Arabic For Dummies

I bought this book the summer before I took my first Arabic class. When I started Arabic class, I found out how useless this book is (by comparison with Arabic in Ten Minutes a Day). Why? Although they cover the same material, Arabic for Dummies contains no Arabic script. Because there is no standard transliteration system for Arabic, learning Arabic in transliteration is like learning no Arabic at all.When I learned the actual alphabet in class, including the letters, I learned the different sounds Arabic has, including two different types of D, S, H, K and T. The transliteration attempted to express this with capital and lower-case letters, but that doesn't help the mind see the difference as much as two completely different characters does. I can also now read my album covers (of music) and will be able to read street signs and menus when I visit Egypt. Now I'm disappointed in my Arabic for Dummies book because none of the vocabulary is given in the Arabic alphabet. It is not appropriate for supplementing my education because I am trying to learn to read Arabic as well as speak it, and when I speak the words, I want to be imagining the script in my head, not Latin approximations.Another thing - this book focuses on the religious greetings and doesn't give many alternatives. I learned in my Arabic class that using the religious greetings may offend some non-Muslim Egyptians, and we learned alternative phrases that do not indicate a particular religious standing, such as Merhaba vs. Salaam Aleikum.

Still waiting to start the book. Arabic is taught using transliteration which makes it much easier as it uses English letters.

It covers quite alot of written Modern Standard Arabic. I use this along with Pimsleur.

fast delivery but not what i thought it was... needed more of a lesson book, but its still good

I have used the "for dummies" books in other subjects before and they are great tools, especially the pictures & tips. The DVD is a great added supplement. It is better to hear natives speak to train your ear for the different dialects when studying languages. I have been studying Arabic for a long time, I also tutor Arabic speakers(in English). I mainly purchased this book for a reference source, as it contains a lot of reminders that are very useful and helpful especially the grammatical rules I had forgotten since my first class.

Great Reference Guide f to Help Beginners!I ordered this book for my son who is just beginning to learn Arabic. He was very impressed with it and says its just what he needed as a reference. The explanations and examples were clear, concise and easy to understand.

Very useful in my journey of learning Arabic. I didn’t remember much from my class but this truly did help me with the pronunciation and learning of vocabulary.

The content is difficult and doesn't appear to flow smoothly. I was lost in this book and never quite got it. Mind you, Italian for Dummies I found extremely helpful! Is it the language, Arabic, that's so confusing? Perhaps. Perhaps it is one that cannot be summed up in this format. Disappointing.

This book is a very unpleasant surprise for someone who tries to learn Arabic. The whole book is written in transliteration and not a single Arabic character appears in 364 pages! I paid good money to buy a completely useless book for my Arabic learning. I find it very disappointing that this is not made clear to customers, who are blatantly misled by the description! I am sorry to say it is actually a purchase for dummies.

The book is okay. I kinda skipped through the first pages because I already knew how to read and the basics, but If you don't know any Arabic whatsoever I would NOT recommend this version for absolute beginners. The words are written with Latin letters in a way that makes them impossible to pronounce correctly and the pronunciation part of the Latin letters is even worse. I sometimes have to Google the words just so I can pronounce them correctly. There are also a lot of misspells and wrong use of words. The audio in the CD sometimes uses other words than written in the book.I instantly regretted buying this version. If you can read a little Arabic BUY THE NEWER version (2nd edition). It is written partly with Arabic letters, making it easier to practice the reading while learning. Moreover the "latinization" of the Arabic words are also more correctly written, so you actually have the opportunity to pronounce the words perfectly. I have had a glance at the newer version and it seems like the author is using some better words for of the translations. Therefore the two versions are a bit different from each other.However the book is not entirely hopeless. It is very simple, and gives you a lot of useful grammatical tables and useful sentences. It has some great explanations of the Arabic culture, and it is not boring at all. I still use it to learn and I have learned a great deal from it. It is also categorized into different topics with minimal grammar making it more fun to learn. But be sure you pick the right version because a returning/trading it CAN be expensive.

OK for absolute beginners

This book makes learning Arabic simple. But the problem is it mainly provides the Latin written of Arabic. It make readers easy to recognise, but the end the result will be the readers cannot read Arabic. If it provides Arabic alongside the Latin, it would be much better.

Really enjoyed this. Surprised how quickly I reached the end! Not the end of the learning journey but inspired to continue the voyage