Practical, unpatronising, well set-out
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This is a revamped version of Jack Smart's 1980s book on Arabic in the Teach Yourself series, and a great improvement. The earlier book was a thorough if rather unwieldy introduction to reading and writing Modern Standard Arabic, but this new version brings it into the spoken field without cutting corners on grammar. It sets out the verb very elegantly, and the typeface is clear throughout. Along with John Mace's Spoken Arabic, which however suffers from poor typeface, bad layout and some transliteration errors, this is a good recommendation for learning the language of the media and educated discourse. If you want to live in an Arabic-speaking country you'll have to learn the local colloquial, but mastering the Modern Standard first is still the best direction from which to approach it.
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Be careful what you want to use it for
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While this book gives a good, detailed introduction to Arabic language and grammar, it is extremely abstract. The alphabet section is daunting but gives you a good grounding. Beyond that, it introduces grammatical constructs in a logical order but this is where the problem starts. It may be fine for someone wanting to translate Arabic texts, but even once you have completed the course you have no idea how to address people, to ask directions, to book transport or accommodation and so on. In short, this book should be called 'Teach Yourself Literary Arabic'. If you want an introduction to everyday Arabic to use verbally then you will be better off using a different resource.
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Good for some people, depends who you are
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If you're willing to make the effort and do a lot of independent study, you could learn a lot from this book. It really does build up a solid foundation to the language; my only criticism is that it is theory-based (i.e. it's not really practical if you just want to impress some Arabs on holiday). This is fine, and it really does tell you (more or less) everything you need to know to start with, but at times it is easy to get overwhelmed by it. If you really want to get a feel for the language and use it to your full potential, buy this book in conjunction with Teach Yourself Gulf Arabic (not so heavy going). Between them you'll get the right mix of spoken and written understanding, and you won't need to be buying anything more advanced for quite a while!
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Very thorough, best for serious students.
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Well organised plan to introduce the complete beginner. Diligent reading and serious study required to make use of the many features in this comprehensive book. Some of the font ligatures used can be confusing until the beginner learns to recognise them.
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