Salaam

When I worked at the American Red Cross, I had a couple of Egyptian coworkers that would teach me random Egyptian Arabic phrases and words. I am hoping to someday take classes at Portland Community College to learn conversational arabic. Don't ask why, but I want to learn. Actually, when I started to learn the little arabic I know, I was interested in Hindi. I have this weird tendency toward Bollywood although I know nothing about it.

Anyway, I have been searching online for places to learn simple phrases in Arabic. I have some Pimsleur Approach audio CDs for Egyptian Arabic but I like to see the words written out and I am pretty slow at learning. So, here are a few sites for you to browse if you're interested. It can get confusing because I started looking specifically for Egyptian Arabic but some of the best sites tend to be the regular or eastern Arabic.

This site called Babel has a few phrases that you can listen to. They're also spelled out for those of you who also need a visual.

This site is pretty neat. It shows you how to say numbers, days of the week and a few simple phrases to get around if you're visiting an arabic-speaking country.

The site, www.al-bab.com, has a few links to interesting information pages, including the The Alternative Arabic Dictionary and Yemeni proverbs. I guess in the alternative dictionary, they give you words that are left out of the dictionary... if you know what I mean.

Okay, I have no idea what is going on with this site but they have songs and games you can play to learn how to read arabic. It's kind of freaky becuase it talks or sings to you automatically after you click on the first lesson, so be aware. I think it'll be interesing to figure this site out though.

Click here to go to a site that has a few often used phrases in Arabic. It seems okay for a beginner's intro but does not have audio.

This site has a bunch of links to various Arabic language resources. It seems pretty comprehensive.

A fun site called Arabic-O-Matic allows you to type your name in and it will try to translate it into arabic letters. It's fun but I would like to find that scrap of paper that my coworker wrote my name on so that I could compare.

Well, that's all I have for now. I hope you have been enlightened. If you are interested in or know arabic, I would love to sharpen my skills in this language.

Ma salaama