My 14 yo ds wants to learn Arabic. Suggestions for resources? RS?

[Catherine]

Thanks in advance for your input. He's very quick to learn languages, and is in school now, and taking Spanish, and had 1 year of Latin at home.

[Amy in NH]

Rosetta Stone does make an Arabic language set.

 

My other thought is to approach Arabic speakers in your community?

[Catherine]

Ever the pragmatic boy, he is thinking it would be a valuable commidity to be an American Arabic speaker in the future, and he's probably right!

[Nan in Mass]

Slowly. After that, I'm going to try to find a class or a tutor for him. An adult friend of ours was using and liking Rosetta Stone, but it was in conjunction with an Arabic-speaking girl friend, so I can't say whether it works on its own without anyone to practise with.

 

Good luck!

-Nan

[Asma_08]

Here is a link to a lot of Arabic resources. Some are religious in nature but many seem secular.

 

hth

[oakmom]

Oregon State University offers online Arabic classes fir high school students and they get college credit.

 

Here's a link: http://ecampus.oregonstate.edu/online-degrees/k12/hs/classes.htm

[Sahamamama]

As it turns out, there are "many" Arabics -- according to my husband, who is Egyptian and speaks Egyptian Arabic fluently.

 

Your son probably would find the most resources available for Egyptian Arabic. Also, in the Arabic-speaking world, this seems to be the most widely disseminated form of the language (through media), but it's only spoken, not written. What I mean is this: Egyptian Arabic is the spoken language of Egypt, BUT it is NOT what is used in written form there. THAT Arabic is classical Arabic, and it is very complicated.

 

So.... probably at first, your son would learn the most from a completely oral/aural method -- to get immersed in the sounds and forms of the language. I used Pimsleur's Quick and Simple Egyptian Arabic CDs ($19.95 for 4 CDs), and my husband says I do quite nicely with the Arabic. Of course, this does NOT make me fluent. ;) But I can tell people that I am not Egyptian, that I speak a little Egyptian Arabic, and to please REPEAT themselves very S-L-O-W-L-Y.... :001_smile:

 

To his oral/aural work, your son would then add a written Arabic component. Check with a bookstore, they usually have a basic Arabic alphabet primer/workbook to use for the basics of reading and writing the alphabet, which is an extremely useful skill to know.

 

If your son is serious about this, he should contact the US State Department or the FBI for more information about learning this language. Yes, it will be a fantastic skill for him to have as he enters the workplace.

 

Finally, I would say that the best Arabic language teacher would be someone who speaks the language. Since you live in the Baltimore, MD area, I am CERTAIN that you could find someone qualified to tutor your son. Check with the local Egyptian Coptic churches (Egyptian Orthodox) or a local college/university. I hope this helps, and if you have any further questions, please feel free to pm me (I'll ask my husband for the nitty-gritty details)!

[Sahamamama]

My husband came home all excited today because he taught a workshop in Philadelphia with a Palestinian doctor -- and they chattered away all through the breaks in Arabic.

 

What's really funny is that my husband was born in Michigan and only spent three years (during his teens) in Egypt, but he really has no accent. Anyway, this Palestinian guy thought that HE had the accent, because Egyptian Arabic is like the standard in the Middle East.

 

They spent all this time talking about the accent and grammar differences of people from Jordan, Syria, the Gulf States, etc., etc., thoroughly enjoying the comraderie of speaking Arabic together. It's like a the entryway into the culture -- full of puns, wordplays, LOTS of jokes (truly funny ones), and poetry. Your son should know that people who speak Arabic are in love with language, especially ARABIC, because it can do so much -- and they love to create humor with it. The more I learn, the more fun it becomes.

 

Just another thought for him to think about! ;)

[Nan in Mass]

We have the full Pimsleur and it contains a booklet and CD for learning to read Arabic. Read, but not write. Still, it is a beginning. I'm glad to here that the Pimsleur Arabic works, since my son is spending a precious half hour of school time on it daily. I know the other kinds of Pimsleur work because we've done several and had good success with it. Thanks!

[Catherine]

to learn-and he certainly doesn't! What are the choices? I think a dialect that is most widely used and understandable would be best. I am so grateful to all of you for the information.

[Christine]

to learn-and he certainly doesn't! What are the choices? I think a dialect that is most widely used and understandable would be best. I am so grateful to all of you for the information.

 

As a non-native speaker your son will most likely learn Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Most non-native speakers come start out with that, and that's the one that you'd hear on the news (Al-Jazeera, for example).

 

I learned in the Army, and we learned script / speech first. . .My 14 yo wanted to learn, but about 2 months into it, decided it wasn't for him after all (which I had told him many times before) and both my husband and I could have helped him.

 

I would determine your son's purpose for learning. . .If it's speech (he wants to talk it) Pimsleur is excellent, but it won't do much of anything for written skills.

 

. . .(sorry, just got back from an 11 hour drive and I'm a bit "foggy"). . .

 

Oh, there's at least one dialect per country, and some countries have a number of distinct dialects within them. For example, and Egyptians say "j" and the Syrians (I believe??? it's been awhile) say "G" for the same letter. . .Like mixing a Texan, Californian, and New Yorker in the same room -- you're going to come up with some different pronounciations. (Not ragging on ANY of those states, just picked 3 big ones that I know of. . .)

[Kate in Arabia]

Modern Standard Arabic is what you find in the newspaper, formal speeches, some children's cartoons, lol. Egyptian Arabic is popular because so much of the arts/entertainment industry comes from there -- music, movies, tv, writing. Although I think the Lebanese are giving them a run for their money.

 

I learned Modern Standard first. It will get you reading and writing, but not speaking. When I first moved to Egypt my Egyptian friends kept calling me "professor", lol, because my speech just sounded so formal. So if your ds is wanting spoken fluency he will eventually need to get into the dialects. I personally have found the Khaleeji, or Gulf, dialects (Saudi, Qatari, Kuwaiti) easier to segue into from Modern Standard than Egyptian, or other North African dialects.

 

I am reminded of all the English dialects, where different vocab has developed for some terms along with pronunciation differences.. like when they have documentaries on PBS and they're interviewing someone from somewhere in Ireland or Wales, and they still have to put the English text of what he's saying at the bottom, lol.

 

If you are interested in looking at what the government offers for foreign languages, you should look at the Defense Language Institute:

 

http://www.dliflc.edu/

 

I don't know about their Arabic program; we used their Farsi materials in grad school.

 

We teach our kids Arabic, but dh and I both know the language. If your ds is wanting to learn it on his own it certainly can be done, but will take some serious effort and dedication, imo.

[Anna]

My other thought is to approach Arabic speakers in your community?

 

Absolutely! I know that in my own Orthodox Christian church, at least 70% come from Arabic roots and at least half of the 70% speak fluent Arabic and love to share their native language. If you live in driving distance from a city, see if one of our churches might be in your area:

http://www.antiochian.org/parishes/directory/us . Call the pastor and tell him that you're wanting to study the Arabic language and would love to find a few folks to converse with in their native tongue.

 

If you're at all interested in Christian Arabic culture, come experience an Arabic Easter/Pascha service, our big "ta-da" for the church year. This year we celebrate Pascha on the Eve of Saturday, April 26. Exact service times vary with indiv churches but it generally begins Saturday night at 11pm and goes until 1-2am Sunday morning. Pascha service is followed by a meal of great Arabic food, great wine and great Arabic music.

 

Pascha is an event not to miss if you're wanting to become acquainted with not only the language but the Christian Arabic culture, as well. Even our littles look forward to Pascha all year. Church begins Sat at 11pm with lights dimmed low. All of service is chanted. Around midnight, we have a procession with everyone going outside carrying lit candles. We pray/chant some more and then pastor bangs on the church doors and has verbal exchange with someone inside the bldg (in reference to Christ tearing down gates of hell). After the exchange, doors are flung open, we all enter brightly lit church and service continues. Of course, I'd only encourage this if you're not offended with Christianity. Don't worry if you have littles to tow. Some folks have their littles sleeping in the pews but they all love getting up to go outside. An added bonus--- If you're into Early Church Art, the iconography will be amazing to see that night, even for your littles.

 

Way more than you wanted to know. And you asked what? Oh yeah, needing help finding resources to learn Arabic. :seeya: :leaving:

[Staci in CT]

The US State Dept. offers many youth exchanges to promote learning of certain foreign languages and cultures. Arabic is one of the languages for which there are offerings every summer. I have heard (second hand) that it is high quality and that you really learn. You can learn more about it here:

 

http://exchanges.state.gov/education/citizens/students/programs/nsli.htm

 

Staci

[Sandy in Indy]

I'd look at Auralog. I saw their presentation this weekend and it's a fantastic product. I'm planning on Spanish for my son...much, much, much better than RS (IMHO). They do have Arabic as well. (auralog.com) It includes grammar and culture, has work pages to print, allows the student to record voice and playback (with a visual graph of how they compare to the native speaker). It even rates the student as to whether or not a native speaker could understand them. I really was impressed with this. For Arabic, it's $299 for 4 levels. (but the homeschool coop buyers group has a 10% off code)

[Nan in Mass]

There is a church in the next town from us. And another one a few towns over. When they built their new church, they invited everyone near and far, Christian or not, to come take part in the ceremony. The priest (or whatever he is called) got into all the newspapers saying that the ceremony was so rare and special that everyone should see it. It was a really big deal.

 

It never occurred to me to look there for Arabic speakers.

 

Thank you!

-Nan