Kallimni ‘Arabi: An Intermediate Course in Spoken Egyptian Arabic 2

It's a great book so far, but it's not geared for independent learners who want to understand the reasons and grammar behind certain choices of words, etc. and who want to check their exercises. For someone who begun with Levantine Arabic and then moved to MSA, I find the Egyptian words and pronunciation often very different. I would have liked more explanatory notes explaining that 'this or that word is restricted to Egypt, and that you won't hear it in other dialects that much', etc.I would have also loved to have a comprehensive vocabulary, a pronunciation guide (especially since the colloquial doesn't use vocalizations in writing), and most importantly, the correct answers in the back of the book! As an independent learner I find little use for a book where I can't check if I got my exercises right. The authors should have prepared a separate key to the book, a teacher's book or similar that an independent learner can use as a reference. I would have paid for such a book, and the availability of such a book would have made me buy all the books in the series. Now I fear I will not be using this very much.

The book is excellent and honestly I do not understand some negative reviews regarding the absence of a teacher....these books can be used in a classroom but they are also an outstanding tool for self-study. Of course it is clearly stated that the required level is Intermediate. I have bought almost anything on the market regarding Egyptian Arabic and I can tell you without fear of being contradicted that this book is simply a must if you want to learn Intermediate Egyptian Arabic.

A previous reviewer slated this book and I can understand that - if you are not prepared to learn to read and write in script. However they were quite wrong saying it is a book for teachers only. It is aimed at students but clearly is best used in a class where you have some guidance.That said - I am doing mine at home alone but there is plenty of help in forums and so on.I have already done both Michel Thomas (good for understanding) and Pimsleur (good for talking) audio courses and found this a great place to continue albeit a somewhat daunting task having to totally embrace reading and writing in script.It is however untrue that there is no transliteration in the series. The place to start is Kallini Arabi Bishweesh where the earlier work is repeated in transliteration and this is gradually withdrawn as the book goes on.It will always be painfully slow for someone new to script but if you intend to do it, it's a good way to get immersed in it.For the feint hearted, Kullu Tamam teaches a similar format but is transliterated. Might a good idea to dip into both if you find it a bit heavy going till you can read script reasonably well.I have bought all 5 in the series and think they are a great investment for those who are seriously wishing to learn.If anyone is unsure, feel free to email me.

Cannot quite believe this is being touted as a learning tool given that there are no English instructions included. Yes it is intermediate level but some English guidance is still required to guide students through it - THERE IS NO ENGLISH IN THE BOOK OR THE AUDIO CD! Worse still, nowhere does it say this, either in the book or on Amazon. Am just about to post it back and get a refund.I did 30 hours using Pimsleurs which is a fantastic and hoped this would be a great follow-on for the next level. I couldn't have been more wrong. Extremely disappointed.

Even more audio files to listen to than in the first book (Kallimi 'Arabi Bishweesh). Also somewhat picks up the pace compared to the first book, which is also nice. Great textbook.

I'm currently half way through Kallimni 'Arabi Mazboot working without a teacher, and I'm really pleased with it. Every so often there's something I have to clarify with an Arabic speaking friend (grammar exercises mostly, and sometimes I wish that all the vocab in the book was in the dictionary in the back - it'd really help) but on the whole this is a great book, which recycles vocabulary and grammar in a very well structured, incremental way through well designed dialogues (using different accents, which is a bonus). For my money, this is by far the best Egyptian Arabic course because it introduces grammar and vocab in context, using and then reusing it in increasingly complex situations, rather than the using old style approach of giving enormous lists of vocab and overly-complex grammar explanations followed by random out of context exercises (as if knowing a rule in theory would somehow magically unlock the ability to communicate in a language - e.g. the dreadful 'Kullu Tamam'). I've tried out all the Egyptian Arabic textbooks I can get my hands on and so far this is the most up to date and intuitive in terms of teaching method at this level and the only one that is part of a complete course of books. I can't wait to get to the next book (and then I'm going to try the 'Arabi Liblib series, which I've got on preorder for when it comes out... really hoping it's going to help fill in the gap after the end of the Kallimni 'Arabi series)P.S. If anyone's just starting out Egyptian Arabic from scratch without a teacher and trying to work out which books to go for, I can recommend combining the brilliant 'Colloquial Arabic of Egypt' by Jane Wightwick and Mahmoud Gaafar with the audio-based 'Pimsleur Egyptian Arabic' course. 'Colloquial Arabic of Egypt' explained all the basics (of grammar particularly) extremely clearly and in English script (so I could tackle the extra barrier of learning a new script once I'd got my communicative confidence up and running - worked really well) while the Pimsleur Egyptian Arabic course got me speaking and gave me a feel for the language and pronunciation that was hard to get in any other way as a beginner. NB Pimsleur also has a very clever way of teaching reading the script which is second to none and v. quick - this was how I learned and I hardly noticed it. When I wanted to learn to write I used 'Mastering Arabic Script' by Jane Wightwick, which gave loads of space for practice etc. Switching over to the Kallimni 'Arabi course at this stage was great for me. Everybody's different but hope this is helpful.P.P.S. I started out from scratch learning Egyptian Arabic with no basis in MSA or any other dialect and without reading or writing a word of Arabic - this approach can definitely work if you find the right beginners book in English script - which for me was 'Colloquial Arabic of Egypt' - if there had only been 'Kullu Tamam' filling this gap, I don't think I would have got past the first stage. I'm just starting on MSA now and have been able to join an intermediate MSA class with no problem at all - doing it this way round makes a lot of sense to me because you start as a beginner with a language you can actually use in the street.

This is a useable book, but there are some mistakes in it, and many words are hard to find (or non-existent) in the glossary. Colloquial words need to be in the glossary because their meaning is hard to find from dictionaries and online sources.