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Rating: 
Summary: Good course but . . .
Review: First of all, as an introduction, I come from a language in which Arabic script is native and have also taken 3 yrs. of Arabic in school. Now, since a long time had passed and I wanted to re-learn spoken/Written Arabic, I have picked up this and the Teach Yourself course.Well, I have started this cassette pack initially so here is its review: A. It is a very nice way to learn Arabic fast. B. The problem with both these courses is that surprisingly, the authors somehow cannot pronounce some letters correctly. e.g. Saa is pronounced as taa So, Isnain is spoken/written as itnain and Salaasa as Talata. Well, as I already knew Arabic much more than learning the basics before this course, that was not a problem for me but if you are just starting out, remember, this is some dialect which may not be spoken other than some regions! Other than that quirk (Which has made me to think of returning it several times!), it may be a good course, hence the three stars!
Rating: 
Summary: Maybe okay for travel
Review: I was looking for basic arabic, so I could converse with my Arabic-speaking in-laws. This didn't really fit the bill. It's definitely oriented towards traveling (getting a hotel, etc) in an Arabic speaking country. It moves a little fast and expects you to jump right into conversation! Its probably a good way to become familiar with the 'sounds' of the language, though. I'll keep working on it!
Rating:
Summary: Maybe okay for travel
Review: I was looking for basic arabic, so I could converse with my Arabic-speaking in-laws. This didn't really fit the bill. It's definitely oriented towards traveling (getting a hotel, etc) in an Arabic speaking country. It moves a little fast and expects you to jump right into conversation! Its probably a good way to become familiar with the 'sounds' of the language, though. I'll keep working on it!
Rating: 
Summary: I did it!
Review: If your looking for something to help you speak Arabic this is for you. As soon as I got it I was speaking a couple of sentences but now I can speak Arabic al the time. Now when I go to Egypt this summer I don't have to worry about trying to find someone that speaks english.
Rating: 
Summary: The tape broke!
Review: The cassette broke after playing it once through.
The phrasebook looks pretty useful, though.
Rating:
Summary: The Tape Broke on me TOO!
Review: The cassette tape broke on me on the first time, through, as well! (I wish they had a CD version of the tape!) So don't count on being able to listen to it! The accompanying phrase book came in very helpful, however, when I was in cabs in Iraq and Jordan and needed to communicate basic destinations to cab drivers, etc (I was shooting video and photos during the 2003 American-led war on Iraq). I highly recommend simultaneously using more than one way into the language. The most useful for me were The Arabic Alphabet (Awde, et al) and Rosetta Stone Arabic, although both do absolutely nothing to help you understand the grammar.
Rating:
Summary: The Tape Broke on me TOO!
Review: The cassette tape broke on me on the first time, through, as well! (I wish they had a CD version of the tape!) So don't count on being able to listen to it! The accompanying phrase book came in very helpful, however, when I was in cabs in Iraq and Jordan and needed to communicate basic destinations to cab drivers, etc (I was shooting video and photos during the 2003 American-led war on Iraq). I highly recommend simultaneously using more than one way into the language. The most useful for me were The Arabic Alphabet (Awde, et al) and Rosetta Stone Arabic, although both do absolutely nothing to help you understand the grammar.
Rating: 
Summary: Berlitz-good quality beginner/intermediate language tools.
Review: This is a quality cassette pack. The print of the Arabic letters is not only partly printed like some library books may be. That is if you could even find Arabic language books at your local public library. Color coded pages show the different sections such as Basic Expressions, Travel, Making Friends. I've learned quite a bit of basic stuff on a few languages with Berlitz products. It can give you a start on learning the alphabet and basic words and grammar. It doesn't come with the audio script like the older versions of the cassette packs have. But that's not a big deal really. The letters are small in some parts but not too small. The Chinese letters in the Chinese phrase book are really hard to see but then I guess the smaller letters just force me to see the overall letter in Chinese and Arabic-which isn't nearly as hard, and memorize the basic letters in the languages. I don't know how to write the letters properly without quite a bit of study at first anyway because it's so different from English and new. It has a glossary to look up words in Arabic from English and a map in on the last 2 pages showing the countries Arabic is spoken in.
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