Another good way is to read little kids beginning readers :) That helped me because the print was bigger. Also I really helped my reading skills by reading the signs in Cairo while stuck in traffic. I made a game out of reading a sign before I had driven past it :)
That is a good idea, I'll have to look into some kids books. I am trying to keep studying over the summer with no teacher but I am not getting too far. ;-) Just memorizing words for now. I really need to get my hands on some al Jazeera/al Arabiya broadcasts to listen to, I'm still quite lost when it comes to listening and speaking.
Here ya go.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1166270/posts
NEPAL - Women Turn To Nude Farming To Please Rain God
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/717752/posts
India - Naked women in UP (Uttar Pradesh) invoke Gods to bring rain
Psst, it's a trick, it's monsoon season anyway, but don't tell the chicks.
Stuff like this really makes jihadis explode!
That's interesting. I wanted to ask you how long it took you to understand Arabic without having to simultaneously translate it into English for understanding purposes?
I used Alif Baa, too. I agree about it being a good place to start. I found a website, too, if someone wants it, where you can do these 'vocab' type things. You print it out and do it that way...I did that b/c I can read more than I know the vocab of (and since I like languages, I did some deal they had and printed out three of the language units b/c it was a special...and found them all helpful)...
Street/shop signs were what helped, me, also...
And just keep using it. My vocab has diminished so much since I got back here in the States and have a much harder time finding people around to practice Arabic with... Then when I go back, I find how quickly it comes back. I need to get back into 'forcing' myself to keep using it here so I don't waste what I've learned...
Any good tips you've found for acquiring more vocab? That's where I still struggle.