Posted on 09/05/2007 6:03:44 PM PDT by El Sordo
Currently, I am in my third month of self-study of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). I am, of course, being confronted with the usual challenges of learning Arabic.
I hope to use this thread as a resource for both myself and others who are also traveling down this oddly scripted road.
A hearty welcome to all who might join me in my quixotic effort.
First off, why am I doing this?
1) I am greatly concerned about the not-so-distant future we face. I will plainly say that a culture that does not understand a potential adversary cannot confront it. And no one can be understood without knowing their language. At least having a rudimentary knowledge of MSA I believe will provide me with not only a better understanding of the situation but also provide at least a veneer of authority in any effort I may put towards enlightening others unto my concerns. To be able to respond to knee-jerks reactions of “How would you know that” with “I read Arabic” strikes me as having value.
2) Because I can. I enjoy a challenge. I have never had good luck with languages, so in my twisted view it makes sense to try and grapple with one of the hard ones.
It would be downright keen if this thread could become an Arabic resource for any other students of MSA or Arabic dialects.
That being said, here are two things that I have found useful so far:
“The Arabic Alphabet, How to Read & Write It” by Nicholas Awde and Putros Samano.
This was a very good text to start with. A very simple walk through the alphabet and numerous common and simple, fully voweled words. The guide to pronunciation may be a crapshoot it seems. But it was a good place to start.
“Teach Yourself Beginner's Arabic Script” by John Mace.
First exposure to non-voweled text. It was brutal. But so far it has been useful. A good recap of the alphabet then eases you into plurals (damn those duals...), articles, prepositions and basic sentence structure.
These two books I would recommend to anyone else who might start down this path.
Now if I can only figure out how to pronounce ‘Ayn.
“Now if I can only figure out how to pronounce ‘Ayn.”
She said it rhymes with “mine” ;^)
If it were not for the violence their cultures seem to have a propensity for, learning Arabic would not be useful or interesting. I would more likely learn Russian or Chinese. There are some good Russian writers, and it would be interesting to read them in their own language. Chinese would be interesting, and I imagine, difficult.
By the way...I didn’t say so in my post, but given the nature of the violence in the world caused by those who speak Arabic, it IS a valuable language to know, and I applaud you for learning it.
Numerous WAV files to accompany a 400+ page text. The spoken dialect is claimed to be from the Syrian/Jordan/Lebanon area.
Free to download, but they do ask for a voluntary honorarium.
I have not attempted to work through this text yet, but I have printed it out and will probably tackle it next.
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