Customer Reviews

Arabic (Eastern), Conversational: Learn to Speak and Understand Eastern Arabic with Pimsleur Language Programs (Pimsleur Instant Conversation)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was hesitant about learning Arabic, given how difficult others had made the effort out to be. This set of discs made it very easy. The repetition used (called the "Pimsleur Method") worked really well for me. I found myself repeating phrases from the CD's in my head long after listening to them. This is a great way to pick up a new language.

I got this program to compliment the other books and software for learning arabic that I have collected over the past few months.

This program does indeed teach the basics but it is almost too basic. I am currently working through the 5th lesson. The later lessons introduce concepts that were introduced in the first lesson but it becomes tediously repetitive. I can't remember the number of times I was prompted to say "I am American" as this is one of the phrases learned in earlier lessons. Half way through the entire program, I have only learned a handful (<20) of phrases. As the lessons come on audio CDs, I think it would have been a more effective program if it cut down on the repetition in lieu of adding more vocabulary/phrases. One only then needs to replay the CD if they felt they were not yet ready to progress to the next lesson.

Although these audio CDs may be effective for people with ZERO arabic knowledge, it would be too basic and repetetive for anyone with past exposure. The program teaches the Syrian dialect arabic and the language is not outdated. The speakers in the program are native speakers and the speech is pristinely clear.

Perfect for beginners wanting to learn Arabic. The lessons proceed at a reasonable pace, and the pronunciation is clear and easy to understand. Each lesson is 30 minutes and you do only one lesson a day. Don't exceed this recommendation and try to squeeze in an extra lesson or two a day. The reason for one lesson a day is to allow the learning to sink in before moving on. However, you should budget an hour a day for the lesson, because if you are like me, you will want to repeat the same lesson again that day. The CDs teach the "academic" form of Arabic, rather than any regional dialect. As explained, this is roughly akin to learning British English. It might sound a bit unusual in the U.S. or Australia, but it would not hinder communication. Again, this product is ideal for beginners, but anyone with some exposure to Arabic might find the pace a bit slow.

As most Pimsleur programs this is an excellent one on EASTERN Arabic spoken in Syria and Lebanon. Unfortunately as all Pimsleur products it suffers from two disadvantages: no script of the dialogues and the formality of the language used. I found Beginner's Arabic by Living Language much easier to learn from. It gives you the chance to download the audioscript and the language used is more realistic. Why can't Pimsleur do this?

This is a good set of CD's for beginners except for the fact that the narrator fails to point out the differences for verbs between male and female.

I have used Pimsleur products to learn Spanish and Italian. Having some previous background in both languages, they were easy to work with. The Pimsleur method really works!

However, even through I have considerable exposure to the Arabic language, I still am finding mastery of the language pretty difficult. BTW, the dialect of Arabic used in this product is Syrian/Lebanese. That is what I was looking for so it worked out well for me.

I definitely love the Pimsleur method. Also, I really like the Language Secrets company from whom (through Amazon) I purchased this product. They have great prices and ship faster than you can imagine!

I have been using this product for about 2 weeks and am definitely attaining progress! I recommend this to anyone!

I am unsure of the discs and set being reviewed but I wanted to clarify some issues with other reviews so that someone can make an informed decision. One has to consider history and there is a soft French influence over Syrian and Lebanese dialect. Once you learn one way the rest are easy. I am Syrian and have a hard time understanding Egyptians because they slur and speak quickly. Here is an example of dialect: An Egyptian may say Kahwa for coffee but a Syrian would say Ahwa. The K is considered harsh and is softened. An Egyptian may saw Farewa for strawberry but we say Fraise like in French. One disc would be repetitive to teach all dialects. If one aims to master a language it would take time and studying and eventually know them all.

I am an audible/verbal learner, and it is very nice to be able to hear how a word is spoken- they break it down. It's also nice how they'll go over something, move on to something else, and then go back to what you learned before. Read all the information about it... it's true to what they claim. Although they did say to move on to the next lesson if you only got 80% of the lesson, I did go back over the lessons again, but they say that it is important to keep moving to keep motivated. I'm using some of what I've learned already with Arabic speakers.

The only problem that I've run into (yes, you do have the dialect problem, but you'll have that with every language program) is that sometimes I may not know exactly how to pronounce something, of course the Arabic/English speakers are able to correct some of those problems. (ie- there was a very silent "m" sound before a word that I was saying, and I didn't hear it on the CD, but my friends helped me.

It has given me the confidence to try out what I know with those I come in contact with.

I really like the Pimsleur approach to speaking a foreign
lauguage. You can learn a lot in a little time.