Behind the Wheel Arabic (8 One Hour Multi-Track CDs) [Audio CD]

Mark Frobose (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2004

At last an Arabic CD course which requires no reading and which teaches you to actually speak universal Arabic in a minimum of time and effort. Designed by the experts at Language Dynamics, 'Behind The Wheel Arabic For Your Car' takes the learner form basic to intermediate level Arabic without the guesswork and pain usually associated with language learning. An expert English speaking instructor talks you through these multi-track CDs in English while a trained professional native Arabic speaker teaches you Arabic the way it is really spoken.

Behind The Wheel Arabic For Your Car is the ideal way to learn universal Arabic while you drive because there is no confusion, no reading, no looking up meanings, and no guessing. It's all on the CDs. Use your commute time to effectively learn Arabic with this delightful course whose method will have you speaking your first words and sentences in Arabic within minutes of receiving your course, and enjoying it.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Language Dynamics courses are a 'Great Value' compared to Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone. -- Men's Health Magazine

About the Author

Mark Frobose is nationally published foreign language author, teacher, and speaker with over sixty foreign language titles currently in print. Mark is fluent in Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese and is the founder of Language Dynamics Inc. Mark is a popular foreign language expert and has recently appeared on Fox 5's 'Good Day New York' and on 'LA Insight' and countless other radio and TV programs. He has lived and studied throughout Latin America and Europe and holds numerous degrees and certificates from foreign and American universities. Mark has also been rated as an excellent instructor by his students at the University of Illinois.

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Language Dynamics Inc. (October 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893564975
• ISBN-13: 978-1893564978
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,815,194 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unbelieveably Good!, February 12, 2005

By 

Maven "Maven" (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Behind the Wheel Arabic (8 One Hour Multi-Track CDs) (Audio CD)

I received Behnd the Wheel Arabic for Christmas. We live in a small university town and have a variety of 'ethnic' neighbors, among them Chinese and Arabic speaking.
The native speaker's (Muhammad) voice is stunningly clear and his accent is easy to copy. The easy going learning style on the CDs and the rapid and dynamic 'sentence building' techniques are far beyond anything I have ever heard in other language courses, and I have heard quite a few.
My neighbor Adiso is so confident in my newly acquired Arabic that he says that I can now go to the Middle East and get along fine with what I know after 5 or so weeks.
I was so impressed with the speed with which I was able to speak complete sentences in Arabic after just a few days with Behind the Wheel Arabic, that I ran down to my local bookstore and bought Behind the Wheel Chinese as well.
This course is an unbelieveably good bargain because it works where all else fails.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good but not great. "Talking Dictionary", October 31, 2007

By 

R. Morris (Albany, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Behind the Wheel Arabic (8 One Hour Multi-Track CDs) (Audio CD)

Pro:
The Arabic speaker is very clear and easily reproduced.

Con:
No matter how easily introduced, everything can not be accurately reproduced.

This starts out with a 10 minute intro of just vocabulary and then jumps right into it. The problem is that there is no booklet included of what's being said. So it is difficult to know if you are saying the word right. So if you are a beginner, I would not recommend it because you will have a hard time differentiating between hamzas, qaafs, vocal and non-vocal words. Arabic is an interesting languages because you must where a word is pronounced in the mouth or throat. Although we have vocal and non-vocal sounds in English, most people don't know this.

There are also no conversations. The english speaker just says an english word or phrase and the Arab speaker just repeats it in Arabic. This is the entire cd. You have to hear a rhythmn and have natural responses. Such as in English Thank You should be followed Your Welcome. You don't want to have to think of "Your Welcome" after someone says thank you to you. You've already lost your opportunity. The way you obtain this rhythmn is by hearing Thank You and then hearing Your Welcome after it. This comes from instant language reflexes, sort of like when your touch something hot, you instantly yank your arm away. It needs to be like this in your foreign language.

The pros of this is that there is a dynamic progression of language building. You use newly acquired words and form new sentences throughout the course.

I would only recommend this course to those who know Arabic well and need to improve and want to improve the way the speed in which they form sentences. Since the english speaker ALWAYS says what is about to be spoken in english and the arab person translates it. But then this will require you to stop and start the cd. So not really conducive to driving.

I would also recommend this to those who don't really care about the most accurate pronunciation and just need to converse with someone on a visit.

I used these cds by looking up every word in the dictionary and repetition of the same tracks over and over. As a beginner who has learned the alphabet and a good amount of vocabulary, If I had the chance again, I would not buy this course and use another. However, I can understand the usefulness of this cd set if you have studied Arabic for some time.

Verdict: Not for beginner's unless you use multiple supplementary materials. Intermediate users could practice sentence formation and Advanced users will find no use for this.

5.0 out of 5 stars Cheaper than Pimsleur---and almost as good!, August 9, 2008

By 

Edward P. Trimnell "edwardtrimnell.com" (Cincinnati, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Behind the Wheel Arabic (8 One Hour Multi-Track CDs) (Audio CD)

Behind the Wheel Arabic is very similar to the Pimsleur courses. The format is all audio, with every word translated, making this ideal for brushing up on your Arabic while jogging or commuting.

But unlike Pimsleur, Behind the Wheel Arabic is accessible for almost every budget. These CDs are a great bargain, at least when compared to Pimsleur.

This course won't teach you Arabic by itself. It is most effective when used in combination with other materials. This course is a great "reinforcer" of material that you learn from courses that have a book *and* audio component. These CDs are also quite useful for vocabulary acquisition.

The recordings are clear and a native speaker pronounces all the Arabic words. Many words are repeated in variable sentences/usage examples, increasing your retention.

Language Dynamics has less visibility in the marketplace than Penton Overseas or Pimsleur, so I gambled a bit in buying this. However, I am happy to report that the money for this program was well spent.