Customer Reviews

Arabic (Eastern) II, Comprehensive: Learn to Speak and Understand Eastern Arabic with Pimsleur Language Programs (Arabic Edition)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
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This was an overdue release of a much needed course. Learning Arabic is challenging because 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.

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.

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have found Pimsleur to be an incredibly amazing product. I have used many language programs and curricula over the years and was dubious about the claims for this one, but this is definitely the best program for teaching the essential skills you would need to get around in an Arabic-speaking country. It is the most effective for pronunciation and for review. I thoroughly enjoyed the Eastern Arabic 1 program so I ordered Eastern Arabic 2 in order to continue. (Pimsleur is especially good for use in the car as you travel.)
Although the program is still Pimsleur and the English narrator seems to be the same, the Arabic speakers in the 2nd volume are much harder to understand. In Arabic 1 they are clear and easily imitated. In Arabic 2 it is very hard to catch the nuances of pronunciation and to English ears they seem to mumble. Also, they rarely repeat phrases, whereas in Arabic 1 they almost always repeat the phrases twice to you can really "get it."
I was a bit disappointed with Arabic 2 because I was expected it to be exactly like Arabic 1. However, I am going to try to use it anyway and I am sure I will benefit and learn from it, but it will not be as easy to use as Arabic 1.

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.

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."