Media Arabic Reviews

While most courses in Egyptian Arabic teach the essentials of syntax, morphology, and vocabulary, this first in a series of three books takes the student a step beyond and focuses on colorful expressions used by native speakers. The learner will advance from knowing how to form a good sentence to being able to express his or her thoughts about the ups and downs of daily life using culturally appropriate phrases. This first volume, Adjectives and Descriptions, focuses on the many expressions used to describe people, their characteristics, their behaviors, and their attitudes. Each entry is given fully voweled followed by its feminine form and plural, and definitions (including connotation) and explanations are given in Egyptian Colloquial Arabic. Organized as a reference work, the book can also be used as a textbook, as it contains a large number of exercises. Volume 2 focuses on proverbs and Volume 3, on idiomatic expressions.

Aimed at the growing number of students studying Arabic worldwide, the Kallimni ‘Arabi series takes an innovative, functional approach to the study of Egyptian colloquial Arabic—the spoken dialect most frequently studied and most widely understood in the Arab world. Kallimni ‘Arabi Mazboot, the fourth book in the series, is designed for adult students at the early advanced stage of learning the language. Drawing on her years of experience as an Arabic instructor, author Samia Louis has developed a course rich in everyday cultural content and real-life functional language as well as comprehensive grammar. Written in accordance with the ACTFL guidelines for teaching Arabic as a foreign language, this highly structured course trains students in the crucial skills, with emphasis on listening and speaking. Each chapter includes a conversation unit that enables students to improve their communication skills and allows for progressive acquisition of vocabulary and grammar through interactive classroom tasks and everyday situations, from expressing personal likes and dislikes to initiating conversations and describing events and experiences.

The accompanying video films entitled “People’s Opinions” will further help the students to place colloquial Egyptian within context. Click here to watch them on the AUC Press Arabic Resources YouTube channel.

The book is further supported by interactive reading, writing, and grammar drills accessible through the Internet. The audio recordings of each chapter’s dialogues and exercises are made by native Egyptian speakers to enrich the student’s exposure to the spoken language in its natural context and speed. Click here to listen to the tracks on Soundcloud.

“The books in the [Kallimni ‘Arabi] series altogether present the best Arabic textbooks available . . . miles ahead of most others.”—David Wilmsen, American University of Beirut