I'm not going to beat around the bush - Arabic is a hard language for an
Irishman to learn. Here are a few links that I've found that are making things a
wee bit easier for me. In particular, I'm trying to source mp3 files of spoken
Arabic language and phrases, preferably with interspersed English translations,
so that with a humble mp3 player, I can gradually try to master the language.
www.syrianarabic.com
This site is just great. A full mp3 Arabic language course on the web.
It relies heavily on the accompanying book (scanned into PDF, so it's free too),
so it's not an audio stand-alone. It's also based on Syrian Colloquial Arabic,
so you will probably need to try to learn Modern Standard Arabic alongside.
www.languageimpact.com/mp3/mp3home.htm
LanguageImpact mp3 learning hub. There are a few good files here with spoken
Arabic. There are some English translations for the Jordanian Colloquial Arabic
files, but not for the Modern Standard Arabic files (unfortunately). However,
what would be really great would be for the translations to be in mp3 too, so
that you could listen and learn at the same time (in the car for example).
www.audioscriptures.org
You don't have to be a Christian to visit this site, but they do have a
"Portrait of Jesus" mp3 file which contains (apparently) lots of
useful phrases. You can also download the English version for comparison. I
haven't spent much time with this resource yet, but it looks to be worth a try.
www.scola.org/insta-class/arabic-aj/index.html
Recent news broadcasts from Al-Jazeera, converted to mp3, with transcripts and
translation! I've started having a go at some of them, but I think I'm a it
early in my learning process to get the benefit I'd like.
www.rcinet.ca
Radio Canada International converts its Arabic News Service to mp3 for
easy download and listening. Very good audio quality and nice clear diction. I
hope to use this a good deal more. A transliteration/translation service would
be great to help learners, but maybe that's too much to ask for. Thanks to
Ulric Shannon for this link.
www.geckil.com/~harvest/arabic
There are many useful links to other Arabic resources here.
www.tolearnarabic.com/index2.html
ToLearnArabic is based in Damascus, and offers Arabic tuition. Check out
their website - it looks very interesting.
