Book excerpt: Arabic Voices is a two-part series designed to provide students of Arabic with an opportunity to hear and study authentic Arabic as it is spoken by native speakers today. Unlike the scripted materials read by voice actors used in many course books, Arabic Voices offers dozens of audio essays spoken naturally and off-the-cuff by individuals from across the Arab World. Each of the twelve native speakers has contributed audio essays in both Modern Standard Arabic and his or her native dialect, which have then been transcribed for study. In Arabic Voices 1 and 2, you will hear Egyptian Arabic, Levantine Arabic (Lebanese Arabic, Palestinian Arabic, Jordanian Arabic), Yemeni Arabic, Tunisian Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, as well as Modern Standard Arabic. MP3s are available for free download at www.lingualism.com. The segments in Modern Standard Arabic provide valuable insight into native speakers’ range of style and proficiency in the language. The segments in colloquial Arabic dialects offer a fascinating look into the many varieties of Arabic, and how similar and different they really are from one another. Fine-tuning your listening to the idiosyncrasies of each dialect will truly help you better understand spoken Arabic. Each “segment" (audio essay chapter) contains: 1) exercises to sharpen your listening skills and increase how much you can understand, whatever your level 2) in-chapter answers to the exercises (no having to flip back and forth to the back of the book) 3) a voweled transcript of the audio with side-by-side English translations 4) cultural and linguistic notes 5) web links to articles and videos related to the segment 6) select segments feature grammar focuses with additional exercises.