A R C H I V E S
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Arabic Class!!!!! |
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| bhaloo |
| 08/06/03 at 00:44:59 |
| [slm] Woohoo. Guys, I did it. I was able to sign up for an Arabic class being offered at a community college here, for a full year, 5 hours a week. If the class is taught right, I should become fluent insha'Allah. So they are using 3 texts, each is about $40 to $50 for the 1st semester. ALIF BAA (SET:TXT/ANSWER KEY)(W/3 CDS) (P) AL-KITAAB FII TA ALLUM AL-ARABIYYA (PT1) (P) AUDIO CD'S TO GO WITH TEXT ;=============================================== So does anyone have any books or pointers they recommend? ??? |
| Re: Arabic Class!!!!! |
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| AyeshaZ |
| 08/06/03 at 09:11:54 |
| [wlm] masha'Allah bro bhaloo this is awesome!!! Now, i wan't to sign up for a arabic class at my school.. !! and Alhamdullilah, the class is taught by a Muslim prof soo it's way cool.. May Allah(swt) put much barakah in your classes!!! ameen |
| Re: Arabic Class!!!!! |
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| bhaloo |
| 08/06/03 at 09:36:08 |
| [slm] You should definitely take it. :) That's great that other places are starting to offer it. They just started offering it here last year, and I heard one brother who was in the class last year, and his Arabic was really good. Do you know what books they are using? ??? |
| Re: Arabic Class!!!!! |
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| Nisa |
| 08/06/03 at 10:13:53 |
| [slm] Akhi, I've heard the Madinah Islamic University books are sposed to be excellent :) I'm starting my arabic classes this weekend inshaAllah, and we'll be using the first book in a series of 3. May Allah swt make it easy for us, Ameen. [wlm] :-) |
| Re: Arabic Class!!!!! |
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| Lana |
| 08/06/03 at 20:56:17 |
| [wlm] I've used both the Al-Kitab beginners and advanced texts, and also the Madina University ones (by Dr.V.Abdur Rahim). Al Kitab is good for beginners and for building vocabulary. The Cd's and tapes are very helpful in remembering the verbs and vocab. I also liked the Maha storyline, it made it more interesting. The Madina ones are more challenging since the directions are not in English (though you can buy an English one). But you learn more grammar this way, which you don't learn as much from Al Kitab. |
| Re: Arabic Class!!!!! |
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| ahmedsali |
| 08/07/03 at 11:47:07 |
| [slm] Here's another possibility: the Arabic classes at the AOU www.aou.edu are really great. It's for 6 semesters and after taking these classes, you will insha Allah be reading most any Arabic book like Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Sirah Ibn Hisham, etc. You get the books and tapes mailed to you, and you call the professor (Dr. Mamdouh Mohammed, who has around 20 years of experience teaching Arabic) to do oral exercises and tests. I've taken them and i can read Arabic books now and listen to almost any Arabic lecture from www.islamway.com with only occasional need of the dictionary. ;-) [slm] <+td> |
| Re: Arabic Class!!!!! |
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| Caraj |
| 08/07/03 at 13:48:55 |
| Bhaloo and Nisa you two are so lucky. I want to take Arabic classes. I know the sister at the local Islamic center who is from Saudi Arabia, she use to teach but has stopped cause there were not enough who wanted to take the class. She has given me a book and sat down with me on our first mini one on one class. But it's not the same as being in a class and practicing and hearing proper prononcation. Maybe I'll inquire at the Islamic Center in the next main town I hear they have a regular class. You are lucky to have it available to you. Have fun |
| Re: Arabic Class!!!!! |
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| Tesseract |
| 08/08/03 at 01:04:17 |
| Assalamu 'alaikum, The Imam at one of our mosques is a graduate of Al-Azhar university, Egypt and has served as Head of Department of Arabic at Al-Azhar for many years. I must say that he is an excellent teacher, MashaAllah. I have tried to learn Arabic from 2 people before (one of whom has also served as an Arabic teacher at one of the universities in States), but the experience with the new sheikh is very different. I hope I learn something this time, InshaAllah. 2 more good things about him is, first, he doesn't use any books to teach and second he doesn't charge anything :). So, its all free of cost. U guys might wanna move to Austin for a while:). Wassalam. |
| Re: Arabic Class!!!!! |
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| Early_Bird |
| 08/08/03 at 18:09:21 |
| [slm] just a couple of hints from a veteran... I hope it's a classical or "modern standard" Arabic class rather than a colloquial conversation class. If you're new at this and of a non-Arabic background, it is best - IMHO - to start with the "standard" language (not too great a difference between classical and modern) - a.k.a. "fus-ha". You can pick up the dialects later, they are all derived (ultimately, so,etimes by a seemingly circuitous route...) from fus-ha... I think it's harder to go from having learned dialect/slang to classical. But not impossible. Also when you start learning the vocab, learn the singular and plural of nouns together, e.g. kitaab/kutub (book/books), bayt/buyoot (house/houses), etc etc. It's a drag at first but eventually you will get a feel for how the language goes and you'll figure out the patterns yourself. This is far easier than having your tutor tell you that there are THIRTY-SIX PATTERNS OF THE BROKEN (i.e., irregular) PLURAL IN ARABIC and you having to sit down and learn the patterns then try to apply them... And oh yes, you HAVE to study the grammar. don't try to wing it without it. The ordinal numbers and how to write the hamzah are really fun! (Cowan's "Modern Literary Arabic" is my favourite grammar book, easier to use than some, good for beginners) |
| Re: Arabic Class!!!!! |
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| Nawawi |
| 08/09/03 at 22:35:21 |
| ... |
| 08/12/03 at 10:56:58 |
| Nawawi |
| Re: Arabic Class!!!!! |
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| bhaloo |
| 08/11/03 at 09:46:49 |
| [slm] Thank you for the input and well wishes. :) I enjoy foreign languages. For some reason it comes naturally to me, and alhumdullilah I usually have one of the top scores in class. During college I took foreign language courses to boost my GPA and get me on the dean's honor roll. :P I've taken Spanish, German, French, Italian, and Japanese (actually took this at work) in high school and college. I've had a variety of teaches and know what techniques work and what don't work. At the college level, when a foreign language is taught, its at 4 times the pace of the high school level. The most effective teaching method is one in which the class is conducted *COMPLETELY* in the foreign language from day 1 (perhaps a little bit of English is necessary on day 1, but after that, its not). Whenever I've taken a foreign language course I've never really studied for it, it all comes naturally for me. I can remember people telling me how they studied 3 hours for one of the exams, and I told them I just spent 5 minutes (and ended up with the highest grade in the class). I love putting together skits and plays in the foreign language and then acting them out with other members of the class. One of the worst classes I took was a french class in college. Sure I got an A in the class, but I didn't learn in that class, 80% of the class was conducted in English. So for me, 80% of the class depends completely on the teacher and the style they use in class. 10% (if that) is on me, and the remaining is on the book and audio supplementals (some of the books are not very creative and tend to be a bit boring). Brother ahmedsali, that's intersting about the American Open University. I'm curious if there was a lot of verbal practice, or if it was mostly self study? I'll look into these books that you all have mentioned. Is there a good dictionary that anyone recommends? The Arabic class is Fusha. |
| Re: Arabic Class!!!!! |
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| ahmedsali |
| 08/11/03 at 13:18:21 |
| that's intersting about the American Open University. I'm curious if there was a lot of verbal practice, or if it was mostly self study? There is a lot of self study, but you [u]have to[/u] do a lot of verbal practice by yourself and with the professor during the office hours. Otherwise, there will be little benefit. Is there a good dictionary that anyone recommends? Hans Wehr is the best one for Arabic - English. But you have to know how to use it. |
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