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Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-'Arabiyya with DVDs: A Textbook for Beginning Arabic, Part One Second Edition | 
| Authors: Kristen Brustad, Mahmoud Al-batal, Abbas Al-tonsi
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $54.95
Buy New: $49.45
You Save: $5.50 (10%)
Rating:  35 reviews
Sales Rank: 4732
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2nd
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 544
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.4
Dimensions (in): 10.6 x 8.3 x 1.4
ISBN: 158901104X
Dewey Decimal Number: 492.782421
EAN: 9781589011045
Publication Date: September 30, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
The beauty and richness of the history and cultures of the Middle East are matters of increasing interest to the English-speaking world. As nations make their way into this new century, there must be dialogue and understanding--and language is the doorway into that new understanding. This revised and updated second edition of Al-Kitaab contains new video and audio material on three DVDs, along with revised and updated texts and exercises. Following naturally on the introductory text, Alif Baa, for the Al-Kitaab Arabic language program, this initial Part One text further develops skills in standard Arabic while providing additional material in colloquial as well as classical Arabic. The audio vocabulary portion of the DVDs allow learners to hear a new word followed by a sentence using it in context along with previously acquired vocabulary and grammatical structures, enabling students to build new vocabulary skills while reviewing previously exercised material. The video portion offers the option of seeing and hearing the video of each lesson in both Modern Standard Arabic and Egyptian Colloquial Arabic. The DVDs also contain substantial material exposing the learner to Egyptian Arabic (the most widely used and understood Arabic dialect), a short dialogue in Egyptian Colloquial Arabic appears at the end of each lesson. New video materials also feature subtitled interviews with Egyptians about various aspects of Arab culture, such as gender issues, fasting in the Muslim and Christian traditions, social clubs and their significance, and more.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 30 more reviews...
 Wow - DVDs bring it alive September 23, 2004
66 out of 74 found this review helpful
I wrote a review for the previous edition of this book in March 2004. The new semester has started, we're using this new edition of the book which I picked up last night before class. This is my immediate response.
1. The text looks pretty similar, maybe cleaned up a little, but the vocabulary, the story of depressed Maha, and the overall structure appear to be similar to the first edition.
2. What's not at all similar is the fact that the book now comes with three DVDs. They contain the video material of Maha's story, and they contain audio for the exercises (previously included on CDs which had to be bought separately). Most valuable of all, I think, is that they contain lots of footage of interviews with real Arabic speakers. There are conversations with real people in the street. There are graduate students talking about what it's like to be a TA (mu'iid). There are *real* high schoolers talking about the pressures of al-thanawiya al-'amma (like European high-school diploma, where performance in a few exams determines what college you get into). I think this really helps bring it all to life. I think this material makes it worth far more than the purchase price.
3. The video stories of Maha and her family have been re-shot, with ridiculously beautiful-looking people. It was easier to believe that the somewhat heavy "old" Maha was frequently lonely. Now Maha is stunningly beautiful, like she just got back from filming Baywatch. Difficult to believe she would be lonely. Same goes for everyone else - everyone is beautiful. It's like a daytime soap. Perhaps they were trying to counteract negative stereotypes of Arabs as poor, living in crowded conditions; or as super-rich, living in unbelievable wealth. This family appears to live like an upper-middle-class American family, with slick haircuts, laptop computers, etc. Perhaps they just need to make the story a little less maudlin (Maha's always lonely, Khaled's mother died two years ago,...)
In all, from my cursory examination last night after class, I think this is fantastic. It's so hard to find real Arabic-language material, this is a great resource.
 Sometimes you can't make it on your own... July 16, 2005
62 out of 69 found this review helpful
The idea that one can learn Arabic on one's own is, quite frankly, insane and just plain stupid. It's not going to happen. And if you're taking an Arabic class, chances are you'll be using this book. There's just no way out of it.
It's a decent book but previous comments about the grammar instruction are spot-on. While all the guys in my class find Maha 'hot,' both genders agree that she is annoying and pathetic. Khaled is a bit better. The DVDs are great learning tools and the best way to figure out how to accurately pronounce the vocabulary-- if they didn't try to sneak in extra vocabularly throughout the chapter. You do develop a rather strange set of vocabulary without much rhyme or reason to it. Watch the DVDs *before* class to get the most out of them.
Remember two things before you drop your Al Kitaab out the window to fall on the head of some poor unsuspecting German language student:
1) It's called 'the book' for a reason. Right now, this is the best we've got.
2) Arabic is a tough language and it's not at all intuitive to non-natives. In French, you can often guess half the words. Not so with Arabic. Thus, as the preface tells you, you need to be studying 2-3hrs for every hour of class you have. Few people actually put this time in; those that don't suffer the consequences. No textbook can teach you Arabic if you're not willing to do the work yourself.
My recommendation for learning Arabic would be to start with an intensive, find a great teacher, forget you have a real life, make friends with your classmates, and get a tutor. Learning Arabic isn't a summer project-- it's a multiyear commitment. Don't bother with it unless you're really passionate about learning it because the payoffs can be a long time coming. This book, however, can work. I've seen several students go through the sequence and come out with an impressive knowledge of the language. A lot depends on the instructor.
The best resource I've found... July 20, 2005
53 out of 58 found this review helpful
Some of the people posting seem rather bitter towards Al-kitaab fii Ta'allum Al-'Arabiyya. One poster even mentioned that after the first couple of chapters he could say he was a specialist but not tell somebody his name. That's probably because he didn't use the primer Alif Baa.
I studied Modern Standard Arabic at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California back in 1989 and now that I want to study Arabic again, Al-kitaab fii Ta'allum Al-'Arabiyya is the best resource I have found. Trust me, I've reviewed so many books out there - This is honestly the best one that I've seen. The DVD is a great plus.
If you are trying to learn Arabic on your own, from scratch, I think you will be in for a rude shock. Perhaps you'll learn some tourist Arabic, but that's about it. If you have access to a teacher/tutor of Arabic, then get the book, Alif Baa, go through that and then tackle Al-kitaab fii Ta'allum Al-'Arabiyya.
Good Luck.
PS. A great way to supplement your vocabulary is to use the "Before You Know It" software program from www.BYKI.com (I think that's the URL) - it's the best software program I've seen for building vocabulary as you get to see/hear the word in a flashcard format. I would definitely use this program in conjunction with Alif Baa and Al-kitaab fii Ta'allum Al-'Arabiyya.
 Difficult to use, poorly designed January 19, 2006
23 out of 26 found this review helpful
While this book does cover several main grammar points, it is difficult to use and poorly designed. First of all, rather than offer the beginning student examples of useful conversations it offers lectures. So instead of learning how to have a conversation we start out learning about Maha and that her father works at the U.N. ANY beginning language book should be based on daily conversation types of dialogue.
Secondly, the type is rather 'fuzzy' and important short vowel and pronunciation symbols (written above and below the main script) are often either left off or completely illegible. While it is true that in advance Arabic these symbols are often not shown, for a beginner they are very important.
Another poor design charastic of the book is that the table of contents is listed almost exclusively in Arabic so if a beginner needs to make a quick reference to something they can spend hours trying to find where it is located in the book.
The accompanying DVDs are a great idea but not very well done. The language is given too quickly - more at the rate of an intermediate or advanced level - and there is no accompanying written dialogue to help the student figure out what is being said.
The Vocabulary on the DVD often times has a huge, long sentence to show how to use a single, small word. BEginners learn more easily and much more quickly when they are given small, bite size bits that they can easily digest and use in everyday conversations. (I created my own work around to this by having native Arabic speakers record the vocabulary words for me on an MP3 player)
While the grammar concepts tend to be well explained, there are not enough exercises to practice the concepts after the explanation. A really great idea would have been to have lots of exercises WITH answers so that the student could immediately check their work and see if they are on the right track or not. Instead the student has to buy the answer key... and the answer key is very difficult to read!
Also, the end of each chapter should have a brief synopsis of all grammar points gone over in the chapter so if the student wants a quick glance to refresh their memory, they aren't leafing through countless pages of fuzzy, black and white print.
This book seems to be the standard at the moment for a lot of colleges and universities offering Arabic language courses and I'm not sure why it is. In a day of Adobe Illustrator and other text languages it would be fairly easy to create a nice text with color type to highlight important points and other key grammar issues.
In summary:
Lacks practical conversation practice.
Has very poor type quality
Offers no way for students to check their work
Poor table of contents
DVD soundfiles too much for beginner students.
On the plus side, it does explain grammar points well.
There are no outstanding Arabic instruction books! July 8, 2006
18 out of 27 found this review helpful
Why is this? Why are Arabic instruction books sooooo atrocious? There is sufficient demand for Arabic now and sufficient research in language education to come up with something better. What a sad testament that Al Kitaab is actually the standard in university-level Arabic instruction! It makes me want to rip my hair out. Somebody, anybody, PLEASE publish a decent Arabic instruction text. And, for all you publishers out there doing colloquial Arabic: EGYPTIAN!! A third of all Arabs are Egyptian and it's the only dialect universally understood by other Arabs. So please quit with all the Lebanese, Saudi, Iraqi, Jordnaian colluquial courses until there is a decent Egyptian course available.
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