I’m interested in learning Arabic, and I can’t find a course where I live.
Has anybody learned Arabic from tapes/books/etc?
What do-it-yourself course would you recommend?
I found the “Pimsleur” tapes to be really useful both in Arabic and other languages, although their focus is on basic, conversational command of the language. For learning the writing system, “The Arabic Alphabet: How to Read and Write It” by Awde and Samano is excellent.
On a more advanced level, I’ve yet to find a single set of materials that seems well-suited for self-study and am interested to see what other people recommend. I’ve used a variety of materials and tapes from the local public library, but most of these either fall into the category of “useful words and phrases” with little grammar or structure (e.g., the “Listen & Learn”-type materials or anything by Berlitz or Hugo) or overwhelm you with more grammar than you probably want or need at this point (e.g., Abboud’s “Elementary Standard Arabic” texts used in many college courses – the ones with the orange covers). The widely-available “Teach Yourself” and “Hippocrene” materials are good review references, once you already know some Arabic, but strike me as very difficult to use on your first encounter with the language. Finally, I’ve heard good things about the materials prepared by the Foreign Service Institute (and sold commercially from several sources) but haven’t personally used them.
I combined self-study with some Berlitz lessons in order to work on pronunciation with a native speaker, as well as to have someone I could ask grammar questions. While I did not find the Berlitz method to be very useful – it goes out of its way to avoid “grammar” in a way that seems inefficient and frustrating, particularly if you’ve studied other languages – the experience of working with a native speaker was invaluable. It’s very difficult, if not impossible, to learn the difference between sounds like “sin” and “Saad” (or between “emphatic” and unemphatic “h”) through self-study, even listening to tapes. Even if you plkan to study on your own, I would strongly encourage you to find Arabic speakers who are willing to correct your pronunciation and help you practice.
Finally, as you may be aware, the are many regional varieties of Arabic, as well as differences between “Modern Standard” and colloquial forms of the language. (I’ve studied mostly colloquial Arabic of Syria and the Levantine region.) While the various forms are for the most part mutually intelligible, you should probably settle at the outset on a particular dialect and make sure that your materials are consistent (or, at least, that you are aware of the differences). It took me a while at first to realize that one of my beginning books was using “Egyptian” Arabic, while another was giving me the same phrases in “Gulf” usage.
Good luck.
A related question: How easy is it to learn for a native-English speaker? I have experience (not fluency) in Spanish, which due to the common alphabet is realtively easy for an English speaker to learn, and Russian, which isn’t.
The State Department’s Foreign Service Institute lists Arabic as one of the world’s most difficult languages. (Many authorities consider Japanese followed by Mandarin most difficult.) If you can learn Russian, however, it shows you have a gift and that should translate well into your learning Arabic.
That said, gaining fluency would best be achieved in a classroom (or immersion) setting–and it will take several years of rigorous study.
I got halfway through learning the alphabet before the summer ended and I had to hop back into Latin big time. It is MUCH harder then you may think and took much longer.
I would suggest you try and check out maybe a night school. It should be fun, you’ll be able to share your misery and meet new people.
I got halfway through learning the alphabet before the summer ended and I had to hop back into Latin big time. It is MUCH harder then you may think and took much longer.
I would suggest you try and check out maybe a night school. It should be fun, you’ll be able to share your misery and meet new people.
This is more of an IMHO than a GQ, so I’ll move it.
bibliophage
moderator GQ
From my own experience learning various languages to various (mostly very unsatisfactory) degrees, it seems that the further away you go from your native language, the more difficult it becomes.
While learning a new alphabet usually only takes a few days or weeks (depending on how much time you spend on it, etc.), mastering the grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation can of course be a matter of many years. Having said that, the Arabic writing system is especially difficult because vowels are not ordinarily written in normal texts. That means that you really need a good knowledge of the language before you can interpret how to pronounce the words, even if you can recognize the consonants. Easy, it ain’t.