First Arabic Reader for beginners: bilingual for speakers of English (Graded Arabic Readers Book 1) 2nd Edition, Kindle Edition

I suggest buying the book and downloading the free audio files (see below). Read below why I gave the Kindle version 2 stars. If I were to review it as a book, I would give it 4 stars. Here's my story:I bought this for Kindle and downloaded for both my PC and for my Kindle Keyboard 3G.I also bought the book  First Arabic Reader bilingual for speakers of English: First Arabic Reader bilingual for speakers of English with bidirectional dictionary and on-line resources incl. audiofiles (Arabic Edition) .The Arabic on the Kindle Keyboard 3G is acceptable in terms of size - remembering that its size cannot be adjusted.The Arabic on my Kindle for PC is is also acceptable in terms of size. If I wanted a larger Arabic text size I suppose I could increase the size of my entire desktop, but I don't plan on doing that and don't think it's necessary. I'm not a "youngster" and do have progressive bi-focals. I am also working on a fairly large desktop screen.The English text size is adjustable on either variations of Kindle that I use, as long as the entire page is in English. When a page includes both English and Arabic, then the English cannot be adjusted. As above, the Arabic does not appear to be adjustable in size on either the Kindle for PC or Kindle Keyboard 3G.On both Kindle Keyboard 3G and Kindle for PC the alphabet charts in the beginning pages are "sideways." On the Kindle Keyboard 3G that's not a problem, just turn the device sideways. On Kindle for PC I haven't been able to find a viewing feature that will allow me to rotate them 90 degrees so that I can view them. This isn't a problem for me since I have other books with the Arabic alphabet and am not relying on this text for that kind of assistance.Other than figuring out if the size of the Arabic text on the Kindle for PC and the Kindle Keyboard 3G is acceptable for me (and it is), the BIGGEST DRAWBACK I HAVE FOUND WITH THE KINDLE VERSIONS is that the Arabic and English texts are NOT SIDE BY SIDE.It is ONLY in the book where you can read the dialogs - later short stories or articles - with the Arabic on the left and the English on the right - of each line.The vocabulary lists at the start of each Chapter have the Arabic and English side by side on both the Kindles and in the book. The Arabic-English and the English-Arabic glossaries in the back of the book have the Arabic and English side by side on both the Kindles and in the book.There are 1064 words in the glossary. Since the author only uses words from the chapter vocabulary lists, and increases them chapter by chapter, you do not need to know any outside words other than those included in the book itself.On the Kindle (both PC and Keyboard 3G) it is only in the first two chapters where not having the Arabic and English side by side is not much of a problem, since each line in Arabic and English is numbered.The "text to speech" feature on the Kindle Keyboard 3G will ONLY read the English text. In order to hear the Arabic you will have to visit the Language Practice Publishing website and download the audio files.At the lppbooks.com site, once you click on "Arabic," you will see a lovely, colorful swirl of the first 10 Chapters. You can right-click and "save as" on the circles marked "Script" to download a PDF (large) of the text for each chapter (up to Chapter 10) or right-click and "save as" on the circles marked "Chapter" to download the MP3 audio files. You can, of course, either view or listen without downloading.You can get a list of the remaining audio files (for Chapters 11 to 29) by clicking on "more audio" at the bottom right of the main Arabic page. As before, you can right-click and "save as" in order to download them to your computer if you'd like.I put all my MP3 downloads into one folder and then added the folder to my iTunes. Having the PDFs of the first 10 chapters is a nice backup, but with the book, not particularly necessary. The text size is the same as in the book.While I am in the very rudimentary stages of my Arabic learning, I did notice that the opening consonantal sound of the vocabulary word (#13 - "new") in Chapter 1 was read with a hard "g" (as in "get") rather than a "juh" sound (as in the beginning of Zsa Zsa's first name). This makes me think the reading might be in Egyptian Arabic rather than Modern Standard/Formal Arabic. Please - don't take my word for it. Check with someone who really knows Arabic to see what they think in terms of which variant of Arabic is being used. I'm going to do that and may update this review when I find out more.The book appears to be a little challenging, but that's OK. My first learning task is to at least keep up with what's being read without trying to see the letters as they're pronounced, but to follow along with whole words. It's going to take some practice, but at least the entire text is read and I can work at my own pace. After that I'll work on vocabulary etc. and eventually work to be able to read it smootly myself.So - enjoy learning Arabic - it might be just the Alzheimer's prevention that you need!! Open new neural networks in your brain.

I like the fact that you can download the audio mp3 files to listen to as you read along. One of the ways I use the audios in tandem with the book is to read the English while listening to the Arabic the first time through. I then try to memorize the word lists and practice writing them. It makes retaining what I have learned much easier and thorough. I put the mp3 files on a micro chip in my smart phone and read on the Kindle app. Another thing I like to do is 'shadowing', where I simply repeat the phrases after they are spoken, whether I completely understand them or not. It has improved my pronunciation and inflection greatly.

The audio is hard to access, and even harder to download to your computer. Why the book doesn't just include a CD is beyond me. The content would be good, but accessing the audio was troublesome, so I neded up getting no use out of the product.It looks like they publish the same book in many languages. I love studying languages and would be interested in a few- but since listening to the spoken language is 95% of what to focus on as a beginner, it is useless without easily accessible audio.This book would be great if you are learning with a teacher, however only middle of the road for self-directed studey.

All in all, this is a useful text that will introduce enough vocabulary to get you through the next chapter and help with increasing your reading speed.The English is a bit off but understandable. Gems like "This street has not hotels" and "And these rooms have not many windows" are plentiful.Some of the word choices are unusual: using the reflexive (VIII) of "to own" for "has", using the verbs for "to exist" and "to be alive" when describing where someone resides when a perfectly acceptable option exists in "sakana - to live, dwell, inhabit", and the delightfully complicated "there are found in..." in place of a simpler "...has".The beginner will find a dictionary useful as not all of the words are covered and the book occasionally introduces two different ways of expressing something with no corresponding vocabulary entry.I still think it worth the money. It serves to both introduce vocabulary and usage in an entertaining format.

A basic introduction to reading. I think would would benefit from adding vowels to the initial word list. Besides that it's pretty easy to read with literal translations which might appear weird. I also noticed some mistakes on some of the vocabulary but nothing too bad. Definitely an easier read than other offerings.

My first impressions of the book is disappointing. The initial chapters are nothing more than disconnected vocabulary items with sample sentences. The vocabulary does not include short vowels which is something I expect from any Arabic book (but rarely find) especially a beginning book. The audio is not professionally done. There is a lot of noise such as breathing into the microphone and something that sounds like wither feedback or a bird in the background. The person on the recordings uses a weird rhythm that is just annoying after even a few minutes. ّFor a beginning book it would be very useful if at least the sentences and paragraphs were recorded at slow and normal speeds. Given that this is a beginner book the recordings are a bit fast. The book gives no introduction as to its methodology or even the fact that it is MSA. There are no explanations of any kind in the book for grammar, idiomatic expressions, cultural meanings, etc. It is a very bare bones book but still has some value as any recorded material with text is better than none. Arabic textbooks and readers are hard to come by if they exist at all. The Arabic Voices series seems a bit more promising.

This book is well designed with only a small vocabulary that constantly repeats, so you soon feel confident as you read the sentences. The audio is easy to download and listen to. You do need to know the Arabic alphabet first.

Diese Rezension betrifft das eBook "First Arabic Reader for beginners - bilingual for speakers of English", 2011, Kindle Edition.Dazu gibt es schon vier englischsprachige Rezensionen (siehe Amazon.com), die sich auf das gleichnamige Taschenbuch bzw. die Kindle-Ausgabe beziehen. Beide Versionen des Buches sind unterschiedlich aufbereitet. Ich mache hier im wesentlichen Angaben zur Benutzung und Eignung des Kindle und weniger zum gebotenen Text.Dieses "First Arabic Reader" ist ein arabisches Lesebuch, das für Anfänger gedacht ist. Es ist kein Lehrbuch mit Erklärungen oder Grammatik. Die Übersetzungen der Texte sind englisch, was keine Einschränkung bedeuten dürfte.Eine Vorschau auf den Inhalt des Lesebuchs gibt der "Blick ins Buch". Danach gliedert es sich in drei Teile:- Teil 1: Erläuterungen und Tabelle zur arabischen Schrift. Die Darstellung ist im Querformat und einwandfrei zu lesen. Die Tabelle ist überflüssig, weil man die Schrift schon gelernt haben muss.- Teil 2: insgesamt 29 Kapitel mit Sätzen und Geschichten aus verschiedenen Lebensbereichen und -situationen, in denen die Personen in Alexandria (Ägypten) agieren. * Die ersten 12 Kapitel werden als "elementary" = einfach bezeichnet, die anschließenden 17 Kapitel als "pre-intermediate" = vor-mittel, was auch immer das genau bedeutet. * Jedes Kapitel beginnt mit einer arabisch-englischen Liste neuer Wörter. Die arabische Schrift ist gut lesbar, aber es gibt keine Aussprachehilfe (keine Vokalisierung, keine Umschrift) für den Anfänger. Unbekannte Wörter sind hier also - allein wegen der Aussprache - im Wörterbuch nachzuschlagen. * Dann folgt in jedem Kapitel der arabische Text und schließlich die englische Übersetzung (erst seitenweise, später kapitelweise). Die Texte stehen in der Kindle Edition also nicht nebeneinander, was als Vorteil (man sieht zunächst nur den arabischen Text) oder als Nachteil (man kann nur mit umständlichem Blättern seine Übersetzung checken) gewertet werden kann. * Seiten mit arabischem Text lassen sich nicht skalieren (sind Bilder), was zum Lesen nicht notwendig ist, weil die Schrift groß genug ist. Englische Seiten sind skalierbar. * Der arabische Text ist - wie bei arabischen Texten üblich - unvokalisiert, was natürlich die Lesbarkeit des Textes für einen Anfänger deutlich erschwert. Zur Klärung von grammatikalischen Strukturen braucht der Anfänger ein Lehrbuch der arabischen Sprache.- Teil 3: ein Vokabular arabisch-englisch (1064 Einträge) und englisch-arabisch der im Lesebuch benutzen Wörter. Die arabischen Wörter sind ebenfalls unvokalisiert. Dieses Vokabular besteht bei der Kindle Edition aus Bildern, so dass ein elektronisches Suchen im Vokabular nicht möglich ist. Auch ein Blättern im Vokabular ist nicht sinnvoll, da es ca. 60 bzw. 70 Seiten umfasst. Das Vokabular ist also beim Lesen mit der Kindle Version praktisch unbrauchbar.Auf der im Lesebuch genannten Website finden sich die Texte und die Audiodateien zu den Kapiteln. Das Abhören der Audiodateien ist mühsam, da die arabischen Texte schnell und dialektgefärbt gesprochen werden, und zwar vermutlich mit ägyptischem Arabisch passend zum Schauplatz der Handlungen. Ein Mitschreiben der Aussprache und Betonung ist kaum möglich.Fazit:Das Lesebuch "First Arabic Reader" bietet beim Erlernen der arabischen Sprache zusätzlichen (teils lustigen) Lesestoff. Das ist sehr gut, denn das Lesen bzw. Durcharbeiten arabischer Texte ist sicher eine nützliche Hilfe zum Festigen des Grundwortschatzes und der Satzbildung.Der "First Arabic Reader" ist erst für Lerner mit genügenden Grammatikkenntnissen zu gebrauchen.Beim ernsthaften Lesen und Bearbeiten des arabischen Textes wird man als Anfänger das Taschenbuch hernehmen, weil ein Taschenbuch besser hantierbar ist.Zusätzlich kann man mit dem Kindle lernen und wiederholen, wenn man seinen Kindle als ständigen Begleiter gerne bei sich hat. Beide Versionen haben so ihre Berechtigung.Für die Kindle Edition gebe ich wegen der eingeschränkten Hantierbarkeit 3 Sterne, für das Taschenbuch wären es 4 Sterne.

On the "look inside" there is a useful page or so clarifing the way that arabic "sothand" (no vowels) worksUnfortunately, the book then rushes away. and so does the cd.So the promise of beginiing at the beginning (this is supposed to be a "first" reader) is not met.