marHaba: A Course in Levantine Arabic - Lebanese Dialect

Bought this for my sister who works in Qatar who has colleagues who speak Arabic. My sister likes it.

I used this book for weeks. I tried so hard. I really did. All I did was learn a few words, I could not make a sentence. The lessons start 2/3 of the book in and they are awful. There is no explanation of the grammar or why it works. They are just conversations and phrases with no real context and you aren't even told what they mean, if you are, then you aren't told why the words have the endings that they have. Just today I started a new course and after four hours I was making sentences and understanding why they are the way they are - this book is beyond terrible. Four hours of another course did more than over a month of this book. He is a native speaker and just does not understand that certain things don't occur to us as naturally as they do to him, I give him that. But why write a book if you don't have that understanding? He could pick up knitting instead... seriously, if you are a native speaker writing a book for native speakers of another language, know that they need a good explanation of every part of the grammar. Now I am using My Easy Arabic. I gave up on Levantine until I know MSA, because this is a mess. I can't find a source for Levantine that isn't either terrible or way out of my budget or reserved for those who already know MSA. Supposedly al-Kitaab has a Levantine course, but it is not as great as their Egyptian one. Those are all the suggestions I can give you, just not this book. Maybe make a Syrian friend. :)

It was a wonderful book, I recommend it to all who want to learn Arabic dialect.

(Wife): I am a polyglot / language enthusiast with one year of college Arabic under my belt, through the Alif Baa / Al-Kitaab series (second edition), which seemed to focus more on MSA (Modern Standard Arabic).Comparison: Dr. El-Hage's MarHaba vs. Al-Kitaab, 2nd edition:I think that there are strengths and weaknesses to most language resources, and I would say that that would include Dr. El_Hage's MarHaba and the Al-Kitaab series both.I like Dr. Hage's focus on vocabulary and clear translations. I do hope that he considers adding additional audio files, as I believe that there is still a good bit of vocabulary lacking audio files. As an English speaker trying to learn Arabic, I would benefit from hearing the words. Also, I listened briefly to the second audio file, and it sounded a bit rushed in my opinion (although reasonably clear). I understand that folks would talk like that or more quickly in actual usage; however, when you are first learning, one of the first things you need to do is tune your ear to recognize the sounds, so that you can then reproduce them with your mouth. That's what I do prefer about the second edition of the Al-Kitaab series. (I found the Al-Kitaab vocabulary and conversations to be presented in a slower pace more appropriate for beginner, non-native speakers. Please note, though: the book came with DVDs. So, if you order a used copy of Al-Kitaab 2nd edition, you may not have access to the DVD files. Just FYI.)I find the vocabulary (and at first perusal, the grammar explanations) a bit more user-friendly in Dr. El-Hage's book. I certainly appreciate how Dr. El-Hage chose to develop vocabulary thematically / based on a given topic. I think that is a good idea. I did not note as much user-friendly vocabulary to be presented all that effectively in the second edition of Al-Kitaab, although we were exposed to some aspects of the grammar, such as present indicative verb forms, and after a while, the tri-letter root verb (very key in Semitic languages like Arabic).Comparison to Hiba Najem's Lebanese Arabic Phrasebook, Vol. 1If it's something I've noticed about Dr. El-Hage's book, it's that the "Latinized" transliterations seem to be influenced by French (although Najem also uses other transliteration shortcuts at times). So, if you know French and are not sure about the pronunciation, you can probably err on the French side and be right more often than not.Both of these books focus on Lebanese Arabic and offer vocabulary useful for day-to-day communication. To be honest, I may actually get more out of Hiba Najem's approach, although Dr. El-Hage's book does include paragraph passages in Arabic, with transliterations and translations as you get toward the end of the work. So, both books probably offer some benefit, depending on what you are after.For those of you with a background in MSA / formal Arabic instruction, Dr. El-Hage's work may cause you less confusion, especially with regards to transliterations. But, could you maybe get more conversation out of Najem's work? My guess? Probably. But, Dr. El-Hage's work includes the reading sections.So, I really think it will depend on what you are after. I think both offer strengths while having some limitations.If you can only afford one, at this point, I'd be inclined to favor Hiba Najem's Lebanese Arabic Phrasebook, Vol. 1, since she provides the Arabic and transliterations through her YouTube videos and goes at a slower pace. And because she's YouTube-based, you don't have to worry about missing audio files. But, as your proficiency in Arabic gets better, other resources like MarHaba and perhaps even more, Al-Kitaab, might be more appropriate for you.

This book would be 5-star if it had audio files. It is presented as a "self-guided handbook" for students with no knowledge of Arabic who want to learn Lebanese vocabulary and pronunciation. It's beautifully printed and full of material (245 pages) but without audio it is virtually useless. If I have just missed the audio link, please let me know here and I will upgrade my rating to 5 stars!

MarHaba is a dream come true especially for Westerners like me who struggle to learn a foreign language that does not have a Romanized alphabet. If you want to learn to speak Arabic, the transliteration of every word fits the bill. For those who want to read and write in Arabic, this book also makes it easy to do, and if you know Arabic, this book will help you learn English. MarHaba is simple, yet thorough. It uses an immersion approach and includes vocabulary and verbs for everyday conversation. You do not get bogged down with linguistics and grammar. It is a great workbook to help you become fluent (ILR - 1+ level) quickly, and you can't beat the price! The book can be used alone or as a supplementary workbook. If you want to learn basic Levantine Arabic quickly, this is the book for you.

The books is written in a mediocre style. Lessons do not begin until page 130. Up to that point you're given table after table of vocabulary (a mixture of both words and phrases that span 72 scenarios).I don't see anything wrong with this if this was a book compiled by a student for students; however, since the author maintains a Ph.D and makes the claim that their expertise is in teaching, publishing, translating and linguistics (to name a few) then I would expect some kind of professionalism in their work.The text offers pronunciation drills but provides neither CD nor link to access audio.This text feels rushed and I advise all trying to use this book to learn the Levantine dialect of Arabic to look elsewhere. I would recommended Alif Baa and Al-Kitaab since they offer the Levant dialect side by side with MSA and Egyptian (I use this series and am happy with it but bought this book because I solely focused on the Levantine dialect).

A phrasebook ,poorly written. disorganized, It does not worth paying for it.

Es bastante completo y útil para comenzar con el estudio del árabe dialectal, pero no sigue un orden logico en las lecciones y a veces parece que son un cúmulo de frases y vocabulario. Pero en síntesis es un buen libro.

If you are new to Arabic this book contains the basic grammatical rules but it isn't particularly extensive on the subject. It is definitely a good start though and the layout is easy to comprehend.If you are experienced in Fus-ha and want to branch out into Ashamia, this book is particularly useful for the phrases and vocabulary lists.Not perfect, but overall definitely a good purchase.

It is worth noting that the book is in two parts - sections on vocabulary for various situations followed by a series of 'lessons'. There is NO audio available for the first part of the book. This was a major disappointment as it is impossible to learn the correct pronunciation from transliteration alone. The audio available to download only covers the lessons in the latter part of the book - there seems no reason why the rest of the vocabulary is not available to the new learner. It is also worth noting that the limited audio that is provided is at normal speaking speed and therefore very difficult for the new learner to follow. There are also various printing and format errors which, at this price, is simply unacceptable.