Customer Reviews

Arabic (Egyptian), Q&S: Learn to Speak and Understand Egyptian Arabic with Pimsleur Language Programs (Pimsleur Quick and Simple)

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

 

 

this audio-only course is geared towards people who are not so comfortable learning languages and want to master the real basics of a language in a setting that's reminiscent of having your own personal tutor. if this is you, then this is definitely the course for you. this course walks you through the essentials -- "how are you", "do you understand arabic", etc., nice and slow, with lots of repetition and little extraneous grammar explanations and so on. this course follows the method pimsleur is known for, gradually building up new knowledge in the process of repeating the old knowledge.

on the other hand, if you are more comfortable with languages, like to go at your own pace and/or want explanations of how the language works, you will be very frustrated by the endless repetition. go pick up "teach yourself gulf arabic" instead. [unfortunately, not egyptian dialect. i haven't yet found a good egyptian arabic book.]

I really like the pimsleur approach to learning: they repeat things at the right time. Kinda weird, they say thing backwards so you learn it better -- and it works. Some method they patened.

I'm not too familiar with Arabic at all and this CD set (4 of them) helped me with a decent pronounciation basis, basic vocab, yadda yadda....

Also keep in mind that I've never bought Pimsleur's $300 dollar learning lessons (or whatever high price they charge) so I can't compare it to those.

Definetly worth the $15 I payed.

I bought this audio set the beginning of the year in preperation for a 2 week trip to Egypt. I received comments from the locals that I was speaking like a native. Everyone I encountered was peasantly suprised with my ability to speak Arabic and Pimsleur's Abridged Egyptian Arabic gave me enough to function as a tourist in the country. I can't wait to see what's in the complete course.

This course is great! My cds arrived yesterday in the mail and I've already mastered the first two lessons! Today I tested out the few phrases I learned and was entirely understood by a native Egyptian Arabic speaker...This course rocks, I plan to continue with the "full" version.

My wife and I used the 4 hours of lessons to get just enough Arabic to be polite and to ask very basic questions. If that is your goal, then this will work great. If you want something more comprehensive, then I would have to recommend something else as it will not teach you enough to bargain in the souks (markets) or to order food in a restaurant. We like the repetitive nature of the lessons where every lesson is repeated over and over with increasing complexity; some people don't but it's the only way I can remember the basic phrases in the short amount of time I had for the lessons. Bottom line: if you don't have a lot of time to learn the language, but want to at least make a valiant effort at the basics during a one week trip to Egypt (like us)...buy it.

I was very dissappointed after completing Pimsluer's "Quick and Simple Egyptian Arabic." The set includes 4 compact disks with 8 30-minute lessons. However, about 10 minutes of each lesson is a review of the previous lesson with a couple of new words introduced. Review is always good, and it's the only way to learn a language, but couldn't one just rewind the tape? I feel like I only learned about 10 words. In truth, I probably learned about 60, so that works out to about 33 cents per word since I paid $20.00 for it. The disks don't teach anything about grammar, tenses, and writing, of course. I don't even feel like I've sratched the surface of the language. Perhaps I should have purchased the Egyptian Arabic I audio, but it is extremely expensive. In short, if you are looking to learn Arabic, I'm sure you could find something less expensive and more worth your time.

I am learning so much very quickly! The authors' detail the pronounciation, plus the cd's make learning easy in the car, to play over certain hard words. I just wish it had come with a handbook, for quick reference while traveling. (I had to write out on paper different sentences and words I wanted to memorize away from the stereo.) Overall, I am very glad to have found this program. Great for beginners, and the price is good, too.

A highly recommended tool for learning Egyptian Arabic! I am definately going to invest on the next set of lessons. It's very easy to follow and learn with the Pimsleur sytem.

It would be nice to see what they could do as far as learning how to read and write it as well. That would be something I would also be interested in!

I am very pleased with this purchase!

Like they say on the CD box it's Quick and easy and it is. It's the best I have seen, I might do the full program.

These introductory compact discs are thorough in instruction, well planned, and well executed. I believe that anyone who wishes to start learning Egyptian Arabic will benefit greatly from these discs. I already had some knowledge of how to speak Egyptian Arabic before buying this program, however, listening to these discs still taught me new ways to say phrases that I was already familiar with.