Reddit reviews Alif Baa with DVDs: Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds (Arabic Edition)

I took 6 semesters of Arabic at GW between 2006 and 2008, and never got less than an A- in a course. In fact, I loved it because the first few courses are 4 credits each, so getting an A really keeps your GPA up.

I wouldn't be afraid of doing poorly if you're willing to put in the work. The first two classes are a lot of memorization, because you have to learn the alphabet, basic vocabulary, etc. If you're not going to bother memorizing those things, then class participation (usually ~25% of your grade or something) and exams will be very difficult.

The book assigned to you will be Alif Baa, which is the standard textbook for Arabic courses throughout the country. Because of this, if anything is confusing to you, you should easily be able to find help.

That leads me to my next point: check out /r/learn_arabic and /r/languagelearning. Any college-level students there will be using Alif Baa and should be able to assist you with questions.

Finally, I should point out that I graduated in 08, so it's possible things have changed, though I doubt it. Arabic is an intimidating language when you're unfamiliar with it. Because it uses a different script (like Hindi), people automatically assume it will be extremely difficult. Sure, compared to French or Spanish, which use the Roman alphabet and have a ton of cognates. But it's an incredibly structured and formulaic language, which I found refreshing coming from English. Like I said, just do the homework and memorize each week's vocab like you're supposed to, and I can't imagine anyone getting less than a B+.

I took 2 years of Arabic in college and I thought it would be good to learn the alphabet before classes started. It was a fantastic idea! I used Alif-Baa which is by the same people as Al-Kitaab, the text my class and many others use. Not the most amazing text, but Alif-Baa was pretty effective for the alphabet.

It also helped me to think of it like cursive. People seem to get confused with connecting/non-connecting letters, but it's really quite intuitive.

Here is the mobile version of your link

https://www.amazon.com/Alif-Baa-Introduction-Letters-English/dp/1589011023

If you’re fine with used, you can get it cheaply

first:
http://www.amazon.com/Alif-Baa-DVDs-Introduction-Letters/dp/1589011023

then:

Part 1
http://www.amazon.com/Al-Kitaab-allum-Arabiyya-Second-Edition/dp/158901104X/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0XFC00PPHWRN4Z51YCYP

Part 2
http://www.amazon.com/Al-Kitaab-allum-Arabiyya-Second-Edition/dp/1589010965/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1GYJ3QZN9FWG128CG4QG

Part 3
http://www.amazon.com/Al-Kitaab-fii-Taallum-al-Arabiyya-Textbook/dp/158901149X/ref=pd_sim_b_7?ie=UTF8&refRID=1GYJ3QZN9FWG128CG4QG

I took MSA Arabic twice, once in college, once on my own as an adult. The book most classes I've seen use is called Alif Baa. It's the first book in the Al-Kitaab series, and covers the alphabet and some intro vocab. Bonus if you can find a second edition. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1589011023/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_7R90xbNWDK2CT

Beginning with the third ed, they for some reason switched to glossy paper, which smears like crazy (it's a workbook), and moved most of their supplemental content online, which from what I recall was not very compatible with smartphones, which I found difficult to always have my laptop and wifi when I wanted to study. Note: If you do take a class, there is a very good chance they will have you use the third edition, which had a lot of revisions from the second. So I suppose its up to use which you get, but I thought the second was much more practical.