Answer Key to Al-Kitaab Fii Ta Callum Al-Carabiyya: A Textbook for Beginning Arabic: Part One [Paperback]

I personally liked the layout. This answer key gives the answers in a concise, organized manner. Please take note that this is different from a solutions manual which gives explainations of the answers.

The answer key is all in Arabic...I was hoping, because the text book for "beginning" Arabic is very confusing and is not very clear, that at least this Answer Key would translate everything into English. But it doesn't. The text book does give a vocabulary in each chapter but all Arabic words used in the chapter are not all in the vocabulary and are also not always in the Arabic-English glossary in the back of the book..so one has to look them up in an Arabic-English dictionary, of which I have several. Looking words up in Arabic dictionaries are not as straightforward as in an English dictionary unless you know the Arabic roots. In order to know the roots, it helps to know the structure of the words which you don't get in this book. Beginners should not have to be put through this or they will be frustrated. Not only that but the text book and this answer key to the text book assumes you know how to read Arabic. It does not teach you this. I know how to read Arabic and I have also gotten more than half way through Rosetta Stone Level 2 Arabic but I find this Al-Kitab text and answer key hard to follow or figure out. I also very much dislike the DVDs. Maha is cute but the program could have been put together a lot better (the GUI was difficult to work with). A lot of these Arabic to English language courses seem to forget that the people they are teaching don't know Arabic or can't read Arabic and it sure doesn't help when they don't constantly give specific instructions and course the path with English. I found a pretty good Arabic-English language course that can be downloaded for free...public domain...there is a 3 volume course in both Arabic and English and audio Arabic and English translations that follow the printed course material. You only have to endure, if that is a problem, a little bit (ok, more than a little bit) of proselytizing into Islam. But the guy who reads the Arabic and English translations is very clear and easy to understand. Do a search on the Arabic Medina Books at the archive.org website and be prepared for huge downloads. You can also go to the [...] site to download yet another guy on the Medina Books audio but I found him a little harder to understand. There is also a huge library of videos on the Medina Books course but those are more advanced and expect you to have gone through the 3 volume course as a prerequisite.

This book is very necessary to help you understand when you have missed an answer; it helps you get back on track.