A Review of Arabic Study Materials, Part 2

It was with much excitement that I made my (online) purchase of Vis-Ed’s Arabic Vocabulary Cards ($13.95).

I'm a big fan of using flashcards to build one’s vocabulary. With a strong vocabulary and the ability to conjugate the verbs of your target language, one is well on the path to fluency. Flashcards give one the chance to do both at the same time, while being portable enough to take with you anywhere. They give one a visual component of seeing the word and the aural component of hearing the word (if you say it to yourself and you should if you’re trying to learn it). It is this type of active learning that makes flashcards so effective. But there are flashcards and then there are flashcards…

Unfortunately per Vis-Ed, “It should be noted that as in most printed Arabic materials, the short vowels are omitted.” What in the world was Vis-Ed thinking when they made the decision not to include the small vowels? With that single decision, Vis-Ed ruined what should have been a very important weapon in a student's study arsenal.

Without the short vowels, pronunciation of the words is, for all intents and purposes, impossible. There is nothing on the outside of the box or on the online description that warns the potential buyer of this oversight. I suppose that one could always look the words up in an English – Arabic dictionary and write in the short vowels but that is rather pathetic. One would be better served to buy blank flashcards from the local bookstore and create their own flashcards (which is also a good idea).

In summation, flashcards = good. Vis’Ed’s flashcard implementation = bad.