Team Middle East

An area with study groups for various languages. Group members help each other, share resources and experience. Study groups are permanent but the members rotate and change.
MattNeilsen
Orange Belt
Posts: 145
Joined: Sat Aug 11, 2018 9:32 pm
Location: Sunnyvale, CA
Languages: English (N)
Hebrew (studying - beginner)
Spanish (passive, beginner)
Mandarin (mostly forgotten)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=8869
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Re: Team Middle East

Postby MattNeilsen » Thu Aug 30, 2018 7:55 pm

Hi team!

Another Team Middle East participant joining in - I'm learning Modern Hebrew. Currently, I'm using a mix of Anki, Duolingo, Clozemaster, and Pimsleur (Level 1) to study. You can read more about what I'm doing in my log. To world domination Err, I mean continued language success! :)
0 x
Hebrew
Pimsleur Level 2: 21 / 30
FSI : 3 / 40
Clozemaster 101-500 Most Common Words: 1600 / 4825
Srugim Season 3: 1 / 15
1100 hours of study/input : 160 / 1100

jacquemarie
White Belt
Posts: 39
Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2018 7:30 pm
Languages: English (N), Hindi (A2-B1)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 28#p177252
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Contact:

Re: Team Middle East

Postby jacquemarie » Fri Sep 14, 2018 7:43 pm

!مرحبا

Hey, team! I'm new around here but I'm excited to share my passion for language with others. I've found I'm best motivated when I have another people to talk to not just about the language but the process of learning a language in general.

I am currently studying MSA and Egyptian Arabic. One day I wish to be a translator, hence my reason for learning MSA, but my best friend is native Egyptian and this time next year I should be in Cairo visiting her and would love to surprise her by speaking her native language, if only a little!

You can call me Jac or Jacque. I'm excited to work with everyone!
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MattNeilsen
Orange Belt
Posts: 145
Joined: Sat Aug 11, 2018 9:32 pm
Location: Sunnyvale, CA
Languages: English (N)
Hebrew (studying - beginner)
Spanish (passive, beginner)
Mandarin (mostly forgotten)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=8869
x 183

Re: Team Middle East

Postby MattNeilsen » Sat Sep 15, 2018 1:19 am

jacquemarie wrote:!مرحبا

Hey, team! I'm new around here but I'm excited to share my passion for language with others. I've found I'm best motivated when I have another people to talk to not just about the language but the process of learning a language in general.

I am currently studying MSA and Egyptian Arabic. One day I wish to be a translator, hence my reason for learning MSA, but my best friend is native Egyptian and this time next year I should be in Cairo visiting her and would love to surprise her by speaking her native language, if only a little!

You can call me Jac or Jacque. I'm excited to work with everyone!


!Jacque שלום

Welcome to the group. That sounds like a really cool motivating factor - I’m sure your friend will be excited :)
0 x
Hebrew
Pimsleur Level 2: 21 / 30
FSI : 3 / 40
Clozemaster 101-500 Most Common Words: 1600 / 4825
Srugim Season 3: 1 / 15
1100 hours of study/input : 160 / 1100

User avatar
cjareck
Brown Belt
Posts: 1047
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2017 6:11 pm
Location: Poland
Languages: Polish (N) English, German, Russian(B1?) French (B1?), Hebrew(B1?), Arabic(A2?), Mandarin (HSK 2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=8589
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Contact:

Re: Team Middle East

Postby cjareck » Wed Sep 26, 2018 8:19 am

שלום חברים! החלטתי לכתוב משהו בעברית. אני כותב בגוגל תרגום בעברית ומתרגם את זה לאנגלית. אני יכול לראות הטעויות הגדולות ביותר שלי. אולי מישהו יעזור אותי ויבדוק מה שאני כתבתי. אני מקווה שגם אתם תתחילו לכתוב בשפה הזאת. הקבוצה של המזרח התיכון צריך להיות יותר פעילה

أهلا وسهلا ومرحبا يا اصدقاء!
I would like also encourage Arabic learners to use the thread as writing practice. Unfortunately writing such an encouragement in Arabic is currently far more above my level of the language. But maybe someday I will be able to post my thoughts in Arabic also ;)
1 x
Please feel free to correct me in any language


Listening: 1+ (83% content, 90% linguistic)
Reading: 1 (83% content, 90% linguistic)


MSA DLI : 30 / 141ESKK : 18 / 40


Mandarin Assimil : 62 / 105

User avatar
PeterMollenburg
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3229
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2015 11:54 am
Location: Australia
Languages: English (N), French (B2-certified), Dutch (High A2?), Spanish (~A1), German (long-forgotten 99%), Norwegian (false starts in 2020 & 2021)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=18080
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Re: Team Middle East

Postby PeterMollenburg » Tue Oct 09, 2018 12:50 pm

Hi all,

Following MattNeilson’s recommendation (thank you), I’d like to join.

I’ll be learning MSA and Saudi (Najdi dialect) Arabic.

I’m a complete beginner, don’t know a single letter, word, phrase or phoneme yet.

I am not sure learning MSA alongside a Saudi dialect is a great idea, due to time constraints. In many ways, I’d be better off learning just the dialect for a while as my family and I will be living in Saudi for a while. However, resources are extremely few for Saudi varieties, so adding MSA seems logical.

If anyone has any suggestions for Saudi Arabic ressources, I’d really appreciate it. Additionally, I’d like to use mainly or even exclusively French base-language ressources, but I can’t be fussy with dialect, as there is so little available for Najdi.

edit: wrongly spelled MattNeilson
Last edited by PeterMollenburg on Tue Oct 09, 2018 10:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
2 x

MattNeilsen
Orange Belt
Posts: 145
Joined: Sat Aug 11, 2018 9:32 pm
Location: Sunnyvale, CA
Languages: English (N)
Hebrew (studying - beginner)
Spanish (passive, beginner)
Mandarin (mostly forgotten)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=8869
x 183

Re: Team Middle East

Postby MattNeilsen » Tue Oct 09, 2018 3:18 pm

PeterMollenburg wrote:Hi all,

Following MattNielson’s recommendation (thank you), I’d like to join.

I’ll be learning MSA and Saudi (Najdi dialect) Arabic.

I’m a complete beginner, don’t know a single letter, word, phrase or phoneme yet.

I am not sure learning MSA alongside a Saudi dialect is a great idea, due to time constraints. In many ways, I’d be better off learning just the dialect for a while as my family and I will be living in Saudi for a while. However, resources are extremely few for Saudi varieties, so adding MSA seems logical.

If anyone has any suggestions for Saudi Arabic ressources, I’d really appreciate it. Additionally, I’d like to use mainly or even exclusively French base-language ressources, but I can’t be fussy with dialect, as there is so little available for Najdi.


Welcome, PM! I know cjareck and Ogrim are both learning Arabic right now, though I don’t remember which dialects.
2 x
Hebrew
Pimsleur Level 2: 21 / 30
FSI : 3 / 40
Clozemaster 101-500 Most Common Words: 1600 / 4825
Srugim Season 3: 1 / 15
1100 hours of study/input : 160 / 1100

User avatar
cjareck
Brown Belt
Posts: 1047
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2017 6:11 pm
Location: Poland
Languages: Polish (N) English, German, Russian(B1?) French (B1?), Hebrew(B1?), Arabic(A2?), Mandarin (HSK 2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=8589
x 2979
Contact:

Re: Team Middle East

Postby cjareck » Tue Oct 09, 2018 3:45 pm

PeterMollenburg wrote:Following MattNielson’s recommendation (thank you), I’d like to join.

A great idea. We have to revive the group ;)

PeterMollenburg wrote:I’ll be learning MSA and Saudi (Najdi dialect) Arabic.

I’m a complete beginner, don’t know a single letter, word, phrase or phoneme yet.

I am not sure learning MSA alongside a Saudi dialect is a great idea, due to time constraints. In many ways, I’d be better off learning just the dialect for a while as my family, and I will be living in Saudi for a while. However, resources are extremely few for Saudi varieties, so adding MSA seems logical.

You have chosen an interesting dialect. I thought I could recommend something on Saudi Arabic to you, but it is, unfortunately, a different dialect - Hijazi:
https://www.livelingua.com/courses/Arab ... i-Dialect/

I am learning Arabic, but MSA only now. I decided at first to learn it and perhaps later to continue with Egyptian and maybe Syrian dialects. I can recommend FSI/DLI courses, but they are based on English, not on French.
For example this:
http://hs2.dliflc.edu/msa.html is quite an interesting, modern basic course on MSA.
2 x
Please feel free to correct me in any language


Listening: 1+ (83% content, 90% linguistic)
Reading: 1 (83% content, 90% linguistic)


MSA DLI : 30 / 141ESKK : 18 / 40


Mandarin Assimil : 62 / 105

User avatar
PeterMollenburg
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3229
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2015 11:54 am
Location: Australia
Languages: English (N), French (B2-certified), Dutch (High A2?), Spanish (~A1), German (long-forgotten 99%), Norwegian (false starts in 2020 & 2021)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=18080
x 8029

Re: Team Middle East

Postby PeterMollenburg » Tue Oct 09, 2018 10:26 pm

MattNeilson wrote:Welcome, PM! I know cjareck and Ogrim are both learning Arabic right now, though I don’t remember which dialects.


Thank you MattNeilson :)

cjareck wrote:
PeterMollenburg wrote:Following MattNielson’s recommendation (thank you), I’d like to join.

A great idea. We have to revive the group ;)

PeterMollenburg wrote:I’ll be learning MSA and Saudi (Najdi dialect) Arabic.

I’m a complete beginner, don’t know a single letter, word, phrase or phoneme yet.

I am not sure learning MSA alongside a Saudi dialect is a great idea, due to time constraints. In many ways, I’d be better off learning just the dialect for a while as my family, and I will be living in Saudi for a while. However, resources are extremely few for Saudi varieties, so adding MSA seems logical.

You have chosen an interesting dialect. I thought I could recommend something on Saudi Arabic to you, but it is, unfortunately, a different dialect - Hijazi:
https://www.livelingua.com/courses/Arab ... i-Dialect/

I am learning Arabic, but MSA only now. I decided at first to learn it and perhaps later to continue with Egyptian and maybe Syrian dialects. I can recommend FSI/DLI courses, but they are based on English, not on French.
For example this:
http://hs2.dliflc.edu/msa.html is quite an interesting, modern basic course on MSA.


Thanks cjareck,

Learning MSA will be a piece of cake (there are enough resources), while learning Najdi dialect is going to be extremely difficult. There are almost NO resources. This could be a massive exercise in italki/ seeking out locals to converse with/ using other close dialect resources and adapting my speech? :? (I could yet wind up trying the FSI Hijazi course).

For my situation, learning the dialect makes most sense (I’ll be on location), but I can’t make it up (no resources), so MSA will, by default, be studied.
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DaveAgain
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1967
Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2018 11:26 am
Languages: English (native), French & German (learning).
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... &start=200
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Re: Team Middle East

Postby DaveAgain » Tue Oct 09, 2018 10:37 pm

PeterMollenburg wrote:If anyone has any suggestions for Saudi Arabic ressources, I’d really appreciate it. Additionally, I’d like to use mainly or even exclusively French base-language ressources, but I can’t be fussy with dialect, as there is so little available for Najdi.
talkinarabic.com say they teach 'saudi arabic'.

(i've not used it myself)
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ancient forest
White Belt
Posts: 46
Joined: Tue Feb 23, 2016 6:13 am
Location: U.S.A.
Languages: English (N), Classical and Standard Arabic (advanced), Levantine Arabic (low-intermediate)
x 69

Re: Team Middle East

Postby ancient forest » Tue Oct 09, 2018 11:09 pm

cjareck wrote:You have chosen an interesting dialect. I thought I could recommend something on Saudi Arabic to you, but it is, unfortunately, a different dialect - Hijazi:
https://www.livelingua.com/courses/Arab ... i-Dialect/


I think that learning the other Saudi dialects would be useful as a backup if there are not enough Najdi dialect materials available. The other Saudi dialects are the Hijazi dialect on the west coast and Gulf Arabic on the east coast. Probably, I would start with the FSI Saudi Arabic (Hijazi) course.

Learning MSA should also be useful. The transliteration of the Arabic script can be helpful at first, but do yourself a favor and learn the Arabic script. It is not as hard as it initially seems because it is completely phonetic. Therefore, it is possible to know how to pronounce each word correctly just by looking at the script although you may sometimes need a dictionary to know how to pronounce the short vowels (diacritical marks). That is because the short vowels are not written in most books.

I have used the FSI Saudi Arabic (Hijazi) course a little bit, and found it to be excellent. I did not get really far in it because I have mostly been learning Egyptian and Levantine Arabic. Right now, I am going through the course 'Speaking Arabic: A Course in Conversational Eastern Arabic (Palestinian)' by J. Elihay. Also, I read books in Classical Arabic and read the BBC to get practice with news articles.
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Arabic
: 6 / 50 Speaking Arabic: A Course in Conversational Eastern Arabic


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