Egyptian Arabic Diaries: Reading and Listening Practice in Authentic Spoken Arabic

This book is unique in that it's truly authentic Egyptian Arabic material, even giving you the handwritten version. I find reading handwriting much harder than typed script, so it's great practice. They give you the typed text as well, plus sentence-by-sentence breakdown with the literal translation. It also gives a few explanations for sentence structure or idioms used. It's best for intermediate learners, because it assumes a lot of vocabulary and grammar, but an upper beginner learner could benefit as well.

Prior to purchasing this book, I didn't know that you can find the audio and diary entries of the publisher's website. At first I thought I was cheated, but then I realized that the organization of the book, the authentic hand writing, and footnotes serve as invaluable resources for serious learners of Egyptian Arabic. I am very happy with my purchase mainly because I can readily write in the book on the notes page after each diary entry, the handwriting is a challenge even for advanced learners of Arabic, and the footnotes provide valuable information about grammar. Also, the audio portion of each diary entry is a great listening tool. I listen to stories several times before looking at the script. Once I feel comfortable with knowing the gist of the story, I then move on to following the audio with the script. This technique has improved my EA listening skills.

This book is an excellent resource for learning Egyptian Colloquial Arabic, like all the material published by Lingualism. But what makes it extra valuable and worth buying in the paperback print edition is that it contains handwritten transcripts of all the stories, as written--or in some cases scribbled--by young Egyptians. It is very rare to see natural, casual Arabic handwriting with all its shortcuts and idiosyncrasies, as opposed to the printed version we are all familiar with. Along with TF Mitchell's formal (and expensive) text, this book is the best resource out there for improving both reading comprehension and writing skills in authentic Egyptian-style handwriting. Let's see something similar for Levantine Arabic! (Hint to Matthew Aldrich of Lngualism!)

I find it difficult understanding the normal spoken Egyptian colloquial conversation although I would know most of the words. Therefore I am hoping this book together with the audio will help me. I am just at the beginning of this book.

I bought Egyptian Arabic Diaries, Egyptian Arabic Verbs, Egyptian Arabic Vocabulary, Arabic Stories 1 & 2. Downloaded the audio files through the Lingualism site. Excellent quality, rich material, original pronunciation (hint: play the audio at low speed in your VLC, at normal speed you can't get anything on first pass). The side by side original script transliteration (pronunciation guide), literal english translation and arabic script is exactly what I am looking for!!! It is missing in all other books. All in all, these books are EXCELLENT, are the BEST out there to enrich your vocabulary in egyptian arabic. Two hints for beginners.... 1. These books are not for beginners. They don't have grammar, so you cannot follow up on the syntax at all. Go first for a beginners book with grammar like Ultimate Arabic or something else 2. These books (except Arabic Stories 1 and 2) DON'T TEACH modern standard arabic but only the egyptian dialect which is way different from MSA. In conclusion VERY SATISFIED and looking forward to more books from these editions. Keep up the good work!!!!

Amazing! It allows you to read in typed Arabic, handwritten Arabic, transliterated Arabic, and English!! It is great for learning new vocabulary and also on reading comprehension. It is a must have for those learning Egyptian Arabic.

Oodles of useful common words spoken in a natural and interesting way by a number of different speakers. Excellent cultural insights. It is very helpful for anyone learning Egyptian colloquial Arabic.

A great book. Having the audio, the English sentence by sentence breakdown, and the meaning in context is super helpful.

The Lingualism Arabic Learning Materials are for sure the best study books I came across since I started to study Arabic. The texts in Egyptian Arabic Diaries are well done on a variety of subjects to increase vocabulary. Translation of the texts is directly in the exercises, thus no need to flip back and forward between the exercise and a vocabulary list somewhere else. Arabic script of the ECA words is very consistent. The quality of the MP3s (speakers, voice, ...) is very good and can be easily accessed or downloaded from the Lingualism website. Highly recommended if you have already an intermediary knowledge of Egyptian colloquial Arabic! The book Egyptian Arabic voices of the same series is quite similar in terms of approach if you want to further study by the same method.