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For a different method of learning Arabic (or several other languages), check out https://www.languagetransfer.org https://www.languagetransfer.org. It teaches

by gramie 7mo ago

For a different method of learning Arabic (or several other languages), check out https://www.languagetransfer.org https://www.languagetransfer.org. It teaches Egyptian Arabic, explaining that the entire region knows this dialect because Egypt is the TV and movie hub of the Arabic world. It's all audio (MP3s or streaming) and completely free, and (IMHO) the best language learning system out there. I have used it to learn Spanish, my sixth language and can't recommend it highly enough.

tremarley 7mo ago
Same here. Language Transfer helped me pick up so many languages in a short time easily. Far better than every other tool I’ve tried from Duolingo, Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone etc.
eddythompson80 7mo ago
> explaining that the entire region knows this dialect because Egypt is the TV and movie hub of the Arabic world. I suspect this is actively changing and in another generation or so won’t be true. All major TV, movies and music production has migrated to the Arab oil states since the late 2000s and accelerated in the 2010s. Today all major media production companies are based in the Gulf states.
confidantlake 7mo ago
Kind of crazy that it has Swahili but not Portuguese.
- george916a 7mo ago
  Not crazy at all. Swahili is the Lingua Franca of Africa.
- bloak 7mo ago
  I listened to the start of the Swahili course and it mentions that Swahili was the first one to be "commissioned", which I understand to mean that someone asked for it and paid for it specifically. It also said there was information about commissioning on the web site, but I couldn't find it. So it's a bit mysterious. Commissioning a language course might be spare change for some government agency but I don't know whether they're allowed to spend money that way. They might be forced to put it out to tender and prefer domestic bidders or something like that.
- tremarley 7mo ago
  I remember that somebody made a Language Transfer Portuguese course, but it was heavily criticised and never relaunched
sudo_cowsay 7mo ago
You got me started on learning Spanish there. So far so good.

by gramie 7mo ago

tremarley 7mo ago

Same here. Language Transfer helped me pick up so many languages in a short time easily. Far better than every other tool I’ve tried from Duolingo, Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone etc.

eddythompson80 7mo ago

> explaining that the entire region knows this dialect because Egypt is the TV and movie hub of the Arabic world. I suspect this is actively changing and in another generation or so won’t be true. All major TV, movies and music production has migrated to the Arab oil states since the late 2000s and accelerated in the 2010s. Today all major media production companies are based in the Gulf states.

confidantlake 7mo ago

Kind of crazy that it has Swahili but not Portuguese.

george916a 7mo ago
Not crazy at all. Swahili is the Lingua Franca of Africa.
bloak 7mo ago
I listened to the start of the Swahili course and it mentions that Swahili was the first one to be "commissioned", which I understand to mean that someone asked for it and paid for it specifically. It also said there was information about commissioning on the web site, but I couldn't find it. So it's a bit mysterious. Commissioning a language course might be spare change for some government agency but I don't know whether they're allowed to spend money that way. They might be forced to put it out to tender and prefer domestic bidders or something like that.
tremarley 7mo ago
I remember that somebody made a Language Transfer Portuguese course, but it was heavily criticised and never relaunched

sudo_cowsay 7mo ago

You got me started on learning Spanish there. So far so good.