I already used the Pimsleur Egyptian Arabic course, and am starting with this one. I also have a few English/Arabic dictionaries and such. But the pronunciation guide in the dictionary differs with what I've learned elsewhere. For example: The word "Kitaab". The dictionaries say the "aa" is pronounced as the a in the English word "Bad". But everywhere I hear this sound spoken, it sounds more like the "e" in "Bed" with a very slight "a" sound mixed in. Which is right? Also: I have access to far more learning material for Eastern Arabic than Egyptian. Would also learning the Eastern Arabic help with Egyptian or just confuse things? Also: I've not looked into reading and writing very much, but it looks to me that different dictionaries and websites have different ways of writing Egyptian Arabic using the English alphabet and numbers/symbols for the sounds we don't have in English. This would make learning to read and write Arabic difficult for me, as I'd have to learn how the word is spelled with English characters in order to translate to the Arabic Characters. Is there a standard way? I've not looked at any lessons here but the audio ones. I downloaded them all so I can listen to them, and I printed the transcripts, though I generally only use those the first time, just to help me to know what is being said. Would it make more sense to do the reading/writing lessons AS I do the audio ones? At the moment I have NO ability whatsoever to read or write Arabic

What are the Arabic words for tumble weed and echo, echo echo echo ?

In dialect the transliterated writing using the romanized lettering can be spelled in different ways because it is a phoenetic method of trying to represent the sounds of Arabic lettering.  It will be different because it can not be an exact representation of sounds because they can not translate exactly.  That is why I prefer to use Arabic letters when writing.  The 'franco' letters (in transliteration) make me crazy!  LOL  My suggestion would be to take the extra time to learn the Arabic letters now and use them exclusively thereafter.  Once you go through those lessons (which aren't all that hard as Arabic is a phoetic language), you will find it easier and more enjoyable to work with the Arabic language in my opinion.