<p>Is anyone here attempting to teach themselves Arabic? I've wanted to learn it for a long time now, but I'm not really sure how to go about it. I was going to try to take it at a community college, but it's not offered anywhere around here. Does any one know of a good program for self-teaching Arabic? (Or any language, really). Thanks :)</p>
<p>It seems sort of hard to learn a language without someone helping you out. How will you know how to pronounce anything. There are too many arbitrary rules in languages and it doesn't seem possible to me. I speak Arabic and I can tell you that it's a really hard language. Aside from having to learn a new alphabet (I don't even know it), you'd have to figure out pronunciation. </p>
<p>I've never tried, but I can't see it being possible.</p>
<p>Self-teaching a language like Arabic would be really hard. On many of those rankings of hardest languages to learn for English-speakers, I remember seeing Arabic, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese all in the hardest category. </p>
<p>If you really want to, I think the best way to learn would be to buy a book and a tape or something like Rosetta Stone.</p>
<p>Okay, thanks for the input. I guess I'll just have to wait until I get to college.</p>
<p>I know a couple people that are taking Arabic classes, and I've looked at their text material, and it's difficult as all get out. It's one of those languages where there are all kinds of seemingly arbitrary rules to remember and wacky tenses and the like. Not to mention you have to learn a whole new alphabet</p>
<p>HOWEVER, you shouldn't let any of us discourage you. If it's something you want to do, you have nothing to lose by picking up a book and trying to learn what you can.</p>
<p>I should clarify: I'm not trying to become fluent by any means, I just want to learn the basics and "feel" for the language until I can really go in-depth (in college). I was basically just asking if anyone knew of a specific program with strength in teaching the fundamentals so as to become conversational. Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>Like someone mentioned earlier, Rosetta Stone is a pretty good computer program.</p>
<p>An old post of mine in a different thread:
[quote]
Learning Arabic is EXTREMELY difficult if you have not grown up learning it. My father lived in Saudi Arabia for many years as an adult, worked in Arabic and said he barely learned any of it. Please note that my dad speaks five languages fluently, so he is good with languages.</p>
<p>I myself studied Arabic for about eleven years and all I can do is read it. I went to Sunday school and had private tutors. I wasn't very interested in learning, but still.</p>
<p>I think one of the problems with learning Arabic is there are very few good teachers. Most of the teachers I had used very simple teaching methods that were pretty much useless. You can take classes at your local CC or something, but I don't think it'll help too much.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I speak Arabic and I can honestly say that you're going to have an extremely difficult time getting the pronounciation right if you don't have the help from someone who is middle eastern. It is a very complex language with many rules to follow. And I agree with this:</p>
<p>Learning Arabic is EXTREMELY difficult if you have not grown up learning it. </p>
<p>But I certainly encourage you to learn the language, whether it be in college or from a private tutor. Good luck! If you ever need help, just ask.</p>
<p>Wow. Is Arabic really that hard? Even in college? I'm very curious about languages and I was hoping to add another one to my repertoire. Maybe I'm better off picking up another romance language?</p>
<p>umm I don't know about you guys but I am currently taking arabic 2, and it is really easy, you could deffiently self study this, then again I speak parsi which helps alot, if you need help and what not I can help you pm me.</p>
<p>I don't know what you guys are talking about, by arabic 1 I could read arabic easy, I mean you just have to know the the vocab. It really isn't that hard.</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone, for all your help. I really appreciate it. :)</p>
<p>Arabic is hard =[ I remember reading the Quran being easy to read then reading actual "Arabic." Not something I would reccomend.</p>