The English -> Arabic course starts off way too fast. I’m working on 5 languages, and all the other starts slow and simple. Arabic starts with long sentences.
Example 1
One of the first two things are good morning (said to a man) and good morning (said to a woman). These are both like eight syllables long, and only differ in one syllable. It is so hard to tell the difference, let alone get those eight syllables down when we haven’t even practiced one and two syllable words yet or learn to some of the basic sounds/syllables.
Example 2
I just had my first pronunciation check. First thing, a short word, easy. Second thing, a short word, easy. Third thing, one of those long sentences. You can barely read or understand the language and can’t speak it yet, but repeat these 10 syllables back to me, perfectly, from memory. Ridiculous!
I agree. I’m pretty disappointed with the Arabic course so far. I did Japanese 0 on Memrise and it was great, they taught the hiragana and katakana characters by showing people drawing them and making the sound they made. I expected the Arabic course to be the same. Instead I’m shown three different forms of the letter, and asked to put them in order, doing left to right instead of right to left. Then I’m asked to put phrases like “good night (to a man)” together, and they want you to choose the words in the order they would be said but then they arrange them left to right, so it looks backwards! But yeah, how can I remember these phrases when I haven’t been taught the alphabet yet???
These forums are very quiet, but can anyone recommend any good courses for absolute beginners or any other resources that would be useful to beginners?
Where is everyone??? Well I have “completed” the Arabic 1 course. I have “learned” 265 words apparently. I have 80 words in the difficult words section (never had that many difficult words before!) I will check out some of the other Arabic courses to see if there are any more suited to beginners. I’ve also been using Duolingo which is introducing the alphabet and simple words, which I had thought Arabic 1 on Memrise would do (maybe there needs to be an Arabic 0 like how there is a Japanese 0?). I’ve also been watching Learn Arabic with Maha on YouTube. Arabic is a fun language, but it needs to be taught/explained properly.
Arabic on Duolingo is horrible! It teaches it improperly and is confusing in my opinion. I stopped using it fairly quickly because a native speaking Arabic friend of mine told me it was wrong too often. This app is much better, but I agree does have some downfalls. It teaches words before finishing teaching the characters first for example. I also wish there was something to practice typing out the words from memory to practice spelling them. I can read and remember the words fine, but spelling is a problem.