Yesterday I received a tip from an Arabic student (thanks Svetlana) about a good online resource. This morning I spent some time looking through the site – LangMedia at the 5 Colleges Arabic program.

I am in agreement. I can’t overstate how good a resource this is. Here is the  link.

Here are only 3 aspects worth noting (and material for 10+ future RWA posts)

(1)  The coverage of North African dialects: 

With spoken Arabic, it is tremendously beneficial to be able to read what you see. It allows students to retain the information much better than if all they are doing is hearing it. Here are  20 practical discussions from North Africa, that you can listen to, and read:

And remember – North African dialects aren’t as different from those of the central Middle East as often made out to be. Once you see it on print, you can gain a better abstract command of the grammar and it’s Fusha roots and overcome the intimidation factor.

(2)  Jordanian and Palestinian: 

Some readers have suggested that I focus too much on Egyptian dialect. Fair enough. Here is a page that features  dozens of situational discussions on Jordanian:

 

(3)  Country by County Dialect Comparisons: 

This stuff just doesn’t get made. This is truly amazing:

Do you know ASL teachers or students who might find this post useful? If so, I’d really appreciate it if you share it with them on relevant social media feeds.