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Thanks for reading the Multilingual Books newsletter, your source for foreign language news, information, and product information and specials from Multilingual Books. This is also available as a web page at our website, www.multilingualbooks.com. In this issue:
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Arabetics: An Easier Arabic?
Arabic script, although a unique and beautiful method of writing, poses many challenges for the student and for modern word processing technology. For instance, Arabic is read right-to-left, and each letter has 4 different forms varying according to the letter's position in a word. Imagine trying to type in English if every letter of a word changed shape as each new letter was entered. Well, this is actually the case when word processing in Arabic. These features require more overhead and programming in word processing technology, and are often difficult for students and writers.
Saad Abulhab, director of technology for Newman Library of Baruch College in New York City, has devised Arabetics, a new system intended to address these issues. Based on Arabic and other related languages such as Persian and Urdu, Arabetics is intended to maintain the style of Arabic script while simplifying the presentation. Arabetics features a single form for each letter and can be written and read left-to-right or vice versa, and requires only 140 glyphs rather than as many as 600 for current systems. Mr. Abulhab has been issued a patent for his system and for a font named Mutamathil, meaning "symmetric and uniform", representing the new system. The system is said to be easily understood by Arabic readers as well as less demanding for students, writers, programmers and computers.
There are several precedents for this. Simplified forms of written Chinese, Japanese, and Korean are now widely used. Romanization, the practice of using the Roman alphabet to represent a foreign language, is also often used. Mr. Abulhab envisions the system being used for teaching and for many publishing purposes such as newspapers, rather than replacing Arabic script outright.
Here at Multilingual Books we are often asked about foreign scripts; for instance what script is used for a particular language and how to make it work, or whether a course is in script or romanized. While most courses do not teach the script or non-roman scripts in the first level, most language students and travelers will want to know how to read and write the language. We feel than every step taken to make language more accessible is a step in the right direction. We applaud Mr. Abulhab's efforts and look forward to seeing implementations of his new system.
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FSI Standard Chinese: Traveling in China Now on CD
Multilingual Books is proud to announce our latest FSI (Foreign Service Institute) course CD release: FSI Standard Chinese Module 8: Traveling in China! Our exclusive versions have the quality and convenience of a CD along with the top-notch language teaching methods that the Foreign Service is famous for. Each new version has been carefully digitally remastered for greatly improved sound quality as compared to the commonly available cassette courses and is exclusive to Multilingual Books. We now have the following FSI or DLI courses available on CD: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), French, Iraqi, Korean, Philippino, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, and Thai. Plus, coming soon: Cantonese, Turkish, and Greek! Find out more about our FSI courses at our
FSI page. Find out more about our Chinese offerings at our French page.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the 5th volume of this popular series, is now available in French, German, Spanish, and Russian! Now your children (and why not yourself as well?) can read the best-selling, fly-off-the-bookshelf Harry Potter series in the language of your choice!
Top Products for March
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Last month's trivia questions and answers: Translate the following foods/beverages into English and also tell us what language they are. For example: Mleko - milk, Polish Mukate - bread (Russian) The winner of last month's contest is . Congratulations and thanks to all the entrants! This month's trivia question: Quenya and Sindarin are languages created by J.R.R. Tolkien for his epic Lord of the Rings trilogy. Which Earth languages do Quenya and Sindarin most closely resemble?The answers and the winner will be in our next newsletter. Winner will receive their choice of one Talk Now or World Talk language CD-ROM! No purchase necessary to enter. E-mail your entry to:
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Dr. Berlin's Foreign Font Archive
Need a font for Japanese, or maybe something a little more difficult like Tibetan or Coptic? Dr. Berlin's Foreign Font Archive offers over 700 typefaces for over 80 languages, as well as useful keyboard utilities.
Check it out at http://user.dtcc.edu/~berlin/fonts.html.
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FREE Shipping on Foreign Language Videos! We have significantly expanded our foreign language video section, adding many new languages, titles and Spanish children's videos. We offer videos in over 20 languages from Arabic to Vietnamese, and titles from worldwide blockbusters such as Harry Potter, to classic films, to fine lesser-known regional films. We now offer over 500 titles.
For a limited time, get FREE shipping on your foreign language video order! Save with our newsletter special for one week only! Use promo code MB-FSV-321 to receive this special. |
 
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FREE Talk Now CD Course with FSI Course Orders!
Foreign Service Institute Courses Talk Now CD-ROM Courses Save with FREE Talk Now CD Course with purchase of Foreign Service Institute courses for one week only! Use promo code MB-FTN-321 to receive this special. |
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FREE Shipping on Language Littles Speaking Dolls! Save with FREE Shipping on Language Littles speaking dolls for one week only! Use promo code MB-LLS-321 to receive this special. |
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