Here's an update on what we've been doing at TalkInArabic.com...

Asma Wahba

Author

Asma Wahba

Here's an update on what we've been doing at TalkInArabic.com...

How's your Arabic going?

I wanted to give you a quick update on what's been happening with TalkInArabic.com as it's now been up for a few weeks.

Your feedback and opinions are absolutely paramount so we got it out early (way before it was ready in fact) and opened it up for your criticism.

Thanks so much for your awesome help so far!

We've improved the site a lot but we've still barely even begun.

Based on your survey responses and the emails we've received, these are some of the main things you've asked for that we're now addressing as quickly as possible:

  • Once we've finished working through (editing and uploading) the current content we have, we'll ensure that all future content contains a lot more examples and introduces a wider range of useful vocabulary.
  • We'll draw careful attention to sentence patterns and structures so that when a new grammar point is introduced, it's much clearer to identify how it's used and then use it yourself.
  • We'll experiment by adding a few exercises for many of the lessons (which we'll invite your feedback for once again) since quite a few people have requested this.
  • Each transcript will include the English, Arabic and transliteration (3arabizi) on the same page.
  • You'll notice that up until now, the page for each dialect section has simply been a list of previous posts that you have to (tediously) navigate through to find what you're looking for. We're working on designing front pages for each dialect with topic and/or level categories that make it very easy to find the content you're looking for (including a search function). The reason why this hasn't been done yet is that we've been focused on filling up the content first but now that there's quite a lot of content, it's getting harder for people to find what they're looking for which we want to fix asap.
  • Some people have requested audio dialogues between two people which we're starting to do now.
  • Many people have asked for vocabulary. We've begun to upload vocabulary lessons which you might have noticed already. We'd like to also include downloadable flashcard decks to make it easier for you to import them straight into your favorite flashcard program but before we do this it'd help us to know which flashcard app you prefer. Anki is quite popular but it's not easy to use for many people so let us know if you have a preference (leave a comment on this page and let us know if this would be helpful to you).
  • Absolute beginner level content. We plan to soon start creating some simple, structured lessons aimed at giving complete beginners the language they need to communicate right away.
  • We'll be starting to roll out more audio content from today that's accessible only to members (audio included).

If you're not a member, join here.

I'd also like to announce that we're currently putting together small guides called modules which will include all the language you could possibly need (with audio) for various situations in the Arab world.

For example, ordering food in restaurants here in Egypt can be a bit confusing for many people, so we're working on creating something that equips you with absolutely everything you could possibly need for ordering food, talking about ingredients, sizes, takeaway/have here, food allergies, etc.

These modules will equip you with everything a local, Arabic speaking person would say in these kinds of situations including slang expressions (the way people really talk - not the bland phrasebook stuff).

They'll be densely packed with tonnes of useful vocabulary and expressions that cover just about everything you would ever need in these situations.

We'll explain more about this soon (suggestions also welcome).

Oh, and one other thing:

You might have also noticed a couple of times the site has gone down briefly.

We apologize for this.

Since the site has been under development, there have been a few nuisance technical issues we've had to fix. Hopefully it's all sorted now.

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