kullu tamam!: An Introduction to Egyptian Colloquial Arabic

It's a very useful book with an impressive and clear vocabulary. There are other books like this written by prestigious universities which ignore the need to provide a fully comprehensive glossary. This book really teaches you to communicate in a proper way and in a variety of situations.

Contrarily to what the other review says, you definitely need arabic dialects to communicate. I graduated in Arabic and spent 2 months in Yemen to practice it, and believe me, outside the arabian peninsula very few people speak standard arabic.The egyptian dialect is widely understood, though not as widely spoken, because Egypt produces loads of tv shows and films. And this book really helps.I bought it after my graduation because I also wanted to speak Egyptian, and I would recomment it to anyone.

no arabic writing, that does not help very much if you go to that country. It is too difficult only with the phonicwords with this you do not learn real arabic.

Kullu Tamam would be great - if it came packaged with an egyptian arabic teacher to guide you through the book.. - In other words not a book for self learners noting that : there are no translations of the dialogues, many idiomatic forms are introduced before any grammatical explanation is provided, the romanisation method used is inconsistent making it often difficult to identify words.....So if you have a teacher/ native speaker to help you through this might be a great book - if you're working on your own this is a going to be a headache.

When I bought Kullu Tamam I was really excited because it was advertised as a modern approach to teaching Egyptian Arabic using English transliteration, and as I was starting out from scratch with no basis in MSA or Arabic script it sounded perfect. It wasn't. For me Kullu Tamam is the embodiment of old-fashioned language teaching methods, which seem to work on the basis that if you describe a grammar rule in as much detail as possible all in one go, people will magically be able to put it to use in communicative situations (as if simply understanding the rule was the problem...try this with children learning their first language) and that if you give people random lists of 40 words to learn without context, somehow they'll stick. Anyone who has taught a language knows that this is an approach that is bound to fail for 95% of students and slow down the learning of the 5% who have the bloody-mindedness to stick it out. I'm convinced this is why so many people in the UK are under the impression that language learning is an extraordinary and mysterious 'gift'. If you're looking for an introduction to Egyptian Colloquial Arabic that uses English transliteration you would be infinitely better off with 'Colloquial Arabic of Egypt' by Jane Wightwick and Mahmoud Gaafar, which is designed for self-study and brilliantly sets out the fundamentals of vocab and grammar in an intuitive and incremental way, supplemented by Pimsleur Egyptian Arabic (which will teach you how to read and get speaking) before starting off on the Kallimni 'Arabi series. If you want to learn to write, 'Mastering Arabic Script' is a really useful, practical little book. And for the record, I think learning Egyptian Arabic before starting out on MSA is a really great way round of doing it if you can get your hands on the right books.

I learned Classical and Modern Standard Arabic (using the mighty Hans Wehr, of course) during my university years, and for fun I decided to revive my Arabic with a twist to learn a colloquial variety. I've bought a number of books: Colloquial Arabic of Egypt by J.Wightwick, Kalaam Gamil, Kallimni Arabi Bishwees and Kullu Tamam by M.Woidich, The Big Fat Book of Egyptian Arabic Verbs by M.Aldrich, along with a number of additional e-books from the brilliant Lingualism (M. Aldrich).For text book, audio (Soundcloud hosted) and grammar the clear winner is Kullu Tamam, no competition. The audio transcripts are phonetically precise. The glossary is far the most complete of these books. Grammar is a very strong point of Kullu Tamam. The exercises are enough and great. It is even better than the T.F.Mitchel book. It has Index and solution to the exercises at the end of the book. Some people are complaining that the book is only transcript, and very few Arabic scripts. Yes, the book has a very strong concept to learn the spoken Egyptian: listen to the audio recording on Soundcloud and use the phonetically precise transcript. Still, if you are interested Lesson 17 teaches reading Arabic script, but it is not the main focus. The explanation of the delicate pronunciation rules of Egyptian Arabic is excellent in this book, and the transcripts for the audio dialogs are precise, this is a major plus of the book.The Aldrich (Lingualism) books are all brilliant, too, phonetically precise transcript, Arabic script included, very high quality presentation and contetnt, but they are not textbooks they cannot replace a textbook, and Kullu Tamam the best textbook in Egyptian Arabix.The J.Wightwick book is fun and great, too. Its grammar sections are fine, but not as complete as Kullu Tamam's excellent grammar sections. Unlike the phonetically precise transcripts in Kullu Tamam, the Wigthwick transcripts are more like a transcript of the Arabic script itself and phonetically not precise at all. Nevertheless, I love the Wighwick book, too, sure, but Kullu Tamam is superior.As for Kallimni Arabi Bishweesh and Kalaam Gamil: forget about them, just go for the Woidich or Wightwick book for text book, and the Lingualism books for additional material.

Libro semplice e ben spiegato (bisogna essere fluent in inglese)Gli esempi dei dialoghi, rapportati alla vita reale, sono molto utili

This course, which actually is translated into English from Dutch, is so much better than any of its competitors in the field of introductory Egyptian Arabic that it is hard to see them as serious alternatives to it.The Routledge 'Colloquial Arabic of Egypt' has a good-looking cover, but it doesn't offer a broad-based vocabulary, and the 'Kallimni Arabi' books (also published by American University in Cairo Press), while offering much more substantive vocabulary, are poorly organized and have next to nothing to offer in the way of grammar.The lessons in this book progress very logically and a beginning student can make fairly rapid progress. The explanations of grammar, while not extensive, don't omit anything that could come back and surprise a student at a more advanced level of the language. The CDs are excellent, and wonder of wonders- they come with the book. My one criticism would be that the Arabic alphabet is not introduced earlier- it would certainly be helpful for a native speaker teaching from the book.

I like this book a lot, it helped my Egyptian Colloquial tremendously. But it is difficult for learners without prior background in MSA or Egyptian because it covers a lot of material in one book. I recommend using the Michel Thomas Arabic (which actually teaches Egyptian Colloquial) to build some foundation first.

Im Gegensatz zu anderen Arabischen Textbüchern, findet man in Kullu Tamam eine gute Lehrmethode mit einfachen und praktischen Alltagsdialogen. Nützlicher Wortschatz und viele Übungen. Dazu gibt es eine CD.