Product Details

• Directors: Suhaib Al-Barzinji
• Format: Animated, Color, Full length, Full Screen, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Run Time: 30 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000050FGU
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #162,986 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fine Beginners Tool, but not Great!, November 2, 2000

By 

Susan Shams (West Des Moines, IA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Alif is for Asad: Discover the Arabic Alphabet [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I am an American born Egyptian. So basically Arabic is my "second" language. I know the alphabet and how to speak fluent Arabic, and my children can speak it well too, but they are lacking in many aspects of the language.

I had it better, since my parents spoke primarily Arabic, but unfortunately for my children, I have a tendency to lapse into English, and I have passed that trait on to my Arab born husband.

So, to find a solution for my children's dilemma, I decided to buy some Arabic videos for them. I am sad to say, the quality of this video is totally lacking. The sound quality is definitely not stereo, the animation and context of the video is mediocre at best. Suffice to say, all the Arabic children's videos I have purchased have been severely lacking in QUALITY.

But, in a country where Arab Americans are such a minority, we must resort to these low standard publications. But, it does its job, my children have learned the alphabet from it. And the rest is up to us, their parents.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very well done!, March 3, 2001

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Alif is for Asad: Discover the Arabic Alphabet [VHS] (VHS Tape)

When i first got the movie for a present i thought it would would be babyish. But when i first saw it i thought it was very well done. It has great new ideas of how to make learning the alphabet in a little more than no time. Whoever Shaib Al-barzinji is, i'd say he did a pretty good job. The reason i didn't give it 5 stars is because of the last song. I'd give that one a 3 stars. But everything else is great!!!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars There aren't many options in this language category, December 30, 2004

By 

J. Mir "SW Developer" (SF Bay Area) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Alif is for Asad: Discover the Arabic Alphabet [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Considering the lack of Arabic video options, this is not a bad start. I would like to see companies develop even more sophisticated videos for these languages of the Near and Middle east, many of which have no - NO - VHS representation (especially Hindi and Urdu which have a large # of U.S. speakers). My 3 1/2 year old likes the video and asks for it on occasion, although we have much more sophisticated videos of other languages that are more immersion-style which she requests more often. The 1 1/2 year old will also sit and watch for long periods (15 mins or more). International Baby 101 is the best in this category I have ever run across (Japanese/English).

Anyway, the producers of Alif is for Asad have tried really hard to copy the Sesame St. format,with mixed results. As one reviewer mentioned, it is NOT an immersion-style method but simply orientation to the alphabet. Some of the songs are okay, some are really lame... the best segment is really engaging funky-type number with animation sequences spelling all the letters. That was the only really clever segment in the 30 mins. of video. There is light emphasis on Islamic concepts - they prefer to stay away from that, only occasionally mentioning it. (My favorite one - the funky song says "Dal is for Deen the religion we need") There are no overt Islamic references - no hijabists, no skull caps, no Namaaz scenes etc., so it is very appropriate for use in a non-Muslim environment. Interestingly, there are also no women of adult age in the video. All narration and vocals by adults are male. I guess the producers never read the research that children respond better to adult female voices ;-) There must be some dialect differences because some of the letters like Saad are pronounced differently by different children in the different segments.

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