Ah, the internet is a wonderful thing when it comes to learning languages, especially the world of podcasts. Here are a couple of recommended podcasts for beginners:
Arabic Pod
available free on Itunes, or from their website
Lovingly created podcasts aimed at teaching colloquial Arabic through very short, amusing dialogues. The author makes podcasts for every level and they're clearly labelled, so you can progress easily from the beginners' ones through to the higher levels.
It's made by a UK-based Levantine Arab, with a sense of humour and quirky choice of topics. He is also very good at explaining the differences between Levantine dialect and standard (written) Arabic. He has a different guest each week, which means you get to hear lots of different voices. The website offers PDF transcripts and exercises for every lesson, though you have to log in to see them. This man is a legend.
Available free on Itunes or from the website. Over 800 lessons for 3 different levels: beginner, intermediate and advanced.
Another brilliant podcast with lessons at various levels. Access to transcripts and additional material to support the audio lessons is available through the website at a subscription fee (different packages vary from $4 to $26 a month). The website also offers a daily Arabic word of the day email.
Lessons are offered for 4 levels: absolute beginner (no previous knowledge of Arabic), beginner, intermediate (lessons coming soon) and advanced. You can also browse the selections by context: student, business, work, travel, living in an Arabic country or family. There are also video lessons available, with good quality pictures, subtitles and nice soothing background music!
You only need to give an email address to login for a 7 day trial, during which you can download 10 pdf files of notes to accompany the audio. I only looked at the advanced level lessons (13 audio blogs on cultural, history and geography topics), but was very impressed by the detail in the notes: the full transcript in Arabic, English, vowelled Arabic, a detailed vocabulary list and sample sentences using the vocabulary. If the beginners' lessons are as good then this is a fabulous resource!
Another brilliant podcast with lessons at various levels. Access to transcripts and additional material to support the audio lessons is available through the website at a subscription fee (different packages vary from $4 to $26 a month). The website also offers a daily Arabic word of the day email.
Lessons are offered for 4 levels: absolute beginner (no previous knowledge of Arabic), beginner, intermediate (lessons coming soon) and advanced. You can also browse the selections by context: student, business, work, travel, living in an Arabic country or family. There are also video lessons available, with good quality pictures, subtitles and nice soothing background music!
You only need to give an email address to login for a 7 day trial, during which you can download 10 pdf files of notes to accompany the audio. I only looked at the advanced level lessons (13 audio blogs on cultural, history and geography topics), but was very impressed by the detail in the notes: the full transcript in Arabic, English, vowelled Arabic, a detailed vocabulary list and sample sentences using the vocabulary. If the beginners' lessons are as good then this is a fabulous resource!
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