In this article I will review the book Complete Arabic, which belongs to the famous Teach Yourself series. The book can either be purchased separately or in a pack that includes two CDs with audio material. I have used this book to teach a one-on-one course and would recommend it to the beginning learner who …
Author: Leston Chandler Buell
Want to improve your Arabic on location in Cairo?
I am sometimes contacted by former students who decide they would like to take a trip to Egypt to improve their Arabic. What they need is suggestions for courses and the like. This article provides some suggestions. Language Schools and Other Institutions Kalimāt. The first place I will mention is Kalimāt, an Arabic language school …
What about Rosetta Stone Arabic?
Rosetta Stone? Rosetta Stone is very well-known series of language-learning programs, available for more than a dozen languages. It is a program that can either be installed on your computer or accessed on all your Internet-connected devices if you opt for an online subscription (which also allows you a bit of personal instruction). In this …
Learn the days of the week with a children’s video
On the “Learn with Zakaria – تَعَلَّمْ مَعَ زَكَرِيّا” channel on YouTube there are quite a few short instructional videos for children that can teach you some basic vocabulary. In this post I’ll talk a bit about the video about the days of the week. This video is very simple and straightforward. First, the days …
“Seven Brothers” song: Learn ordinal numbers and professions
In this post we will look at a children’s song خالي عنده سبع أولاد (pronounced khaalii ʕind-uh sabʕ ’awlaad in Standard Arabic) ‘My Uncle Has Seven Sons’, sung to the tune of ‘Skip To My Lou’. This song will help you learn the first seven ordinal numbers (i.e., ‘first’, ‘second’, … ‘seventh’), as well as …
Learn 10 professions with a Zakaria children’s video
On the “Learn with Zakaria – تَعَلَّمْ مَعَ زَكَرِيّا” channel on YouTube there are quite a few short instructional videos for children that can teach you some basic vocabulary. In this post I’ll talk a bit about the video about professions. If you’re a beginner, you’ll probably just want to do the first part of …
Online Arabic dictionaries
I am often asked what Arabic dictionaries I can recommend. In this article I will discuss four Arabic–English and/or English–Arabic online dictionaries, highlighting their advantages and drawbacks. Oxford Dictionaries Premium This is by far my fav♥rite online bilingual dictionary for Arabic and English. It is a paid subscription, but it only costs about $20 per …
Mastering Arabic 1: supplemental materials
In June and July of 2017, I taught a beginning Arabic course for the Academic Language Centre at Leiden University. We used Wightwick and Gaafar’s Mastering Arabic 1 textbook, covering units 1 through 8. I developed some additional materials for use with the first five units of the book, which include reading exercises, dialogues, and …
Al-Manhal’s children’s book, set 1, book 3: يَحْيا الْعَدْل
The third book in Al-Manhal’s set of stories for children learning Arabic is called يحيا العدل yaḥyaa l-ʕadl ‘long live fairness!’. This is a fairly simple book. Since the main characters in it are a pair of cats, you will encounter a number of dual forms, such as القطّتان ’al-qiṭṭataan ‘the two cats’, which is …
What’s in Mariam’s room?: غُرْفة مَرْيَم
A bed, a cupboard, a window, and a fan. Do you know how to say these things in Arabic? Let the little girl Mariam teach you how to say some things in her room. This is the easiest Nadia Selim’s “story” videos and is entitled غرفة مريم ghurfat maryam ‘Mariam’s room’. This video is ideal …