Arabic in 10 Minutes a Day

Rating:
Summary: Misconceived
Review: I bought this book as I quite like the Spanish in 10 minutes a day. As an Arabic teacher I thought I might be able to use the Arabic edition with my beginner students. However, I found the Arabic version was not well thought out. There doesn't seem to be any attempt to simplify the series model. You are expected to absorb the same amount of vocabulary and grammar as for a European language when that simply isn't realistic for Arabic. The addition of transliteration makes the pages horribly over-crowded and mixing English, Arabic and transliteration in bi-directional instructions is completely confusing. I couldn't follow them as a fluent Arabic speaker, so I doubt a learner would be able to. The whole course shows a lack of understanding of how a learner's needs differ in Arabic from European languages. In summary, stick to Spanish!

Rating:
Summary: This book is pushing a political point of destroying Israel
Review: I'm starting Arabic classes in a few months, but I wanted a bit of a head start as the Arabic language does not seem like it will be very easy to learn. This book seemed like a fun approach: it's very colorful with a lot of picutres and activities. After I bought it I realized that it doesn't have the best format. Arabic is read right to left. The author puts arabic expressions into English sentences (read left to right, of course), even though there are completely different grammar rules for the two languages. As if that isn't bad enough, the transliterations are also read left to right. I think this is very dangerous for someone trying to learn the new system because it trains you to read the language in the wrong direction. Also, all the pictures can get a bit distracting, and, overall, it's hard to focus on learning the language. There is no prep for learning the alphabet--it has only one exercise concerning this major hurdle. I would not recommend this book.