Product Description

Regarded as one of the most difficult languages to learn for native English speakers by the U.S. State Department, Arabic is gaining both prominence and importance in America. Recent world events have brought more and more Americans and other English speakers into contact with Arabic-speaking populations, and governments and businesses are increasingly aware of the importance of basic Arabic language skills. Arabic for Dummies provides you with a painless and fun way to start communicating in Arabic.

Why should you learn Arabic? Well, besides the fact that over 200 million people in more than 22 nations use it to communicate, there are tons of reasons to get up to speed this 1,400 year old language, including:

• Nearly all of the Middle-East speaks Arabic or one of its dialects
• Basic Arabic skills are extremely useful for anyone traveling to, doing business in, or serving in the Middle East
• It is the language in which the Koran is written
• There is a rich, centuries-old literary tradition in Arabic

Arabic For Dummies presents the language in the classic, laid-back For Dummies style. Taking a relaxed approach to this difficult language, it’s packed with practice dialogues and communication tips that will have you talking the talk in no time. You’ll get the scoop on:

• The Arabic alphabet, pronunciation, basic grammar, and the rules of transliteration
• The history of the language and information on classical Arabic and its dialects
• How to make small talk and make yourself understood when dining, shopping, or traveling around town
• How to communicate on the phone and in business conversations
• Handy words and phrases for dealing with money, directions, hotels, transportation, and emergencies
• Arabic culture and etiquette, including ten things you should never do in Arabic countries

The book also includes an Arabic-English dictionary, verb tables, and an audio CD with dialogues from the book to help you perfect your pronunciation. Written by a native Arabic speaker who helped start a year-round Arabic department at Middlebury College, Arabic For Dummies is just what you need to start making yourself understood in Arabic.

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14441 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

From the Back Cover
Your survival guide for everyday words and expressions

Your fun and friendly guide to Modern Standard Arabic

This unintimidating guide will help you start speaking Modern Standard Arabic — beginning today! Whether you're a student, a traveler, or you work in business or government, you'll find it's packed with practical lessons, cultural facts, and handy references — including coverage of written Arabic, an Arabic-English mini-dictionary, lists of vital verbs, and more!

Discover how to

• Have everyday conversations in Arabic
• Make sense of Arabic grammar
• Improve your pronunciation
• Use idioms and popular expressions
• Get around in Arabic-speaking countries

About the Author
Amine Bouchentouf is a native English, Arabic, and French speaker born and raised in Casablanca, Morocco. Amine has been teaching Arabic and lecturing about relations between America and the Arab world in his spare time for over 4 years and has offered classes and seminars for students at Middlebury College, the Council on Foreign Relations, and various schools across the United States. He runs and maintains the Web site www.al-baab.com (which means “gateway” in Arabic).
Amine graduated from Middlebury College and has always been interested in promoting better relations between the West and the Middle East through dialogue and mutual understanding. Amine published his first book, Arabic: A Complete Course (Random House), soon after graduating college in order to help Americans understand Arabic language and culture. He has written Arabic For Dummies in an attempt to reach an even wider audience with the aim of fostering better relations through education.
He holds a degree in Economics from Middlebury and has extensive experience in the arena of international investing. He is a registered investment advisor and is a member of the National Association of Securities Dealers. Amine is currently working on his third book, Investing in Commodities For Dummies (Wiley Publishing).
Amine is an avid traveler and has visited over 15 countries across the Middle East, Europe, and North and South America. Aside from his interest in languages, business, and travel, Amine enjoys biking, rollerblading, playing guitar, chess, and golf. He lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

It's truly for complete dummies
The book is friendly, but it has no arabic script at all! I was very surprised at how a language can be taught without first studying the alphabet and then some words, and the trying to write it all down... but this book just doesn't cover the script (which is so beautiful %)). It just tells you how to pronounce words and what they mean, but you will never learn how to read and write in Arabic with this book. I decided it's a worthless way of learning.

POOR AUDIO CORRELATION WITH TEXT
As a high-intermediate learner of Arabic, I found that the quality of arabic spoken on the audio cd included was very poor. It sounded as if a group of beginning students and native speakers with poor enunciation of modern standard arabic were carrying out the conversation. This sort of quality may get past the likely beginners who buy this book, but it is poor arabic audio learning material. Furthermore, there was poor correlation of the audio with the english-translation text and the translitered text, thus totally destroying the purpose of having a text to follow the audio (especially if you are a beginner- you would likely be more confused!) Finally, modern standard arabic and spoken arabic are mixed so freely and without any consistency that it serves horribly as any sort of academic text. This is a book that probably would have made a DUMMY feel more likely a DUMMY. I felt lucky that I was able to borrow this at my library rather than shell out even $5 for this book in order to realize that not only was it nowhere near my level, but that it was just a bad arabic audio and text in general! For beginner's, I would recommend LIVING LANGUAGE, ULTIMATE ARABIC (beginning-intermediate).

Good reference manaual
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.