I’d be happy to attempt to read جريمة في رام الله if people would stop trying to ban it. But more material in the spoken language would be nice.
My focus is the spoken Egyptian dialect/variety of Arabic and there is sufficient content to get you to a solid C1.
- Pimsleur Egyptian
- Rocket Languages (best beginner course in the market for Arabic Egyptian)
- Glossika Egyptian
- Kalimni 'Arabi (5 course books from beg to advance)
Yea, Egyptian is the way to go. Most central, widely spoken and understood. My problem was I was specifically looking for Levantine Syrian/Lebanese dialect and written material was scarce.
Syrian colloquial Arabic - A functional course is the best one out there for beginners. For intermediate Levantine dialect, Shou Fi Ma Fi? is a good buy.
i have used michel thomas for french and german and spanish these where his first courses the most criticism people have with these is his voice michel thomas had a very thick yiddish/polish accent some people believe is not good for producing a good authentic accent ,and there is alot of explanations in english ,for me it’s agood beginner course for people who know nothing about the languaage they are learning but might be to easy for high intermediate and advanced ,
i think if you want to see for yourself go on his website and try a free audio clip http://www.michelthomas.com/
the rest of his language courses are taught by native speakers but still keep the same way of teaching as in the french german ,spanish ones
When I first started learning French, I bought the Living Language French set and wore those books out. Admittedly, it’s not the most exciting material, but the explanations of grammar were so clear and logical that I really understood it and felt like I was making progress. It may not be the fastest way to learn a language, but as a first-time language learner, I think it gave me a good foundation and a sense that I could do it. Plus, I paid around $36 for the three books and nine CDs, which is a lot of bang for the buck.
It is a language family of very similar languages more so than one language. I think the best analogy, more so than the romance, is the north German Scandinavian languages.
Denmark - Sweden is a dialect continuum and they can kind of understand each other, but not all the time. Except with Arabic, It’s like that for 20 some countries instead of 3.
No one understands Danish (according to this guy)
which is basically the “moroccan arabic” of Scandinavia. Same written language (danish and Norwegian bokmal). Plus Danes can understand Norwegians pretty easy… at least according to my one Danish friend.