Customer Reviews

Levantine Arabic for Non-Natives: A Proficiency-Oriented Approach: Student Book (Yale Language Series)

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

 

 

I recently purchased this book along with the set of cassettes. It turns out, however, that the book is only part II of the complete course. This isn't mentioned anywhere in the course description. The cassettes, however, cover the complete course, so that only the last three cassettes correspond to part II. In order to make use of the course and all the cassettes, you'd have to purchase the teacher's manual, which isn't available on amazon.com. Otherwise, the course looks to quite good.

This is a set of ten tapes. All are professionally done, but only the last three match the dialogue from the book. That means you better have a good background in colloquial Arabic (or be in a class) to make use of the first seven tapes.

They all have solid material--ranging from simple phrases to detailed conversations. Each tape features oral exams that test listening comprehension.

The only thing that prevents me from giving it a higher rating is a lack of a transcript for the first seven tapes. Some people might also wonder why this wasn't released in CD format.

I did find these tapes useful preparation for travels in Syria.

I think this is the best book for intermediate colloquial Arabic. DO NOT BUY THIS AS AN INTRODUCTORY BOOK!

Most students will need a solid background in colloquial Arabic. This book uses English transliteration only--no Arabic script--so you'll need to have a good idea how to pronounce common Arabic syllables before you begin.

I found this an excellent resource during my recent travels through Syria and Lebanon.

I bought all 3 items....1)The Teachers Manual 2)The Student book and 3) The 10 audiotapes
This course is a classroom course for South Levantine Arabic(Jordanian/Palestinian) but accetable in Lebanon/Syria with modification in accent and intonation if you want to speak like a Lebanese/Syrian native.Self learners can easily adapt to the teacher-student structure of the material though.The course consists of repetitive drills that require a quick and timely response from the student...find someone to rap you on your knuckles if you dont keep up!!...an excellent way to build fluency.Exhaustive and practical vocabulary.NOT FOR BEGINNERS!But not too far away on the progress chart if you are starting from scratch nonetheless.More like an upper beginners/intermediate course.An excellent tool to transform your broken beginner's Levantine Arabic into more fluent and grammatically correct speech.The student book is nothing but the partII of the Teachers manual minus the drill transcripts and answers. 1) and 3) are essential....2) is optional.
Havent passed the tip of the iceberg yet..so I may have more to say when Im done....All in all: AN EXCELLENT INVESTMENT!!

The approach is actually revolutionary in terms of teaching an Arabic Colloquial, and Arabic in general. Although I was mislead by the title and due to my own mistake thought it dealt with Syrian and Lebanese Arabic, due to the approach used it is simply awesome for the beginner. The drills are excellent, but you have to purchase the tapes separately. I did!!! DO NOT buy the student's book! Buy the teacher's manual cause it contains the entire course, unless you use it as part of a Levantine Arabic course, in which case you don't need the tapes either. The approach and the material used could get a fresh beginner in Arabic to speak Palestinian Arabic, this is the drawback. To be honest I was only interested in Syrian or Lebanese Arabic, but Palestinian Arabic is what is taught here, although this would not hinder anyone using this book to be understood by and understand Syrians and Lebanese, one should know that grammar-wise this dialect has an Egyptian Arabic influence. Other than that this book AND the tapes ARE SIMPLY EXCELLENT.

This is a series of 10 cassette tapes that is based on a drill-to-you-spew-it-out-by-heart approach. The tapes can be good or bad, depending on your learning style.

Format: All instructions are given in English. Each segment (29 total) usually begins with a section of vocabulary following the 'listen and repeat' method. There may be some phrases, and several short dialogues using the words and the grammar you're about to learn. After these sections, the segment progresses to a relentless series of drills each beginning with a model sentence. There will be about 5-10 model sentences and each will have 10-20 drills.

Here's an example of one of the drills:
Model sentence [insert #]: Ana bashtighil ustaaz.
Drill: Enta? Enta btashtighil ustaaz. Enti? Enti btashtighlii ustaaza. Humme? Humme byashtighluu... and so on with about 10-15 questions on average.

Positive aspects:
- Repetition works (once you say something 25 different ways, you tend to remember it)
- The speakers speak at a standard, if not a bit fast, pace. This means you learn the speech rhythm patterns and also stress and pronounce things correctly. I found this very helpful as my previous exposure to colloquial Levantine was at a slower tempo, and I at first had a hard time understanding the regular fluent speed of native speakers.

Negative aspects:
- It comes on cassette tapes, copyrighted 1993. You'd think they could at least update the series to include CDs.
- The audio quality is a bit shoddy. It's a little fuzzy compared to crystal-clear mp3 files nowadays, which makes it difficult to hear the nuances of pronunciation. Was that an emphatic D, or just a regular D? Did she say emphatic T or not? What DID he just say? Let's fiddle with the tape player for 20 seconds trying to find where that occurred...
- It seems the segments were not thoroughly rehearsed, or that the recording crew didn't fully understand how to use the recording equipment correctly. This translates into a lot of unnecessary repetition. For example, the girl will start reading the instructions away from the microphone and then stop (I guess someone alerted her that she wasn't close enough) and she'll reread them closer to the microphone. This happens at least 30 times on each side of the cassette tape, so after a while, it gets really annoying. Haven't they heard of editing?
- There's no written text to go with the first 7 tapes. Ma fiish kitaab (as they'd say, over and over...). This creates many ambiguities when they same something quickly and you're not quite sure what it was or how it would be spelled. Often, seeing it written helps you understand the transformational rules between fuShaa (Classical/Modern Standard Arabic) and colloquial. If they showed you some diagrams with these rules, you'd understand how simple it was (presuming you have a background in Modern Standard Arabic) and you wouldn't NEED to repeat it 20 different times practicing all of the ways to conjugate "to eat" (bakul, btakul, btakulii, byakul, bnakul, btakluu, byakluu). In my opinion, this is the serious downfall of the audio series. If you teach the grammar and transformational rules, you don't have to pound someone over the head with mindless drills so you know all of the ways to say "to eat" and then more mindless drills so you know all of the possible ways to say "to want", etc.
- No translations are provided. Here's a great idea, let's introduce 20 vocabulary words and some slurred phrases and not translate them! Who came up with that brilliant idea?! Alright let me make a correction. If you're listening to these tapes independently and didn't care to purchase the $130 teacher's edition (which according to other buyers contains transcripts of the exercises), this is a serious downside. If, however, you are in a colloquial Levantine course and your teacher utilizes these IN THE COURSE, I would imagine the teacher would go over translations and you wouldn't have as much of a problem with both the absence of transcriptions or translations.

Conclusion:
The drill approach has some benefits that encourage speaking proficiency, which I am finding very helpful to encourage my own production. However, I'm not sure this series is any better than Pimsleur's, which conveniently comes on CDs and is professionally recorded and DOES provide translations. If you're buying this cassette series as part of a course, well, it shouldn't matter what I think because your teacher will explain anything you don't understand in the cassettes. If, however, you are like me and using them independently and already having a solid 3 years of MSA under your belt, I'd recommend finding an actual grammar of Levantine, learning the rules, and then listening to something like Pimsleur's Eastern Arabic series. If you don't have ANY background in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or any prior exposure to colloquial Levantine, DO NOT START WITH THIS SERIES unless you're using it in a class where someone will explain the grammar and translations.

There are really 2 books that are sold seperately( they don't tell you that). The first big book is like the first semester and the second is the second semester. The tapes are sold separately too, and you need them.
This book gives you sentences and has words but if you are new to arabic this is not the place to start. It has the words that will be covered in a sentence and the constructs the sentences in every possible way.
Ex. I want a book, she wants a book, he wants a book, they want a book she wants him to have a book. ect.
It is a good book if you already have a good basic understanding of the arabic and its grammer otherwise leave this one alone, and learn from another book and practice with this one.