Teach Yourself Gulf Arabic (Teach Yourself (McGraw-Hill)) [Paperback]

Jack Smart (Author), Frances Altorfer (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Contemporary (March 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0844226750
• ISBN-13: 978-0844226750
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,484,102 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Introduction, June 29, 2000

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"gsibbery" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Teach Yourself Gulf Arabic (Teach Yourself (McGraw-Hill)) (Paperback)

This is a good introduction to spoken arabic. As the title suggests, the focus is on the dialects of arabic spoken near the Persian Gulf. Very little attention is payed to the script; the emphasis is on conversational speech. This is not the book to read if you want to be able to read the Q'uran or other classical arabic texts. it is primarily a course in spoken arabic, and to that end, it does the job well, although if the book came with a casette tape, it would have been a much greater help. Arabic is a difficult language for a native English speaker, but learning basic colloquial arabic is not really that bad, but due to the odd guturral sounds used, a tape with native speakers on it is indispensible.