Customer Reviews

Spoken Lebanese

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

 

 

I am a Lebanese-American who did NOT grow up speaking Arabic. I was so pleased to find Spoken Lebanese because I really wanted to be able to say a few words to my Lebanese friends. The contents of this book are excellent. There are so many wonderful expression in Arabic that we don't have in English ie. what to say to someone when they return home from a trip, expressions of sympathy or congratulations. The only problem is that the tape contains NO ENGLISH and the dialogs in the book are not translated line for line in English. This makes it impossible to listen to the tapes in the car and know what you are saying. I also had a hard time figuring out what the dialogs in the book were saying. I hope that Dr. Feghali will go back to the drawing board and add the necessary English components to create a first class book. Until then, mine just sits on the shelf.

Dr. Feghali's book is definitely not for one who knows nothing about the language. The lessons are poorly structured--they include dialogue in Lebanese with no translation and words that had not been taught in any previous lessons. I found the book difficult and frustrating. I know some Lebanese and I could not handle the book. I am also a teacher and I would never recommend this book as a teaching instrument.

I used this in a UCLA class and found it very useful. The bad thing is that there is no alphabetical index of words, but if you learn everything in this book you will be able to speak a lot of Levantine arabic! It is all transliterated, there is no Arabic writing. The tape is also very helpful though they speak a bit too fast. I would still highly recommend it.

I am using this book in conjuntion with other books on Levantine Arabic.I wouldnt use this course as my primary source of Lebanese language study.This book is GREAT for verbs:Types of verbs, verb conjugations and pronunciation....this book as it all.In fact there is a list at the back that summarises all the verbs that are covered in the various chapters.The social expressions and pretty extensive vocabulary provided towards the end are really useful.This book will be pretty handy if you plan to mingle with a Lebanese family crowd.The book was intended for use in precisely such a situation and doesnt purpot to be anything more.The reason Im giving it 4 stars is because of the beautiful way in which verbs are presented and summarised.I havent seen this in any other book.

My husband is from Lebanon. I wanted to be able to speak Lebanese better and surprise him, so I got this book.

It is not worth the money at all. When I found multiple typos and the same vocabulary words introduces multiple times, I showed my husband the book, thinking that I was reading it wrong. Nope, I was reading it just fine.

According to my husband, many of the words introduced are also from the southern part of Lebanon, and not from the northern part, where he is from. There are regional differences in language that this book does not account for, and does not even mention. Many of the sayings are exactly out of a phrase book. Worse yet, some of the sayings are things that would be largely inappropriate in the north.

I'm happy I just donated this book to the library. It wasn't useful for me.

First of all consider that the book comes without any tape or CD (and that is probably my mistake not having noticed that while ordering it).

I therefore found myself trying to learn a difficult language such as arabic (lebanese dialect) with only a book consisted in great part of dialogs not explained in english...

If you therefore wish to learn lebanese with such a book, get a teacher first, otherwise opt for "Arabic you need"...

The author does a good job on basics of the language. A glaring omission is the absence of a cross-reference from English to Lebanese and the reverse. This should have been included with a vocabulary size of 10,000 words.

A very good explanation of spoken Lebanese. However, as I was raised in a Lebanese family and my parents spoke the language, (they didn't teach me) I find this book more of a textbook than a self study. It would be very helpful to have someone that speaks Lebanese to help with grammar and pronunciation. I will continue to study with it but, without a native speaker as a coach, it is slow going.

This book is a good way to start speaking Lebanese quickly, which is what the author intended (although to achieve any degree of fluency, a person would need to practice with someone who speaks Lebanese Arabic). It contains lots of very common, useful vocabulary, and outlines grammatical structure without overwhelming the reader. Its lessons and vocabulary are divided thematically in a way that would be useful to someone travelling in Lebanon. As someone who has studied Modern Standard Arabic, I would have liked to have seen the Arabic script as well as the transliteration, since I find transliteration confusing. Some reviewers referenced a tape, but when I purchased this book there was no tape with it...maybe that was discontinued? An audio supplement would be critical for anyone who is not already familiar with Arabic.

Overall, it's a good start to speaking Lebanese Arabic and would be valuable to anyone visiting Lebanon.

This book seems to be designed for classroom use and could be very useful in a classroom setting where an instructor is available to provide explanations and assistance. TextbooksRUs was an excellent company; their shipping and response time were immediate.