Arabic learning resources

[Bubulus]

Here's some links for Tunisian Arabic, provided by ffrench. They are a dictionary (first link) and three courses, all of them hosted at eric.ed.gov—the Education Resources Information Center of the US Department of Education.

http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED183017&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED183017
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/detail?accno=ED183018
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/detail?accno=ED294424
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/detail?accno=ED402739

[Meera]

Very interesting, shukran!

[Meera]

Does anyone know of any online Arabic websites besides BBC and Aljazeera?

[Bubulus]

Does anyone know of any online Arabic websites besides BBC and Aljazeera?

See the "Online Broadcasts" link I posted in the first page. (In fact, you gave me that link!)

[Meera]

Does anyone know of any online Arabic websites besides BBC and Aljazeera?

See the "Online Broadcasts" link I posted in the first page. (In fact, you gave me that link!)

Oh Shukran Kateer Serafin!

[azambhai85]

Another resource to learn arabic though it is not free
http://7b0c63dwx-qyr1e-s2g5rgo002.hop.clickbank.net/

[Lundgren]

Hi! I have recently been thinking of picking up Arabic. This would be quite new for me since I have no previous knowledge of Semitic languages and have almost exclusively worked with Indo-European languages. Since this would be quite a big step and I would do it on my own, I figured I need a good book for self-study, similar to the Colloquial series.

I think I would like to learn Levantine Arabic since it’s spoken in the countries I am most interested in, e.g. Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine. However, most of the sources I find are on Standard Arabic, which isn’t a spoken language at all as far as I have understood? And I would like to be able to understand Levantine.

I found Colloquial Arabic (Levantine) but the reviews of it was really quite bad, which was a pity. However, Teach Yourself Arabic had good reviews but deals with MSA. I also found Kalimni ’Arabi but haven’t looked into it, but it is also on MSA, right? It seemed to have good reviews.

Can I have any advice on what to learn? Since it’s a big step I feel like I need good resources for self study. Would it be a big step to go from MSA to Levantine Arabic? I wouldn’t want to have to relearn the pronunciation for example. Would it be better to start with MSA anyway? Are there any other resources you recommend? What are your experiences? Let’s see if I pursue this idea.
Thanks!

Edit: Does anyone have any experience with ”Mastering Arabic” for example?

[TheKickInside]

I probably am not the best person to answer this as I'm only a beginner in Arabic but I think 'Colloquial Palestinian Arabic: An Introduction to the Spoken Dialect,' by Alcuen Publishing, would be great for your needs. You can only get the CD that accompanies the text if you buy it from their website though, and the book assumes some background in MSA as all of the instructions are written in Arabic.

[księżycowy]

The Kalimni 'Arabi series is for Egyptian Arabic, not Levantine or MSA. If you ever wanted to learn Egyptian Arabic I would highly recommend the series, however it should not be your first Arabic textbook.

If you are interested in speaking and don't have much concern for written Arabic (which in most cases would be MSA anyway), I'd recommend Eastern Arabic by Frank A. Rice and Majed F. Sa'id. As far as I recall, it doesn't presuppose a knowledge of Arabic (MSA or other).

[Strigo]

I want to purchase a good book for learning MSA, do you have any recommendations?

[Meera]

http://www.almasryalyoum.com

This site is really good, it has articles written in Modern Standard but videos in Egyptian Arabic.

[Drochfhuaimniú]

Does anyone know of good iOS apps for beginners' Arabic? I'm specifically trying to learn some basics on my iphone during my morning commute. I got the hamdouchi Arabic Alphabet learning app but I'm afraid of committing yet, what with there being so many options out there. I've never used any language learning materials on my iPad either, and I'd be open to that.

Thanks in advance!

[Psi-Lord]

Although not a resource per se, I thought this thread was the best place to mention/share this.

‘Word Stress and Vowel Neutralization in Modern Standard Arabic’, by Jack Halpern (春遍雀來).

http://www.elda.org/medar-conference/pdf/16.pdf

[Meera]

France 24 in Arabic:
http://www.france24.com/ar/

[Shad]

Has anyone taken a look at Cours d'arabe parlé palestinien? Surprisingly user-friendly, for a dialect course. But in French, of course.

[Zireael]

The Sakhr Ajeeb dictionary doesn't work, and neither does the wordlist on UniLang wiki.

And I really need a good Arabic-English online dictionary with pronunciation.

[ILuvEire]

It's been a while since you posted, but this dictionary is pretty great: http://www.aratools.com/#text-dict-tab

[Shad]

I'm here to whine.

I don't understand why some Arabic courses, or any courses on languages written with the Arabic script, introduce new vocabulary without any transliteration or vowel marking. They even say that it's difficult for native speakers to know the exact pronunciation of an unknown word. I just don't get it. Maybe I'm just too dumb to figure it out myself.

Yes, I know that in most cases there is the audio to help us, but what if you can't get access to it or something? And besides, with Arabic is not so easy to just listen to the recording and get it all figured out.

For instance, this looks very useful and yet, I don't know how to learn from it because of the short vowel combination possibility. Am I the only one?

[/whine]

[Meera]

I also can't stand that. The use the "you have to get used to reading like that" excuse. Which I agree with, but if it's word you never saw before they should at least have a transliteration of it.

[Shad]

Exactly! Especially for beginners! I understand the importance of getting used to reading and writing like that, but don't I have the right to know how to pronounce it too?