New Book for Arabic Learners Fills Niche

Georgetown’s Abbas Al-Tonsi has done it again. Dr. Al-Tonsi, co-author of the Al-Kitaab Arabic language series, has written another new book and it is called Umm al-Dunya: Advanced Egyptian Colloquial Arabic.

Dr. Al-Tonsi’s new book has been described as “very holistic.” Written for students of Egyptian Colloquial Arabic who already have training in Modern Standard Arabic, Umm al-Dunya is the first textbook to incorporate the different levels and variations of Egyptian Colloquial Arabic in both its everyday and educated forms.

Published this month by The American University in Cairo Press, Umm al-Dunya is also the first book to use multimedia as a tool to teach Egyptian Colloquial Arabic. With its focus and emphasis on skillful pronunciation, phonetic and syntactic differences, and vocabulary and grammar, students will easily be able to use the language outside the classroom.

Dr. Al-Tonsi said, “Each of the ten lessons is structured around a video series, Abdalla’s Journey, which covers a range of topics in the everyday language. This is complemented by video interviews with scholars discussing the same topics in the educated variety.” He added, “This is not a book for only people who want to learn educated spoken Arabic but also a book for people who want to be able to connect with the common Egyptian person on the street.”

An author of Arabic textbooks and articles on literary criticism, Arab media, and politics, Dr. Al-Tonsi teaches Arabic at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar (SFS-Q).

Dr. Tonsi is also one of the key crafters of the new Arabic-language Heritage Learners program, an initiative led by SFS-Q that is a collaborative effort with other universities in Education City. The Heritage Learners program prepares native Arabic speakers for optimal language performance in Arabic-speaking professional environments.