Customer Reviews

Modern Iraqi Arabic with MP3 Files, Second Edition: Modern Iraqi Arabic with MP3 Files: A Textbook (Arabic Edition)

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I ordered this book with MP3 files sight unseen from Amazon because I wanted all the Iraqi Arabic materials I could find, and I have not been disappointed one bit! It has been well worth the price, and the learning materials in this book and audio files are superb!

The book reminds me of a very good high school or college foreign language textbook; it is very communicative, with a LOT of great information on grammar, vocabulary, culture and especially useful idioms! The dialogues are extremely useful as well, and the text is peppered with great drawings of Iraqi life and culture.

I am about half way through the book (and the course), and I would say the only drawback so far is that there could be more examples of verb forms in the perfect and imperfect tenses to illustrate how they are conjugated to suit me. However, it is better than many books and texts I have seen on Arabic, in general, on verbs, but perhaps not nearly as thorough as the Erwin book: "A Basic Course in Iraqi Arabic". Nonetheless, that is a small matter in comparison to all the positive aspects to this book. It is not only a great language text and audio program for beginners, but a cultural one, as well. When studying Iraqi Arabic, I would have both this text AND the Erwin one on my shelf. They approach the learning of Iraqi Arabic from slightly different perspectives, but they complement each other nicely.

The addition of the Arabic script along side the romanized texts is good, although as I have said in other reviews of Arabic materials, I believe it useful to learn this particular language (Arabic) in a familiar orthography (i.e. romanized form) first to get a good grasp of the grammar, and structure, etc. Since Arabic is essentially a "phonetic" script, it can be learned later, or separately. I believe that learning a language this way (in a romanized form) helps the student remember words and phrases in an aural-oral context.

I highly recommend it as an addition to your Iraqi Arabic learning materials. The Phrasebook by Alkalesi is also extremely useful.

I recently purchased this book to learn the Iraqi dialect, having studied Modern Standard Arabic and was very impressed by it's quality and relevance.

This book differs from most other texts that teach Arabic dialects, in that it presents the material in English, transliteration and Arabic script. For learners who have studied Arabic and can read Arabic (even at a basic level), the use of transliteration can be a frustrating experience and a step backwards in reading proficiency.

From the beginning, the book is well set out and details the Arabic alphabet with the additional Iraqi letters and vowels and the basics of Arabic script and pronunciation. The book then builds with dialogues which add valuable colloquial vocabulary, grammar and drills. The dialogues culminate in an excellent chapter that focuses on a selection of Iraqi folk tales with an explanation of the relevant vocabulary. Again an example of the excellent integration of cultural context.

There are a significant amount of commonly used Iraqi idioms throughout the book, often difficult to obtain in standard Arabic teaching texts. The book also takes many opportunities to give the student information on Iraq, it's culture and it's traditions.

The glossary at the rear is well organised and categorised by English and Arabic. The audio files are in a logical order and contain all elements within the book, again a rarity for many texts. The amount of audio material is very impressive and provides a valuable resource for pronunciation and drills. The audio is clear and well spaced to allow the listener to repeat phrases and or vocabulary if required.

Overall, I would unreservedly recommend this book to those who have some knowledge of Arabic and wish to learn about the Iraqi dialect, or those who will primarily speak with native Iraqis.

I have purchased six books to assist me in learning Iraqi Arabic. In my opinion, this book is hands down the best. It has an easily understood format, has exercises, a great CD, and best of all it has script!! The transliteration methodology is very easy...it is nothing like the very complicated type of transliteration that you get in the Erwin books and the Georgetown Press (fast approaches learning a 3rd language). Along with Modern Iraqi Arabic, I would also recommend the Iraqi Phrasebook - The Essential Language Guide for Contemporary Iraq by the same author. It is small and packed with very useful words and phrases...but there is no script. It uses the same tranliteration method so again, no learning curve.

I have Wallace and Erwins book as well as Nasrahllas book on Iraqi arabic. I bought them all. But Alkalesis book Modern Iraqi Arabic is the book I like best. It is the book of these three I have choosen to use as my Iraqi Arabic learning book. It is the only book of these that uses BOTH arabic letters AND translitterated words. I like the way the book is teaching. The dialogues+vocabularies+grammar+idioms and so on. Step by step you go forward from lesson to lesson. But the other books are not bad and are all good additional sources but I prefer Alkalesis book simply. I use the mp3 files with my mp3 player to study this book. The mp3 files are a very necessary tool for this course. The other books have mp3 files as well. This book is great for self study but if you have someone to train the dialogues with it would be better.

I higly recommend and love this book and I dare to say that it is the best book on Iraqi Arabic today. (at least of the two above mentioned books)

Overall, I recommend this book, in particular because it's the only Iraqi Arabic book I've found that includes the Arabic script.

Good:

- Has Arabic script as well as transliteration

- Decent amount of content

- In addition to the dialogues, there's lots of vocabulary and grammar

- I really love that it includes common idioms in each chapter

- English and Arabic dictionary in the back of the book

Bad:

- The author narrated all the dialogues himself, and so they can get kind of boring since he's reading all of the parts. Would have been nicer if they had different people reading the dialogues.

- It would have been great if the English translation was included on the CD as well as the Arabic.

- I've used it moderately, and the binding of the book is already coming apart in places

- Unless I'm clueless, it seems that the Arabic section of the dictionary in the back of the book is only loosely ordered, so sometimes it can be difficult to find words

- A few minor typos