What do you think?
Rate this book
Saudi Arabic Basic Course (FSI) (CDs & text)
Audio CD
Published June 30, 2005
1 person want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 12, 2021
I did learn Saudi Arabic with this course. I didn't need modern standard Arabic, only spoken Saudi. I learned to read it also but more from osmosis working with Saudis and, yes, a class or two. I ordered the tapes and books while I was living in Chicago when I had just gotten word that I would be moving with my wife and two little boys to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, where I would be working at the Aramco oil company.
It turned out that I didn't really need an urgent knowledge of Arabic. Everything we did was in English practically; but I would periodically go back and pick up from where I had left off in the FSI course.
I know. Given the golden opportunity of being immersed, if I wanted, in the rich linguistic environment of Arabic, but I had no yen for it. My previous Farsi helped me get along somewhat and perhaps that made me lazy---upon lazy upon lazy. I found that I wasn't alone in this aspect.
Malaise on so many levels except the company from whom I learned a lot. I left after a few years, seconded to Bechtel in Washington, and 4 years later, back to Dhahran--same job, same desk, and I carried my little FSI course back with me. Same deplorable attitude and learning discipline, but I would always go back to it--like a week, a month later like I would live forever.
Finally, I finished what I had to do at Aramco and wound up in Washington where I was assigned to work at the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission, located at the Watergate right on the Potomac. No way would I miss the opportunity of strolling along the Potomac or by the White House or the Lincoln Memorial on nice days; but on rainy or cold days, when I didn't feel like going to Starbucks for coffee or to the Kennedy Center, I would sequester myself on a couch near the entry way from the Watergate garage to listen to my tapes. And, yes, it was exactly the same entry way that Liddy and McCord and their nefarious helpers sneaked in to spy on the Democratic campaign headquarters for Nixon. That's where I finished the course.
I do recommend this course to people interested in learning Saudi Arabic--Hejazi dialect, but it doesn't matter. Easterners will easily get your drift.
It turned out that I didn't really need an urgent knowledge of Arabic. Everything we did was in English practically; but I would periodically go back and pick up from where I had left off in the FSI course.
I know. Given the golden opportunity of being immersed, if I wanted, in the rich linguistic environment of Arabic, but I had no yen for it. My previous Farsi helped me get along somewhat and perhaps that made me lazy---upon lazy upon lazy. I found that I wasn't alone in this aspect.
Malaise on so many levels except the company from whom I learned a lot. I left after a few years, seconded to Bechtel in Washington, and 4 years later, back to Dhahran--same job, same desk, and I carried my little FSI course back with me. Same deplorable attitude and learning discipline, but I would always go back to it--like a week, a month later like I would live forever.
Finally, I finished what I had to do at Aramco and wound up in Washington where I was assigned to work at the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission, located at the Watergate right on the Potomac. No way would I miss the opportunity of strolling along the Potomac or by the White House or the Lincoln Memorial on nice days; but on rainy or cold days, when I didn't feel like going to Starbucks for coffee or to the Kennedy Center, I would sequester myself on a couch near the entry way from the Watergate garage to listen to my tapes. And, yes, it was exactly the same entry way that Liddy and McCord and their nefarious helpers sneaked in to spy on the Democratic campaign headquarters for Nixon. That's where I finished the course.
I do recommend this course to people interested in learning Saudi Arabic--Hejazi dialect, but it doesn't matter. Easterners will easily get your drift.
Displaying 1 of 1 review