Customer Reviews

Getting By in Arabic: with Audiocassettes (Language Learning Story Books)

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

 

 

I bought several tape/book sets to prepare for my trip to Egypt, and Getting By in Arabic was by far the best of the lot. The lessons are clear and easy to follow, and the speakers are easy to emulate. There is enough repetition of words and phrases to make the material stick without much effort, and without becoming boring. This is an excellent place to begin your studies of Arabic. I had no knowledge at all of the language before using these lessons, and now I have the confidence to practice what I have learned when I encounter native speakers!

A really bad Korean language kit I had the misfortune of buying recently made me realize how good I had it with this course - and compelled me to write this review. This book and tape kit is *great* for learning to "get by". Specifically (1) step by step building up of vocabulary and grammer through well designed chapters (2) excellent pronounciation guide on the tape (3) clear, booming voices of the teachers (4) a wealth of street conversations to improve your listening and (5) most important of all, simple and direct (i.e. one-to-one) romanization of Arabic, not some wierd transliteration to suit American drawl.

Boy, did I take these things for granted - (sigh) - back to this frustrating Korean...

The tapes are excellent and the book I consider supplementary. People who rely heavily on printed English to learn a language would maybe not like it. I've studied various languages for 18 years so I am comfortable with the format. I want to relax and start speaking rather than learn 10 chapters of verb conjugations and grammar.

The Cassettes are good, but a bit hard to follow with the book. When repeating words on tape, the one's in the book are scattered about. The tapes are good to learn how the words sound by native speakers.