Moroccan Arabic: Shnoo the Hell is Going On H'naa? A Practical Guide to Learning Moroccan Darija - the Arabic Dialect of Morocco (2nd edition) (Educational Resources)

Do not expect to ‘learn’ the Arabic dialect of Morocco from this book. It is as the author indicates in the introduction an ‘instruction manual’, and that’s the problem. The instruction is idiosyncratic as is the phonetic transcript. The examples offered are of little practical use, and there is too much unnecessary text. The book design does not look ‘friendly’ either. You would need to have a grasp of the grammar and structure of written Arabic to make sense of this book. In effect you would need to have had ‘hands on experience’ to understand the variations from Modern Standard Arabic or at least an acquaintance with another dialect.It is a brave effort but the author is plainly not a linguist. Irregularities in the vitally important, for Darija, phonetic transcription are suggestive on that score. The book needs expert review.The Peace Corps Moroccan Arabic course, free to download, is a better option and for the phonology an old work An Introduction to Moroccan Arabic by Ernest T Abdel-Massih, also a free download, from the University of Michigan is instructive.There is a manual from Routledge, good but rather expensive, and there are books in French but again they have transcriptions that are unscientific and awkward.A modern, full and practical course with good recordings is still needed.

This book is so far ahead of all the other Moroccan Arabic textbooks that it seems almost churlish to give it only four stars. While it uses the Arabic script, and thus avoids the ridiculous gibberish of the Georgetown course material, it contains no exercises through which the student could become reasonably familiar with reading and writing the Arabic script. I didn't find this a problem but I already learnt this before I bought the book. There is also little by way of vocabulary and nothing by way of reading or comprehension exercises. It may sound a little unreasonable to criticise a book for not doing what it doesn't really set out to do, but anybody serious about learning Moroccan Arabic will have to supplement this book with some kind of language course that allows them to acquire familiarity with the Arabic script and a wider exposure to vocabulary and everyday conversation, etc, so it's not really a stand-alone option. You will certainly have to supplement this book with other reference material, including Richard Harrell's awful gibberish transliterated Moroccan Arabic Dictionary (with no Arabic script, but still essential for general vocabulary), the Georgetown reference grammar which uses the same transliteration system (this is optional, but covers some interesting points not covered by Sakulich) and Abdenebi El Haloui's excellent (but limited in scope) Verb Dictionary (which does use the Arabic script in conjunction with transliterations). The book also contains a small number of errors. It is to be hoped that Sakulich will revise and expand this otherwise excellent book in the future.Having said that, anybody wishing to learn Moroccan Arabic should buy this book.

I finally decided to learn some Moroccan so I could speak with my wife's parents and relatives in her home town of Casablanca. Was hard to find a proper book which would teach me Darija (the Arabic dialect spoken in Morocco). I have only gone through the first part of this book and am finding it easy to read and learning a lot. However, I think it could do with a few more examples and maybe a couple of exercises? It would be more complete that way. Still, excellent starting point to learn Moroccan Arabic!

This is a very handy book that I am sure I will be referring to a lot in the near future. One thing I would say which may be slightly unfair for the scope of the book is that just reading the words on the page is not so useful. It helps to hear the words pronounced by a native speaker so that you can learn to speak them that way yourself. Some kind of guidance as to where to hear authentic Moroccan Arabic pronunciation on the internet would have been useful.

Well structured book and helps me learn in an organised way. However, you do need a teacher and something else to learn the basics from, as this book assumes a certain level of familiarity with the language. The author explains things in a clear way, free from jargon.

Really good book, like everyone said it's very clear and easy to understand. But it only covers the the basics in the language.

Took it to Morocco on holiday and the locals loved it so much that I had to leave the book with them.

Excellent a great improvement on previous books on Moroccan Arabic. Difficult areas well covered and a basic vocabulary.