Customer Reviews

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

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

 

 

Because of the difficulties of Arabic, I am unsure how this method would work with complete beginners. People do need to conjugate verbs in some order or they get lost, and to map material learned orally into written Arabic would be trickly. But for someone who knows arabic and needs to learn egyptian, this is neat. All the content is in audio, so one can listen to it in the car or on the bike. The primsleur method of systematically bringing up reviews of vocabulary seems to help with memory consolidation.

This is the 3rd Pimsleur language cd set I have purchased. I tried the instant immersion arabic and really did not enjoy it. It was too advanced for my abilities and I could not understand the nuances of what the professor said. The Pimsleur, on the other hand, breaks it down simply and makes it easy for me to understand and imitate. From now on, I will stick with Pimsleur.

I haven't taken a lot of time thus far, but even so this method seems to be working better than Rosettastone. I am quite pleased.

I have tried both the Eastern Arabic and Egyptian Arabic courses. I have some mixed feelings about this methodology. On one hand, I like the idea of teaching new vocabulary and then going back and reviewing it. What I think Pimsleur calls "Build and Review".

What I have a problem with though is the lack of text to go with the full audio course. Often times I had trouble understanding the speakers and feel like I would have benefitted from having some text to follow or at least verify which words were being said. Case in point... The speaker was introducing the word "imta" (interrogative form of "when"). This word when pronounced by the speaker sounds a lot like "inta" ( masculine "you"). Thus making it hard to know what they were really saying. And I suppose one could argue that if you know enough Arabic, you could figure it out from the context. But since this course is aimed at a "beginner", it would stand to reason that the listener is NOT going to know these words and would be helped by reading some text.

Apparently though, the philosophy behind Pimsleur is to NOT provide any text but force the user to listen. I've tried many times listening to this course and just can't remember the vocabulary enough to make their $250+ price tag justified. And for $250 for the full course, you'd think they could include some text to go along with the audio.

I had a basic foundation in Arabic and needed to refresh and become familiar with the Egyptian dialect. This course was simple, inexpensive and worked. Minimum time; maximum results. Really, really pleased.

Ive got this course in 7 languages so far & their the best. I've also have Rossetta stone in one & although it a good course, it doesn't compare to the Pimsleur courses. Your not tied to a computer & you can put them on your IPod, IPad & ect where you can study anytime you have a few minutes...like on a lunch break, driving to/from work, even jogging & ect. If you like sitting at a computer, then you may like Rosetta Stone better.

I bought this product for my wife and she likes it, she is learning new words without actually doing any studying, she just listen to the CD's in her car on her way to work..I recommend it.