Parallel Arabic
Languages and libraries
language learning
SHOW HN2024
98points
54comments
#845of 3,515 in 2024
Top 25%of 2024 by points
How HN took it
MixedNo clear lean
7 positive, 7 neutral or asking, 3 mixed, 5 critical, out of 22 comments about the project. Thread score +0.12.
Idea: 3 for, 1 againstDocs: 0 for, 3 againstExecution: 0 for, 1 againstDesign: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Useful for learning Arabic and refreshing a heritage language
From 3 comments
I’m of Lebanese heritage and grew up speaking, reading and writing Arabic but then moved to Australia and never looked back for over 20 years. I’m slowly losing my ability to…
disintegrator on HNThis is great! As someone outgrowing Duolingo this is perfect. I do agree it would be nice to be able to switch between dialects.
shaunxcode on HNThis is great. I might finally be able to understand the Egyptian shows. My Arabic is terrible. In the first lesson I learned a new word!
greazy on HN
Good format for practice
From 2 comments
Wicked cool! I like this format of practice. Just found a small bug though. The click-to-translate for a given word seems to miss the target of click somewhere. It's translating…
BWStearns on HNOne for bookmarking and following, thanks! Tried learning Arabic from Duolingo for more than a year and loved learning my way around the script at least.
pcardoso on HN
Objections
Content is Egyptian dialect, not standard Arabic
From 4 comments
This seems to be the Egyptian dialect, not standard Arabic.
Narishma on HNJust note this is not arabic, it's a dialect unfortunately.
elsadek on HNThis is Egyptian Arabic
zain_saqer on HNI like the format but these seem grammatically incorrect written down in arabic, e.g. missing articles etc, I guess you're going for street Arabic but you should have it in…
wizwit999 on HN
Arabic keyboard layout is unusual
From 1 comment
I speak Arabic (Syrian) natively and I think this is great! Good work! I agree with other comments that it might be helpful to mention somewhere that this is colloquial Egyptian…
beshrkayali on HN
Alphabet is unfamiliar to beginners with no intro
From 1 comment
For someone like myself, the biggest challenge will always be that the alphabet (abjad?) is unfamiliar. I am aware that it's rtl, and that letters are connected (and have…
NoMoreNicksLeft on HN
Requests
Support for multiple dialects such as MSA and Levantine
From 2 comments
this is great - i would love to use this if it had MSA, levantine and egyptian dialects. It's a little annoying that a moving highlight is not present which is also tied to the…
an_aparallel on HNThis is great! As someone outgrowing Duolingo this is perfect. I do agree it would be nice to be able to switch between dialects.
shaunxcode on HN
Moving highlight synced with audio playback
From 2 comments
this is great - i would love to use this if it had MSA, levantine and egyptian dialects. It's a little annoying that a moving highlight is not present which is also tied to the…
an_aparallel on HNThat would be a great feature, definitely going to look into how to implement something like that.
selmetwa on HN
Mention Egyptian dialect on the site
From 2 comments
Good work. I think you will need to add to the website that you mean Egyptian Arabic dialect. Also on safari mobile there is problem rendering the word character during writing.…
bluish29 on HNI speak Arabic (Syrian) natively and I think this is great! Good work! I agree with other comments that it might be helpful to mention somewhere that this is colloquial Egyptian…
beshrkayali on HN
More stories beyond the single example
From 2 comments
Good work. I think you will need to add to the website that you mean Egyptian Arabic dialect. Also on safari mobile there is problem rendering the word character during writing.…
bluish29 on HNThanks for the feedback, definitely need to polish the mobile experience. And yeah as of now just the one story as a POC, I plan on adding more in the future.
selmetwa on HN
Questions
Are the audio readings recorded by a human or TTS
From 1 comment
Are the readings done via mic + real in the flesh speaker? Or are you using tts?
an_aparallel on HN
Alternatives named
Duolingo
From 2 comments
One for bookmarking and following, thanks! Tried learning Arabic from Duolingo for more than a year and loved learning my way around the script at least.
pcardoso on HNThis is great! As someone outgrowing Duolingo this is perfect. I do agree it would be nice to be able to switch between dialects.
shaunxcode on HN