Teach Yourself Arabic Complete Course

Teach Yourself Arabic" sounds like a hokey tourist phrase book or something. Indeed, the "Teach Yourself" series varies a lot, some of the languages are poorly treated, some better. This one is a gem. It is not trivial tourist phrases, but actually goes into grammar, provides good reading comprehension exercises and a fairly well-developed vocabulary. Includes some very useful points like word shapes, a key tool for learning... Read Full Review

There are several negative reviews of this book which refer to an earlier edition. The 2003 edition is excellent. It does have English Transliteration to aid with pronunciation but tries to wean you from it quickly by giving you small sections of Arabic text without transliteration. These are great for learning to read and often they are also dialogues covered on the CD's. The book doesn't stop with learning to read signs... Read Full Review

I was a recon soldier with 1-13 Armor batalion in Baghdad. My mom sent me this book and I studied it religiously for about two hours a day and it got me readind and speaking it in a semi-effective manner in just a few weeks. It is written in such a way that teaches how to speak it well. I am currently in college at the top of my arabic class. We use "AL-KITAAB FII AL TAALUM AL ARABIYYA" It's not that good. This is, the... Read Full Review

After having struggled with Arabic with the help of inadequate materials and making no progress finally I came upon the book of John Smart. And finally I started to make real progress in Arabic!!!Excellent features in this book:- It is relativelly minimalist so that the student is not overburdened with information and can make the course in relativelly short time - all Arabic verb forms are meticulously explained when... Read Full Review