Kallimni ‘Arabi Aktar: An Upper Intermediate Course in Spoken Egyptian Arabic 3

I'm currently half way through Kallimni 'Arabi Mazboot, having finished Kallimni 'Arabi Aktar working without a teacher, and I'm really pleased with both books. 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 the excessively dry 'Kullu Tamam' to fill 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.

Only after buying this book together with the whole series I discovered that YOU CAN MAKE LITTLE USE OF IT WITHOUT A TEACHER. This is stated by the author in the book itself, but when you have the book in your hands it's already too late. Why this is not clearly indicated by AMAZON in the book presentation?

Era como lo esperaba salvo que no viene el CD sino un código QR para oír los audios en linea. La encuadernación parece un poco endeble y tal vez cuando tenga un poco más de uso se suelten las hojas.Le falta un apartado con los ejercicios corregidos.

Articolo arrivato senza problemi e con velocità. Rispecchia ciò che c'è scritto nella descrizione. Ottimo

Background - I should have amassed far more Arabic books but alas, I only have about 20 Arabic books. So my opinion may not represent other intermediate learners who have far more materials and books to compare this one to. I was so happy when I received this because I LOVED Kallimni Arabi #2, which took me 3-4 weeks to complete. 'The book states in the intro: "You should have already studied the first book in the Kallimni Arabi series or completed intermediate state of MSA." Definitely follow this recommendation since I did not study the first book nor did I finish my Intermediate MSA course.Review-This book is very fun and easy to complete. It has seven modules. According to the book's introduction, "Each module will take about 8-9 hours of teaching and studying. Teachers are free to use the exercises under the Real Life sections."Because I am strictly self studying from this book, it takes me roughly 20 hours, not 9, per module. That is not including time to ask my husband to correct my exercises and pronunciation inside the book. I also listen to the accompanied cd and record myself speaking EVERY SINGLE dialogue. Each module has 3-4 dialogues. I play back my recorded dialogues to my native Egyptian friends and I also speak the dialogues out loud to my husband who graciously pick out a few words every dialogue I don't pronounce correctly. Also, whenever I have confusion about a phrase or exercise, I ask a fantastic Egyptian teacher (the best teacher ever!) who teaches this book on Italki.com. Using an efficient teacher is necessary for your success in this book. I tried a few other teachers with this book and it was a no go. So if you were unsuccessful with the previous book, change the teacher!I started this book on 1/3/2016 and I am on the third module. I am finding that this book is a bit harder and takes longer for me to complete than Kallimni Arabi #2. The first half of Kallimni Arabi #2 was more of a review for me and I didn't struggle with any of the modules. This book I am finding that it is getting challenging right from the second module. It is crucial you do NOT self study with this book because every module has at least 3 role play exercises where you must speak with at least one, if not two or three, native speakers. Sure, you can complete the exercises with fellow learners, but you will improve much faster if you practice the role play with two native speakers.With Kamil Gamil, I fell asleep every chapter listening to the monotonous voice actors. Compared to Kamil Gamil, this book is FAR more interesting. My favorite part of the book is the dialogues. Plus, the voice actors and the background sound make the dialogues really, really fun to learn. The voice actors speak slower than the ones in Kamil Gamil and the actors are far more animated and it is really easy to follow their speech. In Kamila Gamil, I couldn't catch any of the dialogue because they were speaking so fast. In Kallimni Aktar, any difficult or new words are popped in the back glossary. And if you have this book, it is very likely you already know half the words in the back! There is no English except in the back. It is a bit unorganized, but you can manage which new words belong to which module.The only things I would change in this book is to rearrange the appendix in the back and provide more exercises. You can tell by my picture of the "Module Vocabulary" that the "Presentations" and "Real Life" vocabulary from different modules are on the same page and hence, confusing.I look forward to studying this book everyday and I hope it helps you in your Egyptian language journey.Edited to Add- I finally finished this book as of 14/2/2016. Strictly self studying, it took me almost 7 weeks or 1.5 months. I made sure I didn't move on to the next chapter until I understand 100% of the chapter including pronunciation. Unfortunately, there are some words, around 30 in all, from the glossary that still do not stick in my head. I feel like I am not ready to go onto the next book which is Low Advanced.When I was about to finish the book last week, a native speaker (who listens and corrects me speaking the dialogues 3x week) was really surprised and shocked how much my pronunciation improved with this book. I am really excited but yet nervous to move onto the next book.

an excellent textbook teaching simple dialogues for every day situations. The included cd's are a treasure. I listen to them doing housework, in the gym, etc. and little by little my level of comprehension goes up. It's a very difficult language, but this book really helps

Nice book set, this one unfortunately had no CD