kullu tamam!: An Introduction to Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (Arabic Edition) Pap/Com Edition

This course, which actually is translated into English from Dutch, is so much better than any of its competitors in the field of introductory Egyptian Arabic that it is hard to see them as serious alternatives to it.The Routledge 'Colloquial Arabic of Egypt' has a good-looking cover, but it doesn't offer a broad-based vocabulary, and the 'Kallimni Arabi' books (also published by American University in Cairo Press), while offering much more substantive vocabulary, are poorly organized and have next to nothing to offer in the way of grammar.The lessons in this book progress very logically and a beginning student can make fairly rapid progress. The explanations of grammar, while not extensive, don't omit anything that could come back and surprise a student at a more advanced level of the language. The CDs are excellent, and wonder of wonders- they come with the book. My one criticism would be that the Arabic alphabet is not introduced earlier- it would certainly be helpful for a native speaker teaching from the book.

I like this book a lot, it helped my Egyptian Colloquial tremendously. But it is difficult for learners without prior background in MSA or Egyptian because it covers a lot of material in one book. I recommend using the Michel Thomas Arabic (which actually teaches Egyptian Colloquial) to build some foundation first.

Just what I needed.

After I was at a fairly advanced level of MSA, I was introduced to this book to improve my ECA. The transliteration was a bit odd considering that most people first start with MSA and then move on to ECA, but it helps those who do it the other way around. The vocab in the book, the transition between lessons and the audio files make this book one of the best resources for learning Egyptian Arabic! I highly recommend it!

I love the philosophy of this book. You can find a wealth of material out there to learn Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). This is an artificial language that people use in everyday life only in a rather limited way. They never speak it if they can avoid it and only a small minority can speak it comfortably even when pressed. If you begin studying Arabic with MSA then you will have no one to really practice with. That makes learning any language extremely difficult!This product focuses on the Egyptian "dialect." More than 88 million Egyptians speak this "dialect" and virtually all Arabs understand it. You can use what you learn immediately with any Egyptian and he/she will respond very similarly to the way people talk in your book (if not exactly the same). If you are diligent in your studies, you should be able to speak Egyptian Arabic pretty functionally by the end of this book. Afterwards, you will be in a very good position to learn MSA and have access to the news and Arabic writing. This is the way Arabs do it: dialect first THEN Modern Standard Arabic.There is indeed an answer key, it's just in the back of the book instead of right after the exercises. Lots of language courses are like this. The one warning I have is that it is evident that this course was originally conceived for Dutch people. I don't mean the translation is bad, I mean that it was conceived for people who are rather experienced language learners. Most Dutch people are proficient in English and another language like French, Spanish or German. The course throws out some technical terms and moves a little fast at times. Don't be afraid to ignore the technical terms and study some of the chapters twice if you need to.

I received the book today and there are loose pages!!! It’s a brand new book, I haven’t even started studying and the pages are just falling out the blue??? I’m not happy!!!

Good but the pages literally came out when I opened the book. It's not binded well at all. Looks like I won't be able to use this very long unless I glue the pages back myself.

This text has much vocabulary and covers a lot of grammar but it is poorly organized and therefor difficult to find things. I do not like the sysem of transliteration used. The authors show all linkings and drop letters to simulate the way it is spoken.the result is that it is often difficult to figure out what the actual word is. I would prefer to have an English version of each dialogue immediately after the Arabic instead of having to look up each word. The charts which show the 3rd person on the left, 2nd person next and the 1st person last.( from left to right) are so confusing that I must recopy them in a more logical and useful order. However the exercises at the end of each lesson are thorough and very helpful. Still sometimes a word crops up that is not in any vocubulary list but has apeared only as an example in a grammatical explanation. This makes it hard to use. Still,it is good but quite challenging to use. It needs to be redited to make it more user friendly.