Most Arabic courses use Romanization, ie the use of the Latin script to represent the pronunciation of Arabic letters and words. While this makes a lot of sense when no sound is available, I think it makes no sense when sound is available:
Standardized Romanization uses characters, which are not on a standard keyboard, ie are cumbersome to type. As a result many different Romanizations have been invented and are used. Why should I waste time and energy of learning the specific Romanization, and then another one in another course.
Romanization is a substitute for actually hearing the character, word, phrase, sentence by a native speaker. In the end I want to be able to understand native speakers.
Using Romanization to represent the Arabic word instead of using the Arabic script takes away the opportunity to become fluent in reading the script. While Romanized forms of Arabic (Arabizi) are used in social media or in chatting apps, my impression is that this is now less then it used to be as typing Arabic on computers and even phones has become much easier.
I would be interested in hearing what other learners of Arabic think about this.
Google translate will show romanization, if something can’t be heard clearly. For me I mainly want romanization if I can’t hear it. Switch between apps or use a second computer/tablet. Type or dictate the english for whatever you may not have heard distinctly.
I don’t want to see a bunch of A-Z when hearing something that isn’t actually written that way. That crutch is not helpful. Input is a different story. Feel less opinionated about that.
I’ve been adding memes to the official course because for some reason there are none. Since I’m a rank novice it’s all google search, google translation, wikionary stuff. I’m not clever enough to do the cherished pun, but maybe it will be helpful to the next person who knows.
I’m finding that at least during start up on learning the words, hearing the sound is important. I think I like IPA more than romanization but seeing the latter once in the context of a meme seems like it’s helpful not hurtful.
I wasted a lot of time by using latin script to learn Arabic. It only takes a couple months or less to learn to read Arabic script. The hard part is learning to pronounce the Arabic script correctly.
Mastering Arabic alphabet is not easy, I believe for beginners is helpful (to have “franco” translation) Once student learns correct pronunciation of arabic alphabet it becomes a little bit easier. Hint, search for online free video courses on youtube that will help a lot.