Syrian Arabic Voices: Authentic Listening and Reading Practice in Levantine Colloquial Arabic [Print Replica] Kindle Edition

Bought this to brush up on my Arabic while laying low during the corona craze (previously I studied Jordanian, but trying to up my knowledge of Syrian Arabic, too). Excellent layout and presentation of the lessons, plus the downloadable PDFs are way uesful.

Brand new publication; I purchased in PDF format with links to MP3 audio, dowloaded everything to my iPad.PROS: Written, fully voweled Arabic transcription adjacent to the English translation, line by line. VERY idiomatic and some translations of phrases loose but accurate. Takes some adjusting to get used to a few spellings as words sound in the spoken language. For those with advanced exposure to MSA / other dialect who want to pick up Eastern colloquial, I haven't seen anything better than this.CONS: I would have liked the print and PDF editions together. On Mac desktop, I can open it only in Adobe DIgital Editions, no ability to highlight.NOT for beginners. Author began with the correct premise that it is impossible to learn Arabic without knowing how to read and pronounce sounds foreign to English, differentiate the two T's, S's Z's Q & K 'ayin, ghayn, etc., shadda, consonant doubling after the definite article --- you get the picture.At my level I can understand about 80% just reading the Arabic, but one wants to hear and speak it! Thus the challenge is to keep up with the pace of natural native speech and the dialect's idiosyncrasies. This book, combined with the same publisher's book on Levantine verbs, watching serials, The Olive Tree Dictionary (Jerusalem) and listening to TV news and discussions in (mostly) MSA help me to not only maintain/recover my skills, but to vastly improve them. Great brain exercise for a retired 70 year old!I've read and listened to five lessons in one day, will of course repeat and repeat and repeat...I anticipate the native speakers will move on to topics other than their studies and their jobs! :)