An Intensive Arabic School: Your opinion ...

lepetitpoly wrote:

My initial question would be : which variant of Arabic would you offer? I'm very keen to learn more Arabic, and actually a class in a western country would be great for me. However, the main point that has stopped my language learning is the extreme differences among the variants. I have no way of choosing the variant of interest to me, because I have nothing swaying me in one direction or another. SO I left my studies at being marginally literate and conversational. I always feared I'd waste tons of time learning one variant intensely, only to be called upon to use it with another, noncompatible audience.

John Colangelo wrote:
I am thinking of opening an intensive Arabic language school outside of the Arabic speaking world. Or, in other words, in the West. Basically, the idea is that the student gets from four to five hours of intensive teaching daily: reading, writing, speaking, cultural etc ... all in Arabic except for beginners who would be allowed to use their mother tongue during the first couple of weeks. The rest would all be in Arabic.

The students would also have at least two or three teachers so that they wouldn´t get bored. But I want your feed back as well. I want to know what you think of my idea and if you were interested in learning a language, would you be willing to travel to another western country to learn it.

lepetitpoly wrote:

My initial question would be : which variant of Arabic would you offer? I'm very keen to learn more Arabic, and actually a class in a western country would be great for me. However, the main point that has stopped my language learning is the extreme differences among the variants. I have no way of choosing the variant of interest to me, because I have nothing swaying me in one direction or another. SO I left my studies at being marginally literate and conversational. I always feared I'd waste tons of time learning one variant intensely, only to be called upon to use it with another, noncompatible audience.

John Colangelo wrote:
The program I was imagining would last a maximum of two years. The first year would of course be dedicated to MSA ( Modern Standard Arabic). Maybe in the third or fourth semester, I would offer dialects the students could choose from: Egyptian, Levantine, Moroccan or Gulf. But that would be later on because learning it in the beginning would be counterproductive in my view.

But then again, I am also asking for your feedback. Maybe during those two years I wouldn´t teach dialect within the core curriculum. I would, however, and as an extra, offer it to my students if they were interested.

Jeff Allen wrote:



John,

You should investigate the following two intensive language learning institutes/programs on how they do it. I've heard from 2 people who have attended Thunderbird's program 25 years ago and 10 years ago that it is excellent.

Thunderbird, The Garvin School of International Management
Customized Language and Culture Programs
http://www.thunderbird.edu/exec_ed/tlcp/cust_lang/index.htm

Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center
http://www.dliflc.edu/

Jeff

Jeff Allen wrote:





MSA is definitely the variant to focus on.

One possible and valid approach to dealing with the dialects would be through an introductory course to Arabic dialects, and then separate optional modules on specific dialects.

Jeff

Heinrich Pesch wrote:

I do not understand Arabic, but I'd like to comment on the initial question: Would people want to move to a Western country to learn Arabic. Would I?
I wouldn't, because if you want to learn a new language fast you better spend all the time in the respective country, where the language is spoken, total immersion. Even 4 weeks let's say living and learning in an institute in Moscow or Petersburg will give you the ability to communicate quite fluently with Russian people, but if you can only communicate with your teachers even 6 months could be too short.
It's always much more effective if you can test your vocabulary in real situation with strangers than with a teacher playing in class.
And best of all of course is having good friends with whom you spend your evenings talking in the new language. Best of all of course a romance, but that might be a problem in some Arabic countries, I guess.
If I were to study Arabic from the beginning, I would take a University course first of all and stay where I am. It's so much cheaper. And I could engage a private teacher.
Regards
Heinrich

Heinrich Pesch wrote:
I wouldn't, because if you want to learn a new language fast you better spend all the time in the respective country, where the language is spoken, total immersion.

Tuliparola wrote:


Well, here in the Netherlands and in Germany and in a bunch of other European countries are enough Arabic speaking people for total immersion, Heinrich.
When I lived in Düsseldorf as a student I tried to follow a course for beginners at the university. For fun and because I liked to communicate with all the people from Marocco, Algeria, Syria, etc. I The young Dutch female teacher was good I suppose, but I was very very bad. She started with writing (wow it's calligraphy). It was too challenging for me. I really would have preferred to start with the very basics when being polite.
I felt really a looser listening to Turkish people who had no problems with the pronounciation. So I stopped after a few lessons.
But I like the idea of an Arabic language school very much and Granada would be a fine place.:-) But I think that it could work out even in Germany. In the Volkshochschule Düsseldorf (adult education center) they offer 13 Arabic courses at all levels.

But has it to be a language school only? Why not offering something like a cultural center? With film, music, cooking etc. etc. for total immersion even for people who do not want to learn the language, but to learn more about arabic culture.

Best regards
Steffi

[Edited at 2006-07-20 20:47]

Heinrich Pesch wrote:

I'd like to comment on the initial question: Would people want to move to a Western country to learn Arabic. Would I?

If I were to study Arabic from the beginning, I would take a University course first of all and stay where I am. It's so much cheaper. And I could engage a private teacher.

chademu wrote:



I would. For some reasons: I may be able to afford a small holiday in another EU country but not a bigger travel in Africa or Asia.



In some countries, universities are so crowded or the level of the language courses is so low that you could not imagine going there to learn a language.
To engage a private teacher is a nice idea, it is what I did as I was leaving in Germany (I was learning Arabic, she was learning German), but here, I really have no idea whom I could be able to ask me to teach something else than a Moroccan dialect which I do not want to learn.

Andalusia is the best place in Europe to open your school. A lot of Spanish people need / want to learn Arabic.
For different reasons, Córdoba may be a better place than Granada.

For those who want to check the progess they have made after a couple of weeks, they can take the jetfoil to Tanger and spend a week-end there.

Good luck!


[Edited at 2006-07-25 15:00]

John Colangelo wrote:

That's right and while I am trying to sincerely open the school let me just say that Morocco offers excellent intensive courses in Rabat and Fex. Those courses teach both classical Arabic as well as dialect.

This weekend in Granada I met a Moroccan fellow who had been living in Valencia. We spoke the whole time in classical Arabic and he spoke it beautifully.

Heinrich Pesch wrote:

I do not understand Arabic, but I'd like to comment on the initial question: Would people want to move to a Western country to learn Arabic. Would I?
I wouldn't, because if you want to learn a new language fast you better spend all the time in the respective country, where the language is spoken, total immersion. Even 4 weeks let's say living and learning in an institute in Moscow or Petersburg will give you the ability to communicate quite fluently with Russian people, but if you can only communicate with your teachers even 6 months could be too short.
It's always much more effective if you can test your vocabulary in real situation with strangers than with a teacher playing in class.
And best of all of course is having good friends with whom you spend your evenings talking in the new language. Best of all of course a romance, but that might be a problem in some Arabic countries, I guess.
If I were to study Arabic from the beginning, I would take a University course first of all and stay where I am. It's so much cheaper. And I could engage a private teacher.
Regards
Heinrich