Ahlan to Arabic

Salam allaikum and welcome to your beginner's Arabic class. Now let's be honest: How many of you have been living in the UAE for a long time and still don't know how to speak any Arabic?

While most of this region's expat community get away with not speaking the local lingo, many others have undertaken the difficult task of learning the language because they are eager to better understand the culture in which they now live.

“The trouble with Arabic is that people don't get to speak if often. Hence group courses are more popular than private or online courses because people can interact with each other,'' said Moaz Khan, marketing manager at Eton Collage in Dubai Knowledge Village.

Intensive Arabic courses are in full swing at the college, where on Sunday morning, a group of 12 students was practising how to say what they had done over the weekend.

“We're living and working here so we should know the language and get a sense of the culture,'' said Arda Aral, a Turkish student in the beginner's class.

International class

Raef Ahmed Taha, one of the 15 Arabic teachers at the Eton College, said the challenge for him is that his students are of many different nationalities — Spanish, Turkish, Argentine, Chinese, Polish, Dutch, French and American.

“It's very important for them to learn the language so they can understand the culture,'' the Egyptian teacher said.

In Abu Dhabi, not everybody speaks English as in Dubai and official government letters must be in Arabic, he said.

He gets very frustrated sometimes because there are a lot of spelling mistakes in Dubai (on billboards, company names etc…).

“We should learn the language because we can be rude or disrespectful without knowing,'' Argentine expat Ana Stante said.

For the third consecutive year, Eton College is offering from June 21 a super intensive Arabic summer course open for all levels from beginner to advanced.

The group classes are conducted five days a week for four hours from Sunday to Thursday, totalling 60 hours per level and six levels in total. Regular courses are two hours twice a week.

Courses offered

Teachers from all over the Arabic-speaking world teach modern standard Arabic using the Ultimate Arabic method created in the US and used by Ivy League universities, according to Khan.

“I notice that some people don't know any Arabic and they've been here for years,'' said a personal tutor from Syria.

The number of non-Arabs taking up Arabic language programmes, however, has been rising steadily.

The University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD) recently announced two intensive summer courses tailored to candidates who wish to study Arabic in an Arabian cultural context.

Each four-week programme includes lessons on Arabic language, visits to local places of interest and lectures on Arab culture and customs.

According to UOWD figures, 236 people took the courses in 2008, and the university expects the number to rise significantly during 2009 due to an increase in student numbers.

Besides the summer schedule, UOWD conducts regular six-week Arabic language courses at beginner and elementary levels throughout the year.

In addition, the university offers an intermediate course in Arabic Language Business and Pleasure programme for learning Arabic in a business setting.

The difficulties of learning Arabic and the frustrations that come with it are many, according to several students and teachers.

The biggest challenge for learners, Khan said, is the script itself. “Once they gain confidence with the script, the learning process becomes easier,'' he said.

Although he already speaks six languages, expat Tim Goddard, said it's time to learn Arabic because he's lived in Dubai for four years.

“The alphabet has 28 letters but each letter has four different shapes depending on where it's placed,'' said the 48-year-old. “The other difficult thing is the short vowels aren't written down.''

The Syrian tutor said many of her students are more interested in learning how to speak than write while in fact it's easier for them to read and understand the logic of the language by knowing how to write it.

“If they learn spoken Arabic only, they'll never understand anything on television or in a newspaper,'' she said.

“Language is a combination of reading, writing, listening and speaking. You can't learn just one.''

Working for Fairmont Hotels and in charge of the Middle East market for events and meetings, Sohel Memon said the biggest challenge with Arabic is that it's very different from English.

“There's a format in English to follow but Arabic doesn't follow a specific rule. It keeps on changing,'' said the 26-year-old Indian expat.

Big challenge

Lina Yazbeck, a senior Arabic teacher at the Arabic Language Centre at the Dubai World Trade Centre, emphasised the lack of similarities between Arabic and other languages.

“People have to be told that what they're learning is different from anything else that they know,'' she said.

Not only the script but the writing from right to left and the grammar and sentence structure are different, she said. Sometimes, students have difficulties with the pronunciation of letters that don't exist in English.

The Arabic Language Centre, where Arabic learners are from all over the world, offers modern standard Arabic courses from beginners to advanced levels.

“We teach modern standard Arabic (classical) but also introduce expressions that are used in different countries,'' Yazbeck said.

Another challenge for expats trying to learn Arabic is that most of them are business people who work during the day.

British expat Elizabeth Bains is currently taking a course at Eton College twice a week in the evening for two hours.

“The main frustration is the Arabic letters are so hard to memorise, and it is very tiring to study after a day at work,'' she said.

But don't despair, learning Arabic isn't just an arduous and complicated task.

“The reward comes within two hours in the first class, students are able say 10 different sentences and perform a few tasks, in addition to learning six to eight letters,'' Yasbeck said.

Readers say

I speak six languages fluently and want to learn another language. I tried learning a few words of Arabic from the internet but was not very successful!
— Naina

There should be one-hour night classes in Arabic at all major residential complex halls.
– Syam Prabhu

I have been trying to learn Arabic and I must say it is not something that you can't achieve. Just make it a part of your everyday life. Learn little by little. I personally compare it to brushing my teeth in the morning. When you do same little things everyday, you get results!
– Timur

Learning Arabic is very important to me because I work in customer service. The only problem I'm facing is I try learning the local accent which sometimes can't be understood by other Arabic speakers, from Egypt and Syria for example.
– Jhel

Common phrases

Hello = Salam allaikum

Good morning = Sabah al khair

How are you? = Kayfa haluka?

Where are you from? = Min ayna anta?

Nice to meet you = Tasharafna

What are you doing? = Matha tafaal?

What's your name? = Ma ismuk?

My name is ____ = Ismi ____

Thank you = Shoukran

Goodbye = Maa al salamah