to think I can teach myself Arabic?

[secunda]

Will it just be too hard?

In a few months I will have the option of taking some proper lessons, which will be good, but was thinking of starting myself off now. I completely neglected my languages at school, just took French and German and dropped them before A level, which I regret. I'm hoping it might do my career some good as well as Arabic must be a very desirable/underspoken language and loads of UK companies do business in the gulf.

I am bright and used to working by myself on things but AIBU?

Oh, was thinking of using this book - does anyone have any suggestions?

Go for it!!!

I would go for it. You have nothing to lose in giving yourself a head start if you want to take lessons at a later date.

I've no idea if it will be too hard but I do remember my mum teaching herself Swahili (because she felt like it) a few years ago using the Rosetta Stone pack.

Good luck!

Secunda - yup! Whightwick and Gaafar are favoured with teachers so I would go ahead with that

What I think helps a lot with Arabic though, is if you learn how to read it also. It seems hard initially, but once you get going, its not too bad.

Every Arabic teacher I've spoken to, recomended learning the script as well as the spoken

When I was living in Egypt, everyone out there was raving about Pimsleur

Ahh but the Egyptians consider their form of Arabic to be the best

Wightwick is more focused on MSA - Modern Standard Arabic, which will serve you well in most Arab speaking countries, rather than just one specific one. Except possibly Algeria as their dialect is a bit difficult

Cool - Amazon will benefit from my custom tonight. I was planning on learning to read as well as speak

You could start teaching yourself, but if you want to get to fluency level you will need lessons. The grammar is hard Thats assuming you want to speak MSA which will probably be most beneficial to you as it is understood in all Arab countries and used in the media.

Whitwick and Gafar is good but the best book is Alif Ba (used by myself at university) I have studied independently and at uni and this book was by far the best.
Should you need any help do get in touch.

Ana Atta'manalik el-Tawfik habbibetti

(I wish you luck habibetti)

Sorry

I wish you luck my love

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/158901104X/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_i3?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-1 &pfrdr=0ZWMER8AP3FNAM2EYMH9&pfrdt=101&pfrdp=467198433&pfrdi=468294 oops! forgot the link

Just read my 1st post back and it sounds really abrupt, sorry I was getting stressed by DC.
What I should have said was yes, go for it! Its a great language to learn and if other languages come easy to you you wont find it so bad

Getting teach yourself courses is great if you have limited time. As someone says above it is hard to get to a high level because self-learning won't give you the constant reinforcement you need, and there are nuances of the language you won't get except by having conversations. However it will get you to a point where you can read and have simple conversations with native speakers and this is a huge confidence boost and an excellent base for starting lessons.

I started teaching myself Russian and it was so fascinating I took it up at college and now have a Russian degree. I can even read bits of Georgian from self-study.

I can't recommend strongly enough to get a course which teaches the script as early as possible, because Latin transcription doesn't simplify the learning process and you only get half value from your efforts if you don't read the language.

aw thanks all. I know it will be a challenge but think it will be worth it

go for it - but it is difficult - am generally OK with languages but Arabic has been hard work (was trying to learn until DS came along and family time clashed with class time... one of these days will get back to classes!). And to add to the challenge, written Arabic and the Arabic anybody actually speaks are pretty different, not to mention the differences between the Arabic of speakers from different regions.

Good luck habibti.

Riven You will soon get to grips with the script thats the easy part The grammar killed me, just when you think you have it sussed along comes another unfathomable rule!
I saw on another thread it's your birthday.. kul sant winti tayibba

it has been quite educational in terms of learning to read. I know my letters but I still have to 'decode' words letter by letter. Because I live in the Gulf, I do get some practice - I do it at traffic lights etc, look at the nearby ad posters and try to work out what they are for, then get irritated when I realise they just say 'bebsi' or whatever! (there is no letter 'p'. One lady in my beginners' class had got herself a gold necklace spelling out her name in Arabic; quite popular souvenirs/gifts - she said she wasn't sure whether 'b' or 'f' was a worse substitute, when trying to spell 'Patty' )

Several years on (ok I don't get that much practice) I am still spelling out almost everything in order to read... given that I don't remember not being able to read English, I'm hoping this should give me a bit more understanding of what the children are doing while learning to read.

I think you will find it extremely difficult on your own. I pick up languages very easily and thought I would be able to teach myself Finnish with the greatest of ease. I couldn't - the absence of a teacher to ask when I didn't understand something (which was almost immediately) was extremely difficult and was a real bar to learning. Hence my Finnish is limited to a few essential holiday phrases and some random words off the CD.

Apparently people get on great with things like Rosetta Stone but I just wonder how they get on with anything that isn't a stock phrase. Also there is nobody to help you tweak your pronunciation if you have no teacher - what you hear in your head is usually nothing like what you sound like.

I speak a bit of Arabic, and agree it's quite a difficult language to come to grips with, particularly with the dialectical differences and the written form . That said, I think Egyptian Arabic is recognised by all Arabic speakers, thanks to films.

For literacy, I read lots of children's books, and bought workbooks for handwriting - the kind where you join the dots to write letters. I'm sure there will be lots of online resources as well. Try to find Arabic films with English subtitles to help with your listening.

Re the Gulf - having lived there for many years working for private British companies, and although I can get by in Arabic, I never really used it at work. Because there are so many nationalities there, English is spoken widely and is the language of business. Having said that, if you plan to do any work with the government, then Arabic is definitely desirable.