Customer comments on this Youngstown Ohio Book
 Not for beginners, but still worth it if you're determined
This book could be an excellent introduction to Moroccan Arabic, but it suffers from a few flaws. The main flaw is the author's rather odd method of transliteration (i.e. using English letters to represent Arabic script). His method is rather confusing and differs from the one that is more commonly used when dealing with Arabic. If one does not already have a general knowledge of the Arabic language, its sounds, and even some vocabulary, one would be at a loss to make sense of the transliteration (i.e. using an "z" to represent the Arabic equivalent of "j" and other such oddities). However, once you've learned how to decipher the cryptic transliteration, the book can be rather useful.
Even though written in 1965, the basics of the Moroccan dialect are well represented in the text, even though it might be called a more formal version of the dialect than one generally hears on the streets or in daily conversations. The book introduces the basics of Moroccan Arabic, both grammar and vocabulary, in a logical and progressive manner over the course of 130 short lessons. Each lesson essentially contains a short text, which is followed up by grammatical notes, exercises and vocabulary. The second part of the book contains ninety-seven dialogues that are presented in transliteration along with their English translations. Whenever I take a look at this text, it seems I get the feeling that this could really be an excellent book if it weren't for the irksome transliteration. In my mind, that just won't go away...
Due to that, my heartfelt suggestion to anyone wanting to learn any dialect of the Arabic language is to first learn to read and write the Arabic script. That way you don't have to waste your time learning different methods of transliteration, which often leads to incorrect pronunciation anyway. Keep in mind that learning to read Arabic isn't like learning to read Chinese or Japanese, with their thousands of characters, since it only contains twenty-eight letters. While it usually looks rather confusing at first, especially since the letters connect to one other, with some practice and determination most people, regardless of their background, can pick it up rather quickly. Unfortunately, as it stands now, I don't know of a major text dealing specifically with Moroccan Arabic for English speakers that uses Arabic script, so the book under review seems to be about all there is for now. However, although it's rather slim and doesn't really set out to teach the language in detail, the Lonely Planet Moroccan Arabic Phrasebook does use both Arabic script and transliteration, so those who can read Arabic might find it more useful, although it certainly doesn't offer the same depth of coverage as the text in question.
Overall, I would suggest getting this book if you really need a text specific to Moroccan Arabic, but keep in mind that you might need a Moroccan to help you with the pronunciation and transliteration at the beginning. The book mentions that cassette tapes (and now MP3 files) are also available to go along with the text, so I'd certainly consider these in order to learn correct pronunciation...especially since the cryptic transliteration that this book used certainly isn't going to help in that regard.
Abdurrahman R. Squires
 This is Essentially Useless, and There's Nothing Better
This "course" is simply a reprint of an old Georgetown book from the 60s. It is garbage. The text is not in Arabic script (which is ridiculous) and the "exercises" are useless, but the vocab could be a good start if some of the words were not outdated and the author had explained which were Moroccan, Standard Arabic, French, or Spanish. The recordings, although insightfully encoded into MP3 format, are of the worst quality. They are clearly copies from tapes from back in the 60s when this book was useful. It sounds like they were recorded in a bathroom by someone who had smoked three packs of Winstons a day for 25 years. It was a decent language book for its time, but this is 2005. LET'S GET SOME NEW BOOKS GEORGETOWN!!! If that institution is such a bastion of Arabic studies in America, then I challenge it to get off its ass and put something out there (besides al-Kitab). This stuff is IMPORTANT these days. We Arabic students NEED it.
 On my way to fluency
This is the only complete Moroccan Arabic book (in English at least) that I have found out there. I am about half way through the book and CD's. I know I am on my way to fluency because everything that I have learned thus far I am able to both speak and understand. The other small Moroccan Arabic books out there are useless if you truly want to become fluent. I guess they may be useful if you are planning a trip to Morocco and need to learn a few phrases to find the toilets, etc. If you are in a touristy area in Morocco then you could just use French. I highly recommend the book and CDs if you are serious about learning Moroccan. I am grateful that this is available. Otherwise, I believe that learning Moroccan Arabic would be nearly impossible.
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