Customer Reviews

Arabic: Start Speaking Today (French Entree)

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I really appreciated receiving the Language 30 set. It helped me to get going with learning the language. Now I can speak a few words to my husband and his family in their native language, to a point where we understand each other and I have some recourse to look up words they are trying to say to me and I can respond. It takes a lot of practice however. But with some dedication, I feel confident that soon I'll be more competent in the language than before. Most importantly, I've been able to break the language barrier that separated me from becoming close to his family. Plus, it's fun too! I listen to the tapes all the time, while I'm riding my bike, on the bus, in my room, before bedtime. So it's very convenient. It's not something that's overbearing, or unachievable. You have to have self motivation in order to learn anything and this is certainly no different.

As a beginning student of Arabic, I found this set to be quite helpful. It's designed for tourists, but it teaches useful sentences and expressions which can be used in any situation. Because the goal is oral production, you can listen to the tapes in your car, or wherever, and practice repeating what you've heard, without having to grapple with grammar or orthography. Likewise, the enclosed manual provides the English equivalent, the phonetic transcription, and the Arabic script, in three parallel columns, so if you're having trouble hearing a paticular sound, you do have recourse to a written guide. Be advised! This is not an "instant" course! 1) It will take lots of repetition and practice, and 2) you will not learn word-for-word translations, but "dynamic equivalences," that is, the way an Arab would express the idea of "say 'hello' to your family," etc. If you're just starting, I recommend it

I am very much a beginner in Arabic. In listening to the cassettes the first time through, I was simply letting my ear become accustomed to the sound of the language. The words seemed too difficult for me to say. But, repetition is the key. By listening to the tapes again and again, my ears got used to hearing the words and my tongue got used to repeating them. Ultimately, I picked up many useful words and phrases and I am understood by my Moroccan and Egyptian friends.

This tape would have been much better if each word were repeated several times slowly, with time that the listener could repeat the word out loud. Longer words need to have each syllable stated separately.

This book is ok.The problem is the lack of usefull phrases that one might need on the street.The book contains all the names of vegetables?!! I mean for god sake I'm not interested in the correct word for cucumbers!..It has some phrases in the beginning that are quiet good.The arabic language has a great amount of dialects that differs a lot from each other so i have come to the conclusion that arabic is impossible to learn.Try another language where you don't have 9 ways of saying tomorrow, why not spanish?.. Allah mAak.