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Tags: Super Challenge | Catalan | Ancient Greek | Turkish | Polyglot | Arabic | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | Italian | Japanese | French | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4679 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 17 of 331 11 January 2012 at 3:19am | IP Logged |
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Assimil L'arabe: Lessons 28-35
After all this study and I feel like I'm just barely past the starting line. It goes beyond that Arabic is difficult. The courses all have major flaws, most teach different dialects so it's hard to use multiple courses, and even the ones that claim to teach "modern" or "spoken" Arabic seem to differ significantly in what they teach! Assimil teaches "arabe moderne." The format is decent, but the audio is crappy and they use case endings that - so I'm told - no one uses in colloquial speech. This past week went well, but I'm really feeling the need for audio right now. I think I'm missing too much by making up my own pronunciations. Pimsleur teaches Eastern Arabic, but they use the same teaching format and progression - and the same dialogues - as for the Romance languages. It's a poor fit. I'm told they also use pronouns and endings that people don't use in colloquial speech. Michel Thomas teaches Egyptian Arabic. Or at least, I'm told that's what it is. He doesn't say on-line. I'm not learning Egyptian, so I'm glad I didn't buy this one. FSI teaches a formal written Arabic, but there is little instruction and no way to check your work. I hit a wall after Lesson 10. - So this next week I'm going to try an experiment. I signed up for a week at Arabic Pod, and have downloaded pdf's of a bunch of their beginner lessons. I'm going make my own Assimil-type study guide this week, and see how it goes. I've liked their podcasts, though I've only listened to them and have never tried to seriously study them. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4679 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 18 of 331 11 January 2012 at 9:03pm | IP Logged |
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!الدرجة
(Maghrebi Arabic) My last book arrived last night: Méthode d'arabe maghrébin moderne (Moktar Djebli, L'Harmatttan Press, Paris, 1988). I was worried that it would be more Moroccan-focused, but it turns out the author was born in Kef, Tunisia, and educated in Syria and Paris. It looks like a normal coursebook: 44 lessons with a brief recorded dialogue, lots of vocabulary, then grammar exercises. There is only an hour of recordings for the whole book, and they sound rough, like something you'd hear coming across the radio in an old WWII movie. But it's Tunisian! And it has been difficult finding material, so I'm happy with it. I already have Arabe Tunisien: Kit de Conversation (Assimil) - so I think I must have the only two books on Tunisian Arabic in print. I think I have enough materials now to put aside all my colloquial/modern/fus7ha materials and move straight on to "al-derja." Edited by kanewai on 11 January 2012 at 9:34pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4679 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 19 of 331 17 January 2012 at 4:27am | IP Logged |
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MLK Weekend
I thought I'd use the 3-day holiday to do some intensive studying. Life intervened. I finished up a lot of the lessons I had started doing the week, so I still made some solid progress: Italian - Finished MT disc 2. Like the first disc, I think it took me four to five hours to finish the hour-long cd! I'm still enjoying the course. I like his focus on verbs and structure, and it's the perfect course for the gym. Except for the part where people might see me talking to myself while on the stairmaster. I'm hoping it comes across as lovingly eccentric and not batshit crazy. French - I finished the first seven lessons of Using French, and continued with the Active Phase of French With Ease. I like Using French a lot so far. The language feels more natural. I can understand the structure of each lesson even if I don't understand the words on first listen, which is a nice feeling! I started listening to RFI again too. I can read along and it makes perfect sense, but I don't understand much if I listen to it cold. I rented Last Year at Marienbad (1961). It's an intriguing film, but a bit too surreal and poetic to really help me with my French! Next weekend I'll move back to standard narratives. I've also finished up to Lesson 11 of Pimsleur 3. It is just useful enough for me to not throw it in the trash, so I'll finish it. This week's irritation: the speakers have started speaking unnaturally fast, as if rapid-fire dialogue made the course more "advanced." I've never heard French spoken this fast in real life. Maghrebi Arabic - I finished up to Lesson 12. The dialogues are very simple, which I like. I've been practicing transcribing them into Arabic script while I listen, which I could never do with the other courses. The big differences I've noticed between Maghrebin and Standard Arabic so far are that a lot of the vowels disappear. So, "dakhala" becomes "dkhal," and "madrasa" becomes "madrsa." It makes it easier for me - there's less pieces of information to remember. Maghrebin also has a present-tense verb for "to be" (rá_). I can say "ana Michael" (me, Michael) or "ráni Michael" (I am Michael). I am pretty you can't do this in Egyptian or Levantine. Edited by kanewai on 17 January 2012 at 4:30am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4679 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 20 of 331 21 January 2012 at 10:03am | IP Logged |
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Italian It only took me three sessions to finish MT's 3rd disc, and I'm well on
my way to finishing the fourth - though I might have to repeat many of the recent lessons a few times. Part of the reason I'm moving through faster is that Michel Thomas is having quite a few "senior moments," and so many of the segments aren't helpful. There's an extended dialogue where he lectures the students on the difference between "won't" and "want" in English - although they were speaking properly, and he was mis-hearing them. There's another segment where he confuses "dove" and "devo" in Italian. For about ten minutes he reverses them. It was especially odd given that he had previously spent quite a bit of time drilling on them. I don't know why these weren't edited out. I still enjoy the program, and would buy the next Advanced Course if I didn't have enough materials already. I'm just a bit shocked that these made the final cut. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Quabazaa Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5399 days ago 414 posts - 543 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, French Studies: Japanese, Korean, Maori, Scottish Gaelic, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Written) | Message 21 of 331 23 January 2012 at 7:02pm | IP Logged |
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It's true that there aren't exactly great materials out there for Arabic, each set
seems to have its flaw alright. If you just want conversational Arabic, Arabicpod is an awesome resource, and it seems like you are having fun with Maghrebi :) I love the sound of the dialects from Morocco and Algeria - and the music! If you want to learn the proper grammar of MSA and get more serious, it is actually a good idea to learn the vowel endings. Even if people don't say them anymore, they contain a lot of information about grammar which can help you understand the entire structure of the language. There is a great course available for free that comes with DVDs of the lessons as well as free books - at lqtoronto.com The only downside is the teacher's pronunciation is a bit off so if you do give it a go you will need to make sure you aren't copying the sounds he makes. Their method of teaching is great though, at least it was for me. I'm just about to finish the first book and it has done wonders for my Arabic! Wish I'd found it sooner! Good luck with the rest of your studies, I'm impressed at hpw many Romance languages you are learning at once! I'm doing French as well and already know Spanish - I think I would have got them mixed up if I was at similar levels. Edited by Quabazaa on 23 January 2012 at 7:03pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4679 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 22 of 331 23 January 2012 at 8:17pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks! At some point I'll move back to MSA. I'm heading to Tunisia with friends this
Spring, so that was my impetus to switch to Maghrebi for awhile. One of our group is Egyptian, and even he says he can't understand Tunisians! I tried two Romance languages a few months back, Spanish and French, and it was too hard. I'm further on in my French now, and am a complete beginner in Italian, so this attempt has been a lot easier. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Quabazaa Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5399 days ago 414 posts - 543 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, French Studies: Japanese, Korean, Maori, Scottish Gaelic, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Written) | Message 23 of 331 24 January 2012 at 2:12am | IP Logged |
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Ooh lucky you that sounds wonderful! Yes better to make the most of using Tunisian /
Maghrebi Arabic. Let me know if you ever have any questions about MSA, I am far from proficient but I have spent a few years tussling with this beast now so hopefully I have some decent tips. After MSA I plan to improve my Lebanese, and finally I would work on bein g able to speak Maghrebi. At least it's three languages for (almost) the price of one?! :) Ah that makes sense! Once my French is a little more solid I have been thinking of starting Portuguese. I really shouldn't take on another language, but since I can already understand people from Brazil and have a portuñol conversation, surely it wouldn't take me long to be speaking it. The hard part would be making sure I was actually speaking Portuguese and not turning it into Spanish! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4679 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 24 of 331 25 January 2012 at 9:54pm | IP Logged |
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I'm so busy during the week, but still have time to study each of my three languages. I
have all the time in the world over the weekend, yet it's a struggle to do even minimal amounts. For this week I'm sticking to Maghrebi over lunch, Italian at the gym, and French after dinner. At some point I'll rotate. I'm feeling the urge to do more French audio (so, the gym), and the Maghrebi is starting to demand more formal study time (so, home after dinner). That leaves Italian for lunch! I've been keeping to pretty basic goals for each week: one set of seven Assimil lessons for French; one Michel Thomas CD for Italian; and however many lessons of Maghrebi I can fit in. If I finish these early I'll add in my "second tier" choices: FSI for French, and Pimsleur for Italian. It's been nice going back to FSI! I was starting to miss the concrete drills; sometimes Assimil is a bit too non-linear. I'd love to finish FSI Volume II before April, but it's a long shot - I'm on Chapter 15 out of 24, and it takes me one to two weeks per chapter. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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