Hashimi wrote:PeterMollenburg wrote:So, I think I will tackle the FSI Saudi Arabic Basic (Urban Hijazi Dialect) course from 1975 together with some MSA from a French base (likely Assimil, but not 100% sure).
Would using audio courses, such as Michel Thomas if based on another Arabic dialect (I believe it’s Egyptian Arabic) audio course during commutes for example, be useful (asking anyone)? Or is it too far removed from the Arabian dialects?
Please stay away from the old Arabic course by Assimil, this course is completely BS!
Hi again Hashimi, thanks again for your input.
Oh, that's a shame re: the Assimil course. What's not good about it, if you don't mind me asking?
Hashimi wrote:The latest one is better, but it is in MSA and does not teach any colloquial Arabic.
Yeah, that's the plan, to use it to learn MSA. In fact, since I intend on learning some MSA as well as some dialect, I figured that as I can't be picky about which courses I decide to use for learning colloquial spoken language (FSI Hijazi, as discussed), which is from an English base, I'll therefore use French based resources to learn MSA. I am a fan of Assimil, but my impression is one dimensional since I've only used two Assimil courses, both from an English base to learn French.
It's a shame I can't use the two Assimil beginner courses together (Assimil l'Arabe sans peine and the latest one: l'arabe), as that was the plan I was gravitating towards to learn some MSA. So, you feel, Hashimi, that the latest Assimil course is at least okay? Any further details in comparison with the old one (l'arabe sans peine)? What about the 'perfectionnement' Assimil course?
Here's a list of French based learning materials I've come across for learning MSA (some I am not sure are for MSA, yet to clarify, but most are), would you happen to have any feedback on any of them? Those in bold are of particular interest, the rest are more superfluous that I have added to my list in the course of simply searching amazon.fr and elsewhere.
Also in the second list I have put in bold a trilingual dictionary (as, naturally, I'd prefer to have an Arabic dictionary with French as well), do you know it, by chance?
Ressources en français pour apprendre l’arabe (MSA) :
1. Assimil Apprendre L’Arabe Faux Débutants
2. Assimil Arabe Débutants - Les cahiers d’exercices
3. Assimil Arabe Les Bases Débutants - Les cahiers d’ecriture
4. Assimil Arabe Faux Débutants - Les cahiers d’exercices
5. Arabe Audio en Parallèle
6. Glossika Arabe-Français (?MSA)
7. 40 Leçons pour parler Arabe (livre + 2 CD)
8. Arabe - Grammaire Active - exposé des règles, exercices et corrigés
9. Arabe : Les verbes
10. Méthode 90. Arabe Pratique de Bases (Arabe débutant 1 leçon par jour pendant 3 mois)
11. L’Arabe Langue Vivante I
12. L’Arabe Langue Vivante II
13. L’Arabe Langue Vivante III14. Assimil L’Arabe sans Peine
15. Assimil L’Arabe (livre + 2CD)16. Manuel d’arabe littéral
17. Manuel d'arabe en ligne: Les bases de l'arabe en 50 semaines -Tome I
18. Manuel d'arabe en ligne: Les bases de l'arabe en 50 semaines -Tome II
19. Manuel d'arabe en ligne: Les bases de l'arabe en 50 semaines -Tome III
20. Manuel d'arabe en ligne: Les bases de l'arabe en 50 semaines -Tome IV
21. Manuel d'arabe en ligne: Les bases de l'arabe en 50 semaines -Tome V
22. Manuel d'arabe en ligne: Les bases de l'arabe en 50 semaines -Tome VI
23. Manuel d'arabe en ligne: Les bases de l'arabe en 50 semaines -Tome VII24. Manuel d’Arabe Moderne 1
25. Manuel d’Arabe Moderne 226. Assimil Perfectionnement Arabe----------------------------------
Dictionnaires arabe-français :
1.
Al-Mawrid Trilingual dictionary: Arabic-English-French:
found here on amazon2. Larousse des écoliers dictionnaire illustré FR-FR-AR (4200 entrées, 500 illustrations)
3. Dictionnaire arabe : français-arabe (100,000 mots, la couverture est verte)
4. Larousse dictionnaire Arabe (200,000 mots)
5. Arabic-English Bilingual Visual Dictionary by DK en combination avec (que j'ai déjà): French-English Bilingual Visual Dictionary by DK
6. Vocabulaire français arabe pour l’autoformation 3000 mots
7. Vocabulaire français arabe pour l’autoformation 5000 mots
8. Vocabulaire français arabe pour l’autoformation 7000 mots
9. Vocabulaire français arabe pour l’autoformation 9000 mots
Hashimi wrote:Michel Thomas Arabic course is useless. Jane Wightwick talks so much English that it feels more like an English lesson with a lot of errors and badly pronounced sentences by the two students. If I were to estimate the percentage of how much time the Arabic native speaker, Mahmoud Gaafar (he is an Egyptian by the way), spoke throughout the entire audio course, I would say less than 5%. It is in fact devoid of any authentic listening opportunities. I recommend you to spend your commuting time listening to real Arabic audio like podcasts or audiobooks. Choose a very short audio with a transcript in a topic you are interested in, and listen to it repeatedly.
That's very useful information, thanks Hashimi. I'll steer clear of MT Arabic, given your feeback. Any thoughts on Pimsleur Arabic and Rocket Languages Arabic? I hear that Rocket Languages Arabic is Egyptian Arabic. In your opinion is Egyptian Arabic of any use? (would using such a course be okay). Btw, I take into account your mentioning of podcasts, but I'd prefer to begin with an audio course
if a decent one exists and I can get my hands on it. I like the slow audio, as it helps me to build my pronunciation in particular as well as comprehension in the beginning. Just for the record, I'm not the kind to spend time listening to incomprehensible masses of audio in a new language when starting out. Gradual building is preferred, thus comprehensible (yes ridiculously slow even) audio is what I like, so Pimsleur is fine for me (if suitable).