 8.I decided to read and focus on one section per weekend day and after a month you're done a good amount of studying and have gone through the entire book at least once.As we all know, studying Arabic isn't like studying French or Spanish, so if you don't have the patience, i don't have the sympathy.

Why no index?
This book has a lot of useful terms, and is organized by topic, instead of alphabetical order.What makes this book useless is that there is no index to look up any of these words.You just have to memorize them.Tough cookies.If this book had a mere 3 pages of index materials, I would have bought it for (gasp!) $15 and felt that it was worth the money.As it is, it is NOT worth the money.I'm thinking of just sitting down and making an index myself, which might help me learn the words anyway, but I don't think I'll appreciate it.

If you want to memorize 1,000 words in Arabic, this is the book for you.If you want a minimally useful reference (what is so hard about having a freaking index?) this book is not for you.

Overpriced for the thin material it offers.
When I received the book, I felt so much disappointed. The writer could have done more to enrich the thin material this volume offers, and for the publisher to justify the price.

Many useful terms but NO way to reference them.......
This book really needs instead to be web-based or on a CD and have a search field where the user can type in English or Arabic word/words and get any matching results. To remain in print in hard copy it would need many alphabetically arranged sections to be useful. There's just no way to look anything up. I have found the short glossaries in the back of other media Arabic textbooks to be far more helpful.

UNDERSTAND what you are buying
This is a useful resource IF you understand the stated purpose.

The book is a collection of glossaries of common media vocab items, collated by subject area. The way to use a book like this is to sit down and attempt to crash memorise as many terms within a chapter, for example economics. Drill and test yourself. Now open an Arabic newspaper to the economics section and have a go at reading an article or two. You might be pleasantly surprised.

While it would have been perhaps additionally useful to provide an alphabetic list (perhaps as an appendix) the book is NOT meant as a tool to discern the meaning of terms with which you are unfamiliar. If you buy this book and think it is an alphabetical listing to aide you in reading the papers, then you are suffering under a misapprehension. Any review on that basis is NOT fair to the intended purpose and explained means of delivery of the author (as clearly stated in the forward). Kendall tells you why the vocab isn't grouped alphabetically - because to do so has been shown to hinder retention.

If you are one of the readers or reviewers who made the error above, I would recommend that you purchase an incredibly useful tool that is very commonly available - indeed you may have seen them in your local bookshop. We call these texts "dictionaries". There are many available in small and large sizes, in modern editions, updated regularly. You might like to try one.

Forgive the sarcasm, but I really think it is unfair to the author to judge an orange on the assumption it is an apple, or chalk on the misapprehension it is cheese.

Ma sallamah. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume, which is based on a conference held in Cordoba, brings together scholars studying texts, Arabic-related registers, and dialects belonging to different periods and areas throughout the centuries from a philological and linguistic perspective. The outcome is a significant contribution to the investigation of geographical and diachronic criteria used to facilitate the analysis of both old and present linguistic entities. ... Read more

Product Description
This Basic program contains 5 hours of audio-only, effective language learning with real-life spoken practice sessions.

The Pimsleur Method provides the most effective language-learning program ever developed. The Pimsleur Method gives you quick command of Egyptian Arabic structure without tedious drills. Learning to speak Egyptian Arabic can actually be enjoyable and rewarding.

The key reason most people struggle with new languages is that they aren't given proper instruction, only bits and pieces of a language. Other language programs sell only pieces -- dictionaries; grammar books and instructions; lists of hundreds or thousands of words and definitions; audios containing useless drills. They leave it to you to assemble these pieces as you try to speak. Pimsleur enables you to spend your time learning to speak the language rather than just studying its parts.

When you were learning English, could you speak before you knew how to conjugate verbs? Of course you could. That same learning process is what Pimsleur replicates. Pimsleur presents the whole language as one integrated piece so you can succeed.

With Pimsleur you get:

• Grammar and vocabulary taught together in everyday conversation,
• Interactive audio-only instruction that teaches spoken language organically,
• The flexibility to learn anytime, anywhere,
• 30-minute lessons designed to optimize the amount of language you can learn in one sitting.

Millions of people have used Pimsleur to gain real conversational skills in new languages quickly and easily, wherever and whenever -- without textbooks, written exercises, or drills.

The 10 lessons in the Basic Egyptian Arabic are the same as the first 10 lessons in the Pimsleur Comprehensive Egyptian Arabic Level 1.

The 10 lessons in Basic Egyptian Arabic are also the first 10 lessons in the 16-lesson Conversational Egyptian Arabic edition.

Pimsleur learners progress from either the Basic or the Conversational to the Comprehensive Level 1, and not from Basic to Conversational edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Received broken disc & they haven't replacing it yet...
Upon receiving the disc set, we noticed right away that the #1 disc had a slight crack in the inner circle. The crack was raised, so it would not play in the disc player. I contacted the company & they said they would send a replacement. After waiting over 2 weeks for a replacement, we didn't receive it. So I contacted them again 5 days ago & have yet to receive a return contact. WOULD NOT RECOMMEND PURCHASING!!

The best
I have now tried 4 other Egyptian Arabic learning methods and this one is the best. I have already had two people tell me that I had " a really good accent". I find it so easy to learn and recall with these cds. I find that I can actually pronounce difficult words much better that when I have a printed booklet to look at. I have purchased this one and a german one, and I highly recommend both,

Pimsleur's Basic Egyptian Arabic CD Program: Learn to Speak and Understand Egyptian Arabic
Short review: If you want to learn some useful basic Egyptian Arabic words and phrases in advance of a trip to Egypt, DON'T BUY Pimsleur's Basic Egyptian Arabic CD Program.
My wife and I leave tomorrow for a trip abroad that includes about a week in Egypt. In the past I've studied Spanish and French so I am not new to language study. I was hoping that Pimsleur's basic CD program would help with basics such as "Where is the toilet?" "I would like a bottle of water." "How much does it cost?" "Do you accept credit cards?" "My name is ___" "What is your name?" We are from___" "The check please." Etc., as well as numbers. Forget it. None of that was covered except a few of the numbers from one to nine.
In addition, there was no book or even booklet to accompany the CDs. Being able to see a phonetic spelling of the words as well as hearing them would have accelerated my learning. I've used Berlitz tapes and phrase books in the past with great success. I should have stuck with Berlitz for this trip.
For me purchasing the Pimselur Program was a waste of money. Worse, it has wasted my time. I could have been learning useful Arabic with some other program. Since we are leaving tomorrow, there is no time for me to start over.

Much better than I expected
I picked this up at Border's because it was discounted and I've been wanting to learn Arabic. I had experimented with other programs in the passed, and wasn't very impressed, but these CDs really exceeded my expectations.

I started listening to them in my car during my commute, and my boyfriend (who speaks Egyptian Arabic) has been very impressed with how quickly I am learning. I have had them for a week or two, and can already have very simple conversations with him in the language.

This language program really focuses on hearing and participating in conversations, so you won't know how to spell or read anything, conjugate verbs, etc. You will only learn how to speak and understand Arabic. I was skeptical about learning from a CD without anything supplementing it, but it is actually effective.

Sometimes they do progress a little fast, and this was especially the case in the beginning, when I was still getting used to the structure of words and phrases. However, it's easy enough to repeat a lesson as many times as needed until it sinks in.

Overally, quality product, I highly recommend.

Fairly Dreadful
Although the accents are authentic, the course is way too basic and repeats the same dialogue throughout the 5 discs with only minor changes.The best book I have found for Egyptian Arabic is Wightwick and Gaafar's "Colloquial Arabic of Egypt". ... Read more

Product Description
This brief self-study course in spoken Arabic for beginners was developed by Hadia H. Harb, who has specialized in teaching Arabic to foreigners in the Education Division, Beirut University. Th erecordings by native speakers are in the Lebanese dialect, one of the easiest to learn, and spoken primarily in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and the Gulf area. The programmed text contains 25 lesson units, each divided into 5 parts: Part 1, conversational situations and dialogs; Part 2, listen, read, and say; Part 3, quetions and answers, Parts 4 and 5, exercises and applications. Each unit ends with a glossary of important words along with their grammatical classifications. Reissued on CDs in 2006. Product No. SAR300D. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An excellent method for someone with no time
For someone like me whose only spare time to learn a foreign language is on his way to work and back home this is the best method ever...

I have tried learning arabic in many ways, which all proved to be useless since arabic is no easy language, completely different from any latin origin ones I speak... with the "Arabic you need" method I finally managed to communicate at least on a basic level...

Let's not fool ourselves by thinking that with such a method one may learn perfectly arabic, however by keep listening again and again the cds,it makes the arabic language much more comprehensive, not only in the colloquial but in some of its grammar rules as well...

I would therefore recommend this method to anyone who wishes to learn the lebanese dialect without any hesitation...However, once I have completed both book and cds, I intend purchasing the Pilmseur method as well, just to make sure that I'll keep learning:)

Necessary for learning Lebanese dialect, but not on it's own.
This book and cd are necessary for learning the Lebanese dialect of Arabic. You will, however, need Pimsleur's "Eastern Arabic I" to learn the language. "Arabic You Need" is not adequate to really learn to speak Levantine Arabic. Pimsleur gives you the important stuff and their teaching method is excellent. The problem is that it is the Syrian dialect which is different from the Lebanese dialect. So if you get both you will be set.

I hate to say this because this book really is necessary for learning the Lebanese dielect. This book and cd set really is not going to teach you Lebanese Arabic on it's own. The speakers go too fast on the cd and there is no repetition. You have to constantly start, stop, rewind and replay the cd. ... Read more

Product Description
The importance and richness of the Arabic linguistic tradition is demonstrated by this book. Written by three experts in the field, it provides a survey of the historical constitution and theoretical structure of the Arabic linguistic tradition from its beginnings in the 8th century, to its mature state around the 14th and 15th centuries. Besides grammar, the book covers such fields as rhetoric, grammatical semantics, and methodological issues, and pays particular attention to the most representative works of the classical period. ... Read more

Product Description
A Short Reference Grammar of Moroccan Arabic with Audio CD is a practical reference grammar for the student who has had introductory Moroccan Arabic. The accompanying CD is keyed to the text, demonstrating the pronunciation of the Arabic transcribed in the book. It teaches the phonology, morphology, and syntax of the dialect spoken by the educated urban speakers of the northwestern part of Morocco, especially Fez, Rabat, and Casablanca. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Excellent
This book in conjunction with the more "technical" WritingArabic by T.F. Mitchell, is awesome for learning to write and read the ruq3a script used in Arabic handwriting. The reason I haven't given it the full 5 stars is that it doesn't have extensive handwriting examples for recognition practice, but if used in conjunction with WritingArabic by T.F. Mitchell this is solved, as there is quite a few handwritten examples at the end of the latter. WritingArabic by T.F. Mitchell is indeed very costly, $60, but shop around, I got mine almost new for $20.

Just what I wanted
I've been studying Arabic for a little while now and although I know the alphabet and can read what's printed in my textbooks, I still have a lot of trouble making out handwriting and caligraphy. This simple book is exactly what I was looking for. It takes you through each of the letters showing their typewritten form as well as their handwritten counterparts in all their variations. It has visual instructions to help practice making the letters and practical advice about the easiest way to make the letter form. It also works through the various ways to combine the letter forms as well as that thing where the letters all stack up. It has exercises to help you practice reading handwritting as you learn the new forms with real handwriting examples. I can't read the handwriting examples at the end of the book yet, but am confident I'll be able to when I work through the book. I'm very glad to have this book.

Quick guide to deciphering mysterious handwriting
Many of us just want to learn the Arabic writing system well enough to recognize names, read identity cards, make out signs/placards, and use our electronic dictionaries on occasion. There are many excellent short guides to the Arabic writing system, but they focus on naskh printed style, not the ruq'a cursive handwriting. Trying to just guess the handwriting from a basic knowledge of the printed form is almost impossible, as the differences are significant and at times surprising. "Mastering Arabic Script" is just the ticket. Especially highly recommended for training military police, screeners and interrogators. ["A Dictionary of Muslim Names," by Salahuddin Ahmed is also strongly recommended for the same audience.]

116 pages of well-organized material contrasting the easily read printed form with the initially hard to recognize handwritten equivalent. Step-by-step workbook style guides to learning to write in the proper sequences. Almost pocket-sized, so you can keep it handy. Too bad a fold-up double-sided plastic laminated summary card could not have been included.

A few more pages with an extended master passage handwritten in several different hands would have been worthwhile. The exercises including photos of commercial signs are excellent. The authors left us motivated and wanting more.

The frustration of not being able to read those demonstration placards and signs we see in short news slips and news photos every single day quickly becomes a thing of the past. [Well, almost. Nothing is quite that easy in the Middle East.]

... Read more