Postby Lundgren » 2012-08-05, 18:55
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?
Last edited by
Lundgren on 2012-08-05, 22:37, edited 1 time in total.