Michel Thomas Method: Arabic Foundation Course (Michel Thomas Series) |
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Author:
Jane Wightwick,
Mahmoud Gaafar
By Hodder Arnold
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price: £68.51
Our Price: £39.99
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 9780340957271
Format: Audiobook
ISBN: 0340957271
Label: Hodder Arnold
Manufacturer: Hodder Arnold
Publication Date: 2007-09-28
Publisher: Hodder Arnold
Studio: Hodder Arnold |
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I can finally talk to my wife's family, 2008-09-08
I have been trying to learn Arabic for a few years to talk to my wife's (Egyptian) family. This is the best course I've found by far and I'm finally gaining confidence. I don't agree with the 'Ali G' comment at all. Everyone in Egypt, including President Mubarak, speaks Egyptian dialect - and most other Arabs understand it. Now I'm going to try the Advanced course to improve my level further.
WARNING- MICHEL THOMAS ARABIC IS PIKEY ARABIC, 2008-09-04
THIS FOUNDATION COURSE IS THE ARABIC EQUIVALENT OF WHAT THE SON OF VICKY POLLARD AND ALI G WOULD SPEAK! SHOCKINGLY COLLOQUIAL AND TERRIBLY BASIC. IDEAL FOR THOSE OF THE MOST LIMITED CAPACITY WHO WISH TO GRUNT THEIR WAY THROUGH ARABIC. WARNING- THIS COURSE MAY SERIOUSLY DAMAGE YOUR REPUTATION. IMAGINE A JAPANESE DIPLOMAT LEARNING TO SPEAK ALI G ENGLISH! IZZ YA LIKE GETTIN ME BREDREN? YES IT IS ENGLISH- OF SORTS. LEARN THE STANDARD ARABIC OF THE BBC ARABIC SERVICE AND YOU WILL BE ABLE TO COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY ALL OVER THE ARAB WORLD- IF IT HAS SUCH UTILITY WHY DON'T THE BBC USE EGYPTIAN PIKEY ARABIC? I REST MY CASE.
Ineffective methodology and very basic Arabic, 2008-07-26
Read this review carefully BEFORE MAKING A PURCHASE!
Learning languages through listening is one of the most effective ways in my opinion and thus I bought this audio course and other accompanying courses of these authors with great enthusiasm. I was though extremely disappointed.
The positives: It does familiarize you with the Arabic language and you will get to know a few vocabulary and understand the peculiarities of Arabic. If you are looking for a course to get a basic "taste" of the language it is a good start.
The negatives: If you are looking to learn Arabic seriously, there three main points on the negatives to mention.
1. You should know that you will learn the "Egyptian Dialect" of Arabic. While one could discuss which dialect is the best to learn, many universities and language schools nowadays teach "Modern Standard Arabic (MSA)" rather than a specific dialect. This is due to the fact that for example Gulf Arabic (e.g. Dubai) is different. If you learn MSA you will have a basis to understand all dialects and will be generally understood in different Arab countries including Egypt.
2. The course throughout all CDs has native English speaking "students" who attempt to pronounce the Arabic words. In the MAJORITY OF THE CASES they STRUGGLE. This leads to listening to WRONG PRONUNCIATION MANY MANY TIMES which is bad for the human brain that learns based on repetition. While my opinion is subjective, I believe this is an extremely ineffective method of learning a language. The English teacher "Jane" has also a sub-optional pronunciation. Only the Arabic teacher "Gafaar" on these CDs pronounces the words properly. Sadly, he is the one you hear the least during the course in my opinion.
A far better methodology is "Pimsleur Approach". You will found audios of Pimsleur on Amazon as well. They might be a bit more expensive but have a very good reason. I have not tried them for Arabic but seen that they exist. I have the pack for French was very impressed!
I believe that this course could be a lot better, just by using merely native speakers when repeating many, many times the Arabic words. The pace of the course is very slow. For someone who picks up foreign languages quickly, it gets even VERY ANNOYING that after the fifth of sixth track you might already be able to pronounce an Arabic word well while the "students" of the course you hear with their STRONG(!) English accent pronounce the words still in a quite bad way, struggle and even confuse forms (for example feminine and masculine forms or "you" with "I" which is really simple). They are then corrected by "Jane", the teacher. By then though you had to listen to many wrong pronunciations. I found this extremely annoying. It takes the fun out of using these CDs.
3. The overall level of these courses do not get you to a serious level of Arabic. As mentioned earlier and also by another reviewer here, it is basics you will learn. You might not be able to book even a hotel room (I agree with the other reviewer her) but will have a "taste" of the language.
Can I give no stars, 2008-12-30
"Egyptian COLLOQUIAL ARABIC again"
Amazon Review
"many universities and language schools nowadays teach "Modern Standard Arabic (MSA)" rather than a specific dialect"
"THIS COURSE MAY SERIOUSLY DAMAGE YOUR REPUTATION"
How beautiful they reviewed
Has the world only got Egyptian Colloquial Arabic to learn?
Has the world only got Jane Wightwick & Mahmoud Gaafar to teach us it?
I thought I got ripped off when I bought Alif Ba by Kristen Brustad. That is much more advanced. At least you will learn the Arabic Alphabet.
My intention was to at least get through Disc 1 out of the 8 Disc but when Jane Wightwick made a grammatical error on disc 1 no 6 out of the 16 this was enough. No Jane, they say HAL ATI JANE (more), or A ANTI JANE (less often). Do not confuse your student by saying you are asking a question when you say ANTI JANE no matter how bad he says it.
Disc1 lesson 8
No Jane and Mohmoud this is wrong I was not going to waste my time refuting your mistakes.
And was not going to comment on your (TA) pronunciation in (ATshan) thirsty or (salaTA) and another word. Or even your (Ayn) But...
I could not leave these two point:-
1) As I know when I place them on this forum people know now keep away from your rubbish. But when you say (ATshana) for female and Mahmoud also says (Atshana) and then I have to get my Madina book 2 out Chapter 6 page 44 and follow the pattern it is (ATshaa) for female. Then I also need to get my hans wehr and on page 620 it says the same (ATshaa) for female. What are you teaching...and Mohmoud you should know better.
2) If you are going to teach SLANG that is common and is know in all the Middle East then yes start at the word (Maa) water (Moya)=slang. Did nobody here how Mohmoud said it with an (o) and everyone copied how Jane said it with an (a) by saying (mAya).
Good holiday CD but the Egyptians speak better English than you speaking this Arabic.
Excellent, 2008-03-26
Despite several frustrating and unsuccessful attempts to learn languages at school, I was resigned to only ever speaking English. Having read the product description on this item stating that it used a unique method of teaching I decided to try it. After only one week of learning for just 20 minutes a day, I could already construct basic sentences. As the course went on it cleverly added words and ideas, so forming ever more complicated sentences came naturally. I cannot recommend this product highly enough, if I can learn Arabic using it anyone can!
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