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Advice on Foreign Language Skills
- Thread starter FLYTPAY
- Start date
The American University of Cairo (or Beirut). Absent that opportunity, if you have a decent university in the area they might have classes you can audit. Absent that, there might be a local mosque where they offer classes. If you don't have any opportunity at all for face-to-face learning from a decent instructor or to go abroad and learn by immersion (the absolutely best way) then my only advice is to be really careful with Rosetta Stone. I purchased one of their courses and was highly dissatisfied. I already had a fairly good grounding in the language (Russian) but if I hadn't, I would have been lost as they didn't teach the alphabet or any kind of basic grammatical structure. They have online samples you can try before you buy and offer a full refund in any case (and it really works--I took advantage of it).
GroundPounder
Well-Known Member
I'm thinking that going to a local mosque and getting one on one instruction might make your life a little difficult.:icon_mi_1
I know several folks that are assigned to Ft. Gordon with a civilian Agency that does Neat Stuff. I'll see if they have any suggestions. I know that they all go to DLI to train, but they may have some insight on what would be a good alternative if that is not an option.
All kidding aside the fact that they are located there is not in anyway a secret, but if a mod feels that this is out of line feel free to delete it.
Are you wanting to learn to speak as well as be able to literate? I had a guy that worked for me that was a native speaker of a
Arabic, and he told me that learning to read and write was harder for outsiders to learn than understanding the spoken word.
I know several folks that are assigned to Ft. Gordon with a civilian Agency that does Neat Stuff. I'll see if they have any suggestions. I know that they all go to DLI to train, but they may have some insight on what would be a good alternative if that is not an option.
All kidding aside the fact that they are located there is not in anyway a secret, but if a mod feels that this is out of line feel free to delete it.
Are you wanting to learn to speak as well as be able to literate? I had a guy that worked for me that was a native speaker of a
Arabic, and he told me that learning to read and write was harder for outsiders to learn than understanding the spoken word.
I graduated DLI in Arabic and have had this question posed to me before. I have never used Rosetta Stone, but am suspicious of any language program that does not use live verbal instruction. Hearing the sounds and pronunciation in person is of incredible importance in learning any language.
I have a friend who went to a JC and took a class taught by a former CTI. I would help him with pronunciation and basic conversation. And it sounded like he was learning (not at DLI pace though.) Also, some military bases have language centers. And you are not too terribly far from one that I know could help.
Arabic is not easy, but with a couple of years of instruction, you can become passable at Modern Standard Arabic. The challenge is this: you sound like you are talking Shakespeare to the average Arabic guy. I had a Jordanian friend who said I sounded like a newscaster when I spoke. So, to really understand and be understood, you have to learn dialects. Levantine is for the Syria/Lebanon/Jordan region. Iraqi and Sudanese/Egyptian are other options. I have heard that Saudis speak the closest version to MSA. And the North Africans (Algeria, Morocco, etc.) have their own special twist. But still, I would learn Modern Standard first, it is a good base.
I have a friend who went to a JC and took a class taught by a former CTI. I would help him with pronunciation and basic conversation. And it sounded like he was learning (not at DLI pace though.) Also, some military bases have language centers. And you are not too terribly far from one that I know could help.
Arabic is not easy, but with a couple of years of instruction, you can become passable at Modern Standard Arabic. The challenge is this: you sound like you are talking Shakespeare to the average Arabic guy. I had a Jordanian friend who said I sounded like a newscaster when I spoke. So, to really understand and be understood, you have to learn dialects. Levantine is for the Syria/Lebanon/Jordan region. Iraqi and Sudanese/Egyptian are other options. I have heard that Saudis speak the closest version to MSA. And the North Africans (Algeria, Morocco, etc.) have their own special twist. But still, I would learn Modern Standard first, it is a good base.
Rosetta stone uses verbal instruction. It has drills in reading / listening as well as typing and dictation. It's great as a foundation to a language as well as a vocabulary builder, but it won't train you to converse.
I want to be "employable" down the road.
18 months ago I had no knowledge of Portuguese and started off on Rosetta Stone. I worked my way up to DLPT scores good enough for USAF to send me to Brazil for immersion, part of their whole getting more officers spun up with cultural and language awareness/skills. When I got there I was totally lost with conversational ability, but during the time I was down there just about everything I'd learned through Rosetta Stone came into play at beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels, helping me pick up the language more quickly than my peers who had not used it. I would recommend to anyone else to give Rosetta Stone a try.
The problem with Arabic, besides the second alphabet, is that the verb conjugation and sentence structure is AFU compared to Western languages. German was easy . . . Arabic, not so much. Took 2 semesters in college and I was at the "See Spot, See Spot run" phase.
Rosetta stone sucks! At best it should only be used as a supplemental training aid. Even the review for the Arabic version at Amazon.com referenced using Pimsleur CD's which I feel are a far superior product to the Rosetta Stone software package. As with any language study program it depends on how much effort you put into learning, but I have to say that Pimsleur will have you speaking, understanding, and able to use the language very quickly.
LoneSailor
Registered User
Have you tried looking into local universities/colleges? They might offer some sort of foreign language program.
I've tried learning Arabic but the stuff that I bought (not sure which company or brand) really sucked. All it had was audio and it did not have any reading materials to reference it. I wasn't even exactly sure what they were saying in the audio so I could not repeat it when it told me to do so. So my advice to you is if you buy something, make sure it has reading materials to reference it. I'm not entirely too sure on which product offers both, but I've come across websites that do offer both but I did not have them saved in bookmarks
. I'll let you know if I find them again.
I've tried learning Arabic but the stuff that I bought (not sure which company or brand) really sucked. All it had was audio and it did not have any reading materials to reference it. I wasn't even exactly sure what they were saying in the audio so I could not repeat it when it told me to do so. So my advice to you is if you buy something, make sure it has reading materials to reference it. I'm not entirely too sure on which product offers both, but I've come across websites that do offer both but I did not have them saved in bookmarks
. I'll let you know if I find them again.