Perfect Arabic Intermediate Course: Learn Arabic with the Michel Thomas Method: Intermediate level audio course

This series is quite possibly one of the best of its kind on the market. The method really works and the results are effortless and immediate! My only warning is that the learner pay close attention to the pronunciation of the native speaker, Mahmoud, rather than that of the teacher. Jane Wightwick has many years experience with the Arabic language and her seemingly immeasurable knowledge allows her to offer great tips for correct pronunciation that, unfortunately, she has not been able to apply to her own pronunciation for whatever reason. Put quite plain and simply, her pronunciation really sucks... You can clearly hear the difference in vowels that the native speaker is using but, for some reason, the teacher and her students don't seem to be able to mimic these and the teacher corrects the students with her own flawed pronunciation. Call me a perfectionist but I honestly don't see the fun or challenge in learning a language just to get by. I like to adopt all natural nuances and characteristics of that language completely so that I sound like a native myself. With this goal in mind, it has worked for me with every language I have taught myself so far. Apart from this, I would really recommend the Michel Thomas method to anyone with a desire to learn a language. Remember that this method focuses on the colloquial language of Egypt, so if you are wanting to read and write, this might not be the course for you. As with any other language course though, you will learn a lot more if you don't just stick to the one resource.Also, as far as fluency goes, that is up to you. How fluent are you in your mother tongue? How vast is your vocabulary? Can you have an in-depth conversation about 'any' conceivable topic in your own language? I speak 7 languages (was raised from birth on 3) and, depending on what language I'm speaking, my fluency levels differ drastically - it's all very natural, indeed, but I tend to know more about one subject in one language than I do about another subject in another language. In German, for instance, I have no sense of humour whatsoever. In Swedish, I can bore just about anybody in astronomy and music.

The content is very good and well organized BUT it is Egyptian Arabic, not Standard Arabic - this point should be more clearly said. Moreover, the course should be better taught by the native speaker - the English teacher speaks too much with her so pronounced British accent, so at the end you have heared much more English than Arabic. I wanted to listen to the Arabic native speaker more, not to some Anglosaxon speaking Arabic! Her ways of illustrating simple things such as masculine/feminine or me/you/he/she etc. with childish images like Samira door, stems and flowers is, in my view, useless. Moreover, one of the two students (the male student) is so hard in learning languages, making continuous mistakes even of the most basic things, and his continuous mistakes are really disturbing for the hearer. Students do mistakes, of course, and their mistakes may be also useful, but when somebody makes so so so many mistakes then it is better to take another who is better at learning languages.

Jane Wightwick has an amazing ability to 'make arabic make sense'. her use of imagery to illustrate the structure of the language is first class. in addition, the reading of words and sentences by the Egyptian native speaker enables the listener to gauge the pronunciation, intonation and rythym of the dialect. comes highly recommended

This course works less well than the Beginning Arabic course in the same series. The Michel Thomas aural method is well-known and admired, and this course is certainly a pleasant way to begin learning Egyptian Arabic, which seems reasonably effective, and relatively painless. However, the method, as used in this course, has not been well-adapted as complexities increase. There is a wholly excessive use of long-winded explanatory metaphors, which confuse rather than illuminate. To explain verb and other prefixes and suffixes, we are told about a room which contains two doors, and a gate; and then there is another side of the room, where there are vases with stems and flowers. We rush from one side of the room to the other, sometimes to find that our flowers have died, or that a bee has landed on them, or that the gate is guarded. All this confusing and sometimes verbose and tedious elaboration seems entirely self-indulgent, and is intended as a substitute for the two very simple concepts ofprefixes and suffixes, which if not understood could be explained in a short sentence. Sometimes the material is just accidentally disorganised and confusing, as in the summary of verb prefixes and suffixes. Often there are are elementary errors in teaching technique which ignore everything known about the psychology of learning. For example the most important moment in learning is the first time you learn something (primacy), and you should never be introduced to something new by a deliberate error. It is the error, not the correction that sticks in the mind. This happens in the course frequently, as the participating students wrongly guess a new formation. The vocabulary introduced seems poorly selected for a tourist - too much about family relationships, and schools. Notwithstanding these criticisms, my wife and I have persevered with and enjoyed the course. Without too much additional work, the course could be adapted and improved.

It's a good course indeed. The only weakness is that the course teaches Egyptian Arabic, which is understood by most Arabic speakers, but it causes some confusion if you have a basic knowledge of fus-ha or traditional or Modern Standard Arabic. If you start from zero and you want to learn spoken Arabic the course is appropriate.

I used to rate Michel Thomas as the best way to learn a language, but I am a recent convert to Pimsleur.Michel Thomas is still a good way to get started, but I find Pimsleur is far more methodical and comprehensive, takes you to a higher level and is better at helping me retain the learning.However it is more expensive and takes much longer to get through.

This was not the "new" edition for 2016 that I was led to expect. As far as I can work out, the latest date anywhere on it is 2012. However, I have kept it anyway as I needed to improve my Arabic quickly before travelling.

Enjoying learning Arabic while travelling in my car

Sonner and perfect product!

Im Grunde genommen, ist dies ein sehr guter Sprachkurs, wahrscheinlich sogar das Beste, was es derzeit auf dem Markt gibt, denn, die meisten der Kurse sind nur für Hocharabisch, oder höchstens noch "modern standard arabic", womit man aber auf der Straße nichts anfangen kann. Das Problem an diesem Kurs ist eine der beiden Vokabel-CDs, die einen Defekt aufweist, sprich die Sprecher scheinen zu stottern. Auf meine Reklamation hin bekam ich auch sofort einen kompletten Kurs als Ersatz. An dieser Stelle dafür auch ein großes Lob an Amazon ! Nur, leider hatte der Ersatzkurs denselben Defekt. Nun habe ich beide Kurse zurückgeschickt und hoffe, mit der nächsten Lieferung eine funktionierende CD dabei zu haben. Zwar kann man Amazon keinerlei Schuld an Produktionsfehlern geben, aber, wenn schon einmal eine Reklamations vorliegt und der Kunde sogar genau angibt, in welcher Spur der Fehler zu finden ist, dann sollte sich doch jemand die Mühe machen, die neue Lieferung daraufhin zu prüfen.Ich werde an dieser Stelle auch sofort berichten, wenn für das Problem eine akzeptable Lösung gefunden wurde. Im Moment kann man nur allen Käufern raten abzuwarten, bis Amazon eine neue Charge, eine die auch funktioniert, von ihrem Lieferanten geliefert bekommt. Insha'allah.