5 comments about Basic Arabic Workbook: For Revision and Practice.

1. I purchased this book shortly after it was released, in approximately January of 2007. As background, I decided to learn some Arabic due to my work occassionally requiring me meet with individuals whose native language is Arabic. Last summer I attended a formal 3 week intensive Arabic college course in Chicago, but found that the grammar taught there was overwhelming and complicated. Further, a native Arabic speaking friend of mine told me that the formal class I took provided such a high degree of grammar usage - it was not practical for everyday communication. In all seriousness, communicating in Arabic using the formal "long pronunciation" would be analogous to walking into a bar in the South Side of Chicago and attempting to order a draft beer using "shakespherian English." As is quoted on page 12, "This book uses short pronunciation." Author John Mace gets directly to the point in this book, and the vocabulary is completely popular and practical without unnecessary complicated grammar. Do buy this book if you want to learn Arabic - but, do first obtain a solid grounding in the Arabic script. I learned the script in about 3 days of solid practice and it is not as difficult as I thought. I believe John Mace also has an Arabic Script book as well.
   Special thanks to this author for his ability to provide practical information and vocabulary fi-l-'arabee. I have pre-ordered his second book due this month! Dave



2. An unusual but excellent text. The author conducts a point by point review of grammar rules while also introducing a news and media-oriented selection of related vocabulary items in each chapter. The grammar overview is very concise, written in as non-technical a manner as possible and can be described as pithy. John Mace has a wonderful way of distilling rules simply and clearly. He also narrows the grammar down to the most useful subset possible. Although short exercises punctuate the text, the book is more a review than a workbook.



3. A good instruction to simplify fus-ha/formal grammar without quite crossing the amiyya/colloquail border. For spoken communication purposes it's best to learn the actual amiyya of the region, but for spoken transregional purposes or just for the casual speaker this is great.



4. I'm quite impressed with this book. The exercises given in each chapter are short, but effectively review each concept. The pace is good--knowledge of both vocabulary and grammar will increase at a reasonable speed. The transliteration of all Arabic words is a good touch to ensure one's pronunciation is correct. Also, no previous knowledge of grammar is needed to grasp the Arabic within this book (although knowing what a subjunctive or jussive tense, etc., certainly helps). I also purchased his "Arabic Verbs" and plan on buying the next book in this series once I complete this one.
   
   My one caveat is that there are a few spelling errors sprinkled throughout, which in my experience is normal with grammars. Also, you won't learn phrases like "Hi, what's up?" And etc. This will more prepare you to read media Arabic.



5. As a self-taught student of Arabic, I can't say enough good things about this book. I flip through every new Arabic book I can find at Borders, but most of them are either too easy (ie the Teach Yourself series) or require a teachers (ie Arabic Connectors, Al-Kitaab, etc). John Mace has finally produced a book that allows you to understand the grammar, learn and pronounce relevant vocabulary, and do short but very effective exercises.
   
   However, don't use it as your first book! In my case (and I'm a language nut) I used a couple of Jane Wightwrick's books, Let's Read the Arabic Newspapers, 1000 Arabic Media words, and Kalila wa Dimna first. Otherwise, this book would have done me in: a) it is quite dry, with the majority of exercise sentences being something like "The conference of experts rejected the report of the Ministry". b) it introduces not only the relevant grammar, but also many exceptions / variations in endings / etc at the same time, so that you really need to read carefully in order to get it all. I have gone through most of the chapters 2 or 3 times, including all of the exercises. c) the pace is pretty brisk, as with present tense of all verb types in a single chapter (sound, doubled, initial-waw, 3 variants of hollow, 3 variants of ending-defective, and 6 doubly defective verbs)
   
   A minor problem, there are a number of typos in the exercises, usually in transliteration, sometimes in the arabic spelling, or a wrong word used, etc. Most are not too hard to spot but, when I don't understand why my answer is wrong (since I don't have a teacher to ask) I often wonder whether it is my mistake or the book's...

5 comments about Focus on Contemporary Arabic (Conversations with Native Speakers).

1. In 21 concise chapters covering both language and Middle East culture as well as Arab-American relations, Dr. Shukri Abed has finally composed the perfect text for short attention spanned aspiring Arabic speakers.
   
   Complete with DVD, this book provides the reader with the bare essentials they might not necessarily glean in academia. For example, in the text of Chapter One, we are taught how in local dialect to explain where we live, where we grew up, where we studied--all without being able to reveal a non-native accent. The ability to click "rewind" mulitple times on the DVD remote negates the complications language students normally experience in a classroom setting, where other students don't like to be disrupted with extra-pronunciations.
   
   I know that the US government has purchased scores of this book/DVD set for its employees headed toward the Middle East. Dr. Abed, a Harvard PHD, and a seasoned language teacher with the Middle East Institute, has finally gotten the essentials of Arabic language pedagogy down to a science. Bravo to him for this valuable addition.



2. I am a student studying arabic, and I have recently started using this book and dvd to improve my listening skills. What makes it useful is that it contains a number of monologues accompanied with complete transcripts of what is said by each speaker. You can go through each listening section, and if you miss any of the words you can simply go back to the texts and see what exactly it was that you missed, no guessing. Some of the speakers speak quickly and it is not always easy to catch everything. Overall I like this very much.



3. Shukri's Focus on Contemporary Arabic is excellent. It is a compilation of dialogues of native speakers discussing a variety of increasngly more complicated subjects. Happily, it is not another vapid audio of survival Arabic for Western tourists in the Middle East. Rather, the DVD provides ample opportunity to improve aural skills for serious students of Arabic and the book contains a complete transcript of the monologues on the DVD -- and more. The author's annotated footnotes provide insightful explanations related to grammar and colloquial speech. Virtually all of the topics are highly interesting, of great contemporary relevance and address important social issues. The book retains the reader's interest throughout. If your Modern Standard Arabic level is upper intermediate, then your frustration level will be low with the book (although listening to the DVD, depending on the speaker, is slightly more demanding in terms of aural skills than is reading the narrations in terms of reading skills). Even the Arabic print is clear and easy to read. Moreover, the book, though paperback, is well-bound, the pages are of high quality paper and the cover is aesthetically pleasing. The book and DVD are well-worth the cost. They are value-for-money.
   
   In certain minor aspects, however, there is room for criticism. All the questions appended to the transcripts in each of the thematic chapters are in English with answers solicited in English. Why? In all likelihood, the reader already has mastery of English and has a passive knowledge of Arabic. The utility of the book and dvd is to promote an active command of contemporary Arabic; accordingly, the questions should have been in Arabic with perhaps model answers of harder questions at the back of the book. In the Exercises, the author asks for a translation of all the questions; translation is another skill set. The exercises at the end of each chapter are all very monotonous in form. For the self-learner in particular, more structured and varied exercises, with answers at the back of the book, would have proven more expedient.
   
   The focus of the conversations is on Levantine speakers generally expressing themselves in a standard spoken Arabic (although a few speakers resort to a more colloquial way of speaking). It is good for the listener to have exposure to different speech patterns in Arabic including contrasting colloquial with standard and the author is to be commended. However, more utile would have been greater geographic diversity; Gulf speakers, for instance, are short-shrifted. Egyptians take a back-seat to Jordanians and Palestinians.
   
   Depending on the elocution of the speaker, there are deviations in the crispness of the sound of the audio; interviews take place in a variety of settings where acoustic quality varies.



4. !!!THIS BOOK IS UTTERLY WORTHLESS!!! WITHOUT AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THESE TEXTS ONE HAS TO GUESS AT WHAT MUCH OF THE ARABIC MEANS, OR WORSE YET, LEAVE IT INCOMPREHENSIBLE!!! BY THE TIME YOU REACH THIS STAGE OF ARABIC YOU CAN ALREADY GET TRANSCRIPTS OF ARABIC SPEECHES ON YOUTUBE AND THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION FOR FREE!!! WHAT WERE THE AUTHORS THINKING??? ALL THEY DID WAS TRANSCRIBE SOME ARABIC CONVERSATIONS - BARELY A SERVICE!!! DON'T BUY THIS BOOK!!!



5. Hi...I used this book for my intermediate/advanced class of the Arabic Lang. for the whole semester. My students really liked it as it was developing from subject to subject and from level to a higher level. They enjoyed the mixture of MSA and dialects within the authentic dialogues. I recommend this book for the teachers of the intermediate Arabic and for the learners of Arabic after they pass the basic level. The dvd has high quality pictures and the transition between chapters is well done. What my students and I have missed is the need for more covarage of dialects and dialogues that taken from the Arabic streets where people talk about real life issues.

3 comments about Arabic Verbs & Essentials of Grammar, 2E (Verbs and Essentials of Grammar).

1. If you don't study Arabic script first, this book is going to be unnecessarily difficult. Otherwise, it is the best introduction to verbs I have found. It is a short book (123 pages + the Appendixes and Verb Index). The chapters are clearly organized and with easily understandable explanations focusing on verb grammar without any distractions.
   
   Key words in lessons are transliterated (using a easily comprehensible system) along with the Arabic text.
   
   The book also has something that I have not found in any other Arabic language instruction books: It has two verb indexes (Arabic-English and English-Arabic) listing 400 common verbs that are used in the lessons. This is something I have been very frustrated in searching for--a list of commonly used verbs to study that I can access through English-Arabic as well as Arabic-English. Additionally, each verb entry in the index has 1) the 3 or 4 letter root, 2) the two principle parts, 3) transliteration of the principle parts, 4) verb type (for example: I, defective), and 5) page in the book that uses the verb.
   
   Since I have spent a lot of time searching and not found any verb index nearly as helpful, the verb index alone is a study tool that seems worth the price of the whole book!



2. I've heard that nowadays publishing houses no longer employ proof-readers; I don't know if that's true; if it is, this book shows. Perhaps it's just me, but I don't expect typos in a reference work. In this otherwise very useful, slim volume, you can find not only the conjugation paradigms, but also all the other basic things you need to know: the i'Daafah, the broken plural, the demonstrative and relative pronouns etc; the explanations are always brief, but spot-on. I'm looking forward to a typo-free 3rd edition.



3. I own the 1st version and this newer version. I was a fan of the 1st one and used it until it fell apart. I saw this edition at the local library and decided to try it. I really loved it and bought one right away. I think the index is better, it is easier to find verb examples in the newer version than in the old. I highly recommend buying this one even if you already have the other version.

5 comments about Moroccan Arabic: Lonely Planet Phrasebook.

1. This book was GREAT! It's the best one out there, and it's a Fantastic price. So much information, helpful phrases, easy word spelling for prnounciation. This book was so helpful and yet so simple, it takes you from basic topics such as "Religion" "People" "Places" "Transportation" "Feelings" and so many other topics. This is a must read book. And it's so small, you can bring it anywhere.



2. I bought it with a great enthusiasm but when I arrived at Morocco I discovered that the book is not useful for some reasons. I traveled around Morocco on bicycle for 2 weeks but learnt only very few phrases from this book. I suspect something is wrong with the structure of this phrasebook.



3. The phrasebook was very helpful when I went over to Morocco for vacation. But before I left I had to have my friend from Morocco help me to make sure I was pronouncing them correctly. But for the most part it was helpful and very useful.



4. if you have had some language training in Moroccan Arabic or classical/standard Arabic. It's otherwise a bit difficult to use, especially if it's your first exposure to the language. One added benefit is the book's two short sections on French and Berber phrases for the traveler.



5. Fab, recieved the book within a week when stated it would take upto a month! what a fantastic book! never again will there be a mis-understood word in my house! thank you very very much!
   
   Highly recommend!
   :o) :o)

5 comments about Elementary Modern Standard Arabic: Volume 1, Pronunciation and Writing; Lessons 1-30 (Elementary Modern Standard Arabic, Lessons 1-30).

1. The question is, do you want to learn Arabic, or do you want to sound like you speak a bit of Arabic? Having started Arabic with this book, I will admit that at times it seems rather harsh and dry. However, I truly believe that no native-English speaker can get to an intermediate, much less advanced, level of Arabic without having a solid grasp of the grammar and structure - which is pretty tough for just about every beginner. From watching my current classmates who started on al-Kitaab struggle through the upper levels and beg for more grammar reviews, I'm convinced the "Orange Book" is the best foundation out there. A good teacher can make anything fun.



2. This book was intended for distribution as a university course publication, supposedly for those who have access to specific tapes provided by an instructor. It claims to be an "elementary level book", but without prior exposure to the verbal language in correlation with the book's written examples, even a seasoned multi-linguist will be lost!
   
   I will check and edit this original review upon investigation of the availability of audio tapes through the contact information located inside the book. Evidently there is an instructor pamphlet available to teachers, as it notes that the lessons and audio tapes are not very cohesive, and evidently, this pamphlet covers that aspect, lacking in the text. (A big logistic failure by the publisher(s) and editors in my opinion!) Even if tapes are available, there is no indication in the text as to the correlation of tape usage and text correspondence!
   
   This book was written by Arabs who are non-native English speakers, and it seriously lacks some basic necessary tools for cohesive teaching in general to native English speakers. It almost seems like an intentional marketing strategy to keep the book in university settings, as well as its basic construction seems to be more of a frustration, absent of complimentary teaching/supplemental material.
   
   This is a great book for those who want to learn to read and write Arabic, but without cohesive audio examples, it is absolutely worthless to those who are unfamiliar with pronunciation of Arabic letters and diphthongs or other specifics of precise vowel usage and pronunciations of the written transcription, even though you may be able to "read" the script. The book claims that this is a basic training method "to prepare the student to handle materials actually printed in Arabic today", but it lacks complete reviews of Arabic vowel usage and placement, which in my opinion are an important aspect in learning a language completely. As diphthongs, short and long vowels, and other Arabic specific technicalities are covered in this book, one cannot discern the usage, in just owning the book without a source of accurate pronunciation and elaboration.
   
   Although I read, speak and write Arabic on different levels, there is no cohesion with provisions for correlating these aspects. In other words, say you "speak Arabic", but are unfamiliar with the level that your speaking ability is written and pronounced, even though you can simultaneously read Arabic letters, you might as well be speaking KiSwahili! (As a Farsi speaker and/or student, because Arabic contains almost the exact same alphabet, your frustration will be in the liaison of combining Arabic letters with their correct sounds in a precise sense of the Arabic language.) If you read Farsi and use this book, your Arabic will have a Farsi accent and no one will be able to understand what you are saying...as with the difference with American VS. British English.
   
   As a student of Farsi, I found that this book prohibited me from learning Arabic to any great degree, except for its vocabulary, as well as its technical difficulty in transliterating the Arabic language through reading material based on more precise English explanations. Some English explanations even need further clarification! There are better alternative publications.
   
   I only recommend this book to students of Arabic who have a basic grasp of audio representations of certain strategic words and letter formations before proceeding with the highly technical representations, or this book will cause horrible confusion. (I think it may break up Arab-American friendships if you drag your Arab friends into this endeavor with you!)
   
   Also important to note is the fact that this book contains a very limited Arabic-English Glossary for vocabulary, so trying to research some literal translations for better understanding will cause further frustration. (I found this capability quite useful in my Farsi studies.) This book lacks that capacity to any real extent. The very fact that Arabic and Farsi languages share the same script, they both remain two VERY different languages, although there are some frequent familiar liaisons between the two languages.
   
   This book is valuable for its extended vocabulary, practice drills and grammar acquisition, but only once you have mastered basic pronunciations of words and letters and some other basics, particular to this language. Even the English descriptions in the book are confusing to a native American English speaker and editor! If you are fluent and a native speaker of Arabic, but are illiterate, this book is probably not even appropriate for furthering your understanding of your own language!



3. It's interesting that people here are making the same comments that I made when I first used this textbook back in 1979. Having studied German, French, and Latin, I found that Elementary Standard Arabic was set up more like a text for an ancient language rather than a modern one. I clearly remember even now how to say, "Egypt relies heavily on the waters of the High Dam". Any complaints I voiced fell on deaf ears, because no other texts existed at that time period. The fact that people are still having to use this dreadful series is an indictment of progress in Arabic pedagogy over the past 30 years!



4. I began my studies with this book and have to say that I continue to go back to it on a daily basis as a reference. Granted it does not have pictures and is poorly printed but the basics are there. It gives very thorough definitions and drills for the grammar part. If Modern Standard Arabic is what you want to learn then combine it with the Alif Baa and Al Kitab series for a great combination of grammar and listening drills. Another great Arabic book is Conversations in Modern Standard Arabic. It was hard to find a few years ago but I believe it may be back in print. It does require the student to have an intermediate knowledge of Arabic grammar.



5. I think it's a good textbook despite its dryness, bad fonts and absence of pictures. The main advantage compared to many other Arabic textbooks - you can use it on your own! I was able to find some audio files for Elementary MSA 1 and practiced pronunciation with other textbooks. It's definitely worth republishing in a better format even without changing the contents. I gave it 4 out of 5 because of the above flaws but if you are looking for a good and accurate textbook, it is the one! Apart from this I recommend "Introduction to Koranic and Classical Arabic" and Key to Exercises (separately).

3 comments about Arabic in a Flash Volume 1 (Tuttle Flash Cards).

1. The best part of this flashcard set is that many derivatives and examples are given for each word. 448 main cards include 1792 additional derivatives--this is how Arabic works, if you learn a single root, your knowledge of grammar rules helps you multiply that root into lots and lots of related words. Bottom line, a bigger vocabulary with less memorization. I'd recommend these flash cards to anyone.



2. I have at least ten products that I have purchased over the last five years to help me learn Arabic. The flashcard idea is a good one, but this set is filled with an unbelieveable amount of errors both in Arabic and in English. I stopped counting after 30 errors! Seriously, I don't know that much Arabic to even find close to the number of errors there must be in this product. I called the publisher (Tuttle) twice and emailed twice to request that I be compensated for this poor quality product. The lady on the phone seemed to take in all the information about each and every error that I found (thus far) and took my address and phone number, etc. Still, I have not heard from them.



3. Truthfully you could make your own flash cards but the great thing about this course is that the hard work has already been done for you and the author has already selected the most useful words for you to learn. After having learnt words from this course I had my learning reinforced through everyday Arabic conversations and news broadcasts because this course teaches you words in common use. The words from this course really stick in your head and conveniently every flash card has example sentences and other words from the same root.
   
   It's true there are mistakes with the Arabic and English eg. a dot missing here and there, or a missing shadda but you won't have any trouble finding the error because the other source for the word on the card is correct. My only gripe is that one side of the card is appropriately all in Arabic however the reverse size is in Arabic, transliteration and English translation. So it's not possible to test yourself from English-Arabic and the transliteration catches your eye on the reverse side and you don't use the Arabic script as much as you should. Aside from this gripe flash cards are the best way to learn vocabulary fast and this is best flash card course for Arabic I've found.
   
   I intend to buy Volume 2 soon and I hope a 2nd revision is released soon for the first volume with only English on one side, only Arabic on the other side, no transliterations and the necessary spelling corrections.

3 comments about Media Arabic: A Coursebook for Reading Arabic News.

1. Yes I said it, textbook. This textbook is very well structured in terms of exercises, I must say, the author really had westerners in mind when putting together the material for this textbook.
   
   YES you do need a teacher (Which I have) to really comprehend this material, esp. in terms of speaking exercises etc. Also, this textbook is not for beginners-> Upper intermediate or Advance students only. lastly You must have a GOOD grasp of grammar before learning from this textbook.



2. I was really excited for this book to come out -- and now I'm disappointed. The book is beautifully put together, has good vocabulary lists and a nice selection of readings -- but all of this was already available in Kendall's 1000 Words for Media Arabic and Rowland's Let's Read the Arabic Newspapers (unfortunately out of print).
   
   In other words, there are very few sections elucidating sentence structure, or how the articles themselves are put together, or comparing articles with different biases, or teaching you how to skim. I'm sure a good teacher could bring it all out for you, but for self-teaching, there's simply to added value. Get Al-ahram or Al-hayat online for free.



3. This book is a recommended acquisition for the intermediate student of MSA, and is reflective of the improving standard of study texts available to students. The book is outstanding.
   
   The thing that most struck me about this book was the terrifically useful and interesting pedagogical structure. The book is divided into chapters by subject area and each chapter is further divided into a repeated pedagogical pattern that aids learning by reinforcing a systematic method of analysis. The student is shown distinct tools for engaging with the written text and these approaches are reinforced through numerous drills.
   
   The chapter subjects are:
   
   Unit One: Meetings and Conferences
   Unit Two: Demonstrations
   Unit Three: Elections
   Unit Four: Conflicts and Terrorism
   Unit Five: Trials
   Unit Six: Business and Finance
   Revisions of Units Five and Six
   Glossary (i.e., of key words for each unit)
   
   Each chapter (or unit) is then sub-divided into the following areas, in repeated sequence for each unit:
   
   Pre-reading: Students are provided with a photo and vocabulary in Arabic text with English translation (no more than about ten terms). This exercise is about pre-empting or predicting the nature of the exercises about to follow; getting students thinking about and discussing their predictions.
   
   Reading for main ideas: this is about reading the opening paragraph of a news article to extract key ideas: where, what, who, when and why. Students are provided with a short text plus key vocab items (less than ten) in Arabic and English and a list of main issues to extract, indicated in Arabic. For example in the first unit the main issues are "the kind of meeting", "place of the meeting", "the participants", "the subject of discussion". The student is given a sequence of about half a dozen similar exercises each covering the subject but building on and expanding the knowledge in the previous exercise.
   
   Understanding text organization: This section provides a media example then points (with arrows) at key terms to extract the "What, Why and Where" to teach students about archetypical sentence and paragraph structures - thus accelerating the ability to extract key issues from a text. The section then provides tables of standard vocabulary, prepositions and expressions used in media articles. These tables provide more than a flat translation but rather provide expanded contextual meaning that a native reader would comprehend but that won't always be apparent to a student. I found this to be extremely useful, for example, in providing a dual translation of connectors: you get the literal translation and a contextual translation which shows what is indicated by the choice of connector.
   
   Reading for detail: provides several, denser, examples of text and asks the student to identify key points then make summaries and answer more detailed questions about content.
   
   Vocabulary building: A series of exercises including building network diagrams of vocabulary, cutting out and scrapbooking newspaper images with student-chosen vocab, creating lists of vocab associated with a supplied image and various exercises in which the student must select terms from a list to fill in the blanks of various text examples. Finally, the student is provided with photos and a list of vocab items and must write a descriptive paragraph making use of the supplied vocab.
   
   Skimming: the student is given texts and asked to read quickly and draft a title that summarises the piece. This is an exercise that would need a teacher to be of most use, in assessing the success or otherwise of the student's interpretation.
   
   Critical reading: this is a very interesting section as it asks the reader to compare multiple reporting of events and detect opinions and biases of the writers through the terms chosen to describe events. As the book progresses the reader is given specific vocab examples (i.e., "mafroud") to show that word choice is a key to understanding the possible position of the author.
   
   Each of these units, as noted, follows the same pedagogical pattern. This ensures that an expected familiar pattern exists in order to aid and compound the learning, but there is such a diversity of exercises that there is never any chance of the student (whether self-taught or under instruction) finding the process tedious.
   
   This is quite simply one of the best learning tools for an intermediate to upper-intermediate student of Arabic. I would recommend this purchase along with Jabra F. Ghneim's Ace My Language - Arabic Edition and Shukri Abed's Focus on Contemporary Arabic (Conversations with Native Speakers). Indeed, if I was studying Arabic at college, that trio of texts would make up a terrific curriculum for intermediate students. I certainly wish I had a book like this five years ago.

2 comments about Basic Arabic: Learn to Speak and Understand Arabic with Pimsleur Language Programs (Simon & Schuster's Pimsleur).

1. This is a 10-lesson set on 5 CD's, 1/2 hour per lesson. The lessons have an English-speaking narrator with two native speakers, a man and a woman.
   
   I bought this set because I had used Pimsleur to learn Russian several years ago, and I found the Russian set effective. Like the Russian lessons, these Arabic CD's are good too.
   
   The Pimsleur philosophy involves repetition, and starts out with practical words to learn. Often when I encounter foreign-language educational media, the words being taught are not the most important to be learned first. Also, often I encounter rote memorization. But not with the Pimsleur CD's, everything is built around sentences and phrases and conversation. When you first come to a country, you want to know how to say, "excuse me" or "can you speak English," etc. I only wish the Pimsleur CD's included things like "How much does this cost" or numbers.
   
   One thing which would also be nice is an accompanying booklet, just to see what the words look like in print. Arabic uses a different script as you may know, so this is difficult, since many Arabic consonants are not found in English, (making it difficult to write in Latin script) or there might be two different consonants which represent the same sound, only one is given more emphasis; for example there is "seen," soft "s" like "sit" and "Saud," a louder "S" like in "Snake." And then there is "ayn" and "ghayn" etc. which have no equivalent but sometimes show up in words in the Pimsleur CDs.
   
   But it is part of the Pimsleur philosophy that you learn the language like the native speakers do: by speaking first. But I think it is a good idea to have some printed material as well, because the speakers are not always 100% clear. Plus I think they use vernacular: for example, they will say "kif ek" for "how are you" to a lady, but elsewhere I see "kif halak." Also "nayn" instead of "ithnayn" for "two."
   
   At some points there is a steep learning curve; probably the first one you encounter is where you have to pronounce "good morning;" "sabaH al-khayr" which needs lots of work to get right, and I don't think enough time is spent in the lesson. Although there is plenty of repetition in the CD's, I recommend going through each lesson 4 or 5 times before proceeding to the next. Or, as I do, stagger the lessons so it doesn't become too boring; for example in the following order: 1,1,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,3,2,3,2,3, etc.
   
   A small annoyance you might find with these CD's, if you're female, is that in some cases, the narrator asks for a response from you and then when the native speaker repeats the correct answer, it is given in masculine form only. So if you are a female, it is not the correct response. In many cases, the CD's will offer both responses, but not always.
   
   One last small annoyance is that the package does not make clear what dialect of Arabic is taught on the CD's. It is the Syrian/Lebanese dialect. They should make this clear on the package.
   
   But overall, I was pleased with this product.



2. This is a great find, inexpensive and easy to follow. You definitely get your money's worth out of this. Only thing that would make this better would be if it came with written instruction as well, but like I said, considering the price, I can see why it's not included.
   Would definitely recommend this product to others learning how to pronounce commeon words and phrases.

5 comments about An Introduction to Persian.

1. I am no stranger to technical language, nor do I detest grammatical terminology. I have spent my entire academic life learning or reading Latin, Greek, Syriac, Aramaic, Coptic, Arabic and Persian; I have, therefore, come accross many textbooks of varying usefulness and presentation. Let me say in the strongest possible terms that Thackston's text is the absolute worst text that I have ever used: the book is dry, lifeless, imprecise, and thoroughly frustrating. For reasons best known to himself, Thackston renames all the Persian verb tenses, invents new grammar terminology, attempts to illustrate grammatical concepts with seemingly contradictory examples (esp. the quibbling over the indefinite vs. definite nouns), and rushes through topics here and reintroduces them there (esp. the subjunctive). The book is not thoroughly cross-referenced, and it is written in one of the basest and most insipid forms of English that I have ever read. Is this the best that a Harvard professor can do? It seems that it is, for I also own Thackston's Syriac grammar, which is equally horrid. My entire class hated the book, as has every student of Persian to whom I have spoken at the University of Toronto. I may also point out that Thackston's frequent use of English transliterations without any Persian spelling is positively daft. As many others have mentioned, Thackston's text in comparison with Lambton's is as a candle next to the sun.



2. Thackston's book is one of the best out there for learning Persian. Admittedly, there aren't too many books out there. This book is the best if you're taking a course in Persian, are a heritage speaker, or otherwise have an elementary grasp of the fundamentals. While Lambton's book is much more thorough, Thackston spares us the dense grammar as well as the use of superfluous, hyper-technical grammatical terms. He does cover some material so quickly, e.g. subjunctive, that the coverage appears cursory. But again, this should not be bought as a sole introduction to Persian. Also, the coverage of modern spoken Persian is weak. If you're interested in colloquial, Rafiee's book is the best. Nevertheless, overall, as your second book (or first if you can speak it already), Thackston is a must-have.



3. This is a more scholarly work than Mace, and I would suggest that it is only valuable for someone who wishes to speak grammatically perfect Farsi. It is well written, and possibly has the fewest errors of the range of books I have used. Its major downfall is the lack of keys for the exercises provided, which makes performing them into a very frustrating experience.



4. Unfortunately, good Persian courses are very hard to find. As for learning the grammar, this is the best course out there, and there are also other positive things to say about it. Apart from the grammar descriptions being exceptionally good, I especially liked that both the Persian letters and the Roman letters are used in this course. This should satisfy both those wanting to learn to read Persian and those more interested in first learning how to pronounce and speak.
   
   The main problem, or perhaps the only problem, is the vocabulary. A course with 2000 words would have been excellent and 1500 words would still have been decent. Not even 1000 words means that you are left on your own too soon, without a sufficient basic vocabulary to move on. While I still recommend everybody to buy this book over Teach Yourself Persian (even smaller vocabulary, bad grammar explanations, no transliteration) and give it a slight edge over Colloquial Persian (more conversational). However, I hope a more extensive course will be published soon - one that features grammar explanations and transliterations as good as in this course but with at least twice the vocabulary found here.



5. This book was assigned to our beginning Persian class by a former student of Thackston, who clearly shares many of his thinking styles. The book is not, despite the title, an introduction to _learning_ the language. There are many technical terms from the very outset, and the book assumes knowledge of basic linguistics and grammar at a level appropriate for an upper-year linguistics or language undergraduate. It would be a useful reference as a grammar, but is poor on vocabulary and has little to no contextual situations. Thackston is also highly inconsistent with exercises; only some phrases are transliterated (which is odd, considering the book demands a level of competence with the Persian alphabet that makes those examples superfluous), and does not give answers to any of the various exercises he sets forth. I recognize that there are not many good Persian language instruction texts extant, but this does not help. A good and detailed reference, but not an easy read and extremely dry at many points. I don't recommend it unless you badly need to know Persian syntax/grammar or have already had a modicum of exposure to the writing and vocabulary.

5 comments about A Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic (Reference Grammars).

1. I love, love, love this book, at last all of the mysteries explained. The ista prefix, helping vowels, hamza in detail and a whole page on Waa, all the connectors and more!!!. The downside, it is the size of a phonebook which makes it difficult to handle, I am afraid the binding will break, maybe it should be in two volumns



2. SubhanAllah(Praise be to Allah), not only does this book greatly presents Arabic grammar but also makes you understand the English counterpart also. 2 in 1 deal, even though it is an Arabic Grammar reference but it will also increase you English vocabulary and strengthen you English grammar rules also.



3. This is by far my favorite book on Arabic grammar -- it is well organized, easy to follow, systematic and thorough. This book however is not for people who wish to start learning Arabic, rather it is better suited for students of Arabic who already have a couple of years under their belt and want a one stop reference for grammar.
   It is perfect for review and editing - it has come in handy on MANY occasions for me.
   The author uses a lot of linguistic jargon and this book is not designed for learning Arabic - it assumes that the reader has a decent grasp of Arabic.



4. It is extremely difficult finding clear texts on Grammar let alone Modern Standard Arabic Grammar. This Book is well organized and clearly written.I truly wish all grammar books were written like this. Simply a breath of fresh air.



5. Professor Ryding's master piece is best appreciated when used daily. The "Contents" comprises nine pages of jam-packed easy to use reference material. The seven "Index" pages provide additional verbiage in English as well in transliterated Arabic. The arrangement of the topics in the Index provides additional details that augment the Table of Contents section of this superb Reference. This book, I believe, was not intended as an English Grammar Guide. However, this is a unintended bonus but a bonus none the less.
   This book comes in handy when explaining Arabic syntax to my English speaking colleagues. It helps to use the precise English term that best conveys the Arabic meaning. In any language this would not an easy task. To do so in Arabic is a daunting endeavor. Dr. Ryding, however, makes this task look simple and pithy. Any user of this Reference Guide will find just such a word every time.
   As a Reference Guide you may go to any chapter to review the topic of your choice without the need to study the previous chapters or the following chapters. The topics addressed in each chapter are considered to be an integral part of the whole volume, yet at the same time these topics may be made use of without relying on the remaining chapters.
   The section on "How to use An Arabic Dictionary" is very useful, see appendix I.
   The "Glossary of English grammatical terms", starts on Page 686 of my copy of the book, hence the Bonus.
   I highly recommend that the "Preface" and "Chapter 1" be read in their entirety, at least once.
   This Reference Guide not only supports a student's textbook, but also assists the user of Arabic in a professional milieu.