arabiclearner

A few years ago I came to the conclusion that I wanted to learn Arabic. I had majored in World Religions and Philosophy, but I felt this gave me a very superficial understanding of the major world religions, especially Islam. So I decided I wanted to understand this religion better, a religion that has over a billion followers. It quickly became apparent to me that a good knowledge of Arabic was a necessary prerequisite to any real study of Islamic religion and culture, and after asking around, it seemed obvious that Egypt was the best place in the world to learn this language. Everyone talked about how friendly Egyptians are, and how their culture is fascinating, ancient and colorful. Also, Egypt is in many ways the intellectual and cultural hub of the Arabic world. After all, Muslims from all over the world come to study their faith at Al Azhar University in Old Cairo, and Egyptian Arabic has become widely understood throughout the entire Middle East thanks to many famous Egyptian films and songs. Of course, everyone in America knows about Omar Sherif, and many have heard of Om Khalsoum. But the list goes on: What about Adel Imam, the famous actor? Or the current popular musicians: Amr Diab, Mohamad Mounir, and Shaaban Abd il Rahim?

What better place to study Arabic? Much better than studying in some exorbitantly-priced, sterile institution in the states. I recently checked out the renowned Middlebury program in Vermont, http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/ls/dates_fees/, and a nine-week program there is $7,700! Of course, this is an immersion program, and the people I know who have gone there speak very highly about it and seem to have a good handle on FusHa (classical Arabic), but I’m gonna let you on a little secret: Cairo is MUCH cheaper! And MUCH more of a learning experience! And MUCH more fun! Also, the experiences you glean here would look very good on a resume, if you chose at a later date to continue your Arabic/ Middle Eastern studies, or to look for a job. OK, I must admit that I’m a cheapskate, but let’s just look at the figures:

Let’s just say that you’re a single American male and you wanted to learn Arabic in Egypt for an entire year. We’ll do the math together: Round-trip ticket ($1000); a modest, furnished flat in the neighborhood of your choice (at most, $2,500 for the year, including all bills); food (of course, this can vary based on how much you eat, and how much you eat at western restaurants, but you can eat well on $100 a month- one of my single female friends here just told me she spends about $50 a month on food). So, that brings us to $4,700 for a year. If you want to stay low-budget at this point, you’d better stay away from AUC- unless you qualify for a scholarship. (If you do have money to spend, however, and you want to go really intensive, AUC may be just the place for you. Even if it is expensive, at least you still get the cultural benefits of living here in Cairo!). But then you have lots of other options in Cairo. One is to look for a language helper. This can be any friend who doesn’t speak a lot of English, but someone you trust, and with whom you actually enjoy spending time. Hopefully this person enunciates clearly and has a lot of patience as well! In my case, I met someone with whom I immediately clicked with and trusted. This person understood virtually no English, but had a lot of patience and persistence-and he loved to talk. After I met with him a few times, we set up lessons (basically just conversation) where he would come over once a week (anywhere from 4-6 hours each), and I would pay him about 10 LE ($2) an hour. Financially, this was great for me and great for him, and even though I got lots of warnings from other friends, the money never got in the way of the friendship. So, back to our budget: If you had a language helper for 5 hours a week at 10 LE/ hour, this would be about 2500 LE in a year, or around $400, bringing us to $5,100.

As far as formal classes in Cairo go, there are some amazing diamonds in the rough. I found a place that I really loved, and ended up taking over a year’s worth of classes from them. The place is called "Kalimat Language and Cultural Center," http://www.kalimategypt.com, and is located in Mohandisseen near Midan Mustafa Mahmoud. Kalimat has a colloquial Egyptian program as well as a FusHa program. I took both (at different times), and enjoyed them immensely. In my opinion, their FusHa program is the best, although both programs are good. My advice: if you want to come to Egypt to study, take colloquial Egyptian first, for several months, before even touching FusHa. (If you want more advice on learning Egyptian Arabic as well as FusHa, check out AUC’s Dr. David Wilmsen’s comments at this address: http://www.egyptianarabic.com/institutions/wilmsen.asp. Here he talks about the 5 most important things Arabic learners should remember). Ultimately, the decision to study colloquial and classical concurrently or one-at-a-time depends on how good you are with languages and how much time you have to study. I am married with small children, and trust me, one new language at a time is enough for me. The differences between colloquial and FusHa are substantial enough to make it extremely difficult to learn them both well at the same time. At Kalimat I met several students, many very bright and from schools like Harvard, Cambridge, etc. but very few excelled at learning both languages at the same time. Of course, many simply had no desire to learn Egyptian colloquial and focused solely on FusHa. But in my view, this is a mistake. Very few Egyptians can really speak FusHa, but all Egyptians speak colloquial, and the best resource for learning any language is PEOPLE! This is definitely true in this country where everyone is friendly and eager to help you. Further, most Muslims count it a privilege to help foreigners to understand the Arabic language, which is so inextricably intertwined with their faith. OK, back to the budget...

Kalimat’s intensive courses meet four days a week (Mon-Thurs) and run for a month. There are 12 levels in both colloquial and FusHa. FusHa meets from 9:00 AM until noon each day, making the course 48 hours total. The price is 1590 LE. Colloquial Egyptian meets each of these days from 1:20-3:20 PM, making the course 32 hours total. The price for this is 1060 LE. There are a variety of summer options available, ranging from very intensive (Sunday-Thursday, 9-12, including lots of homework), to evening classes which meet two nights a week for two hours. Personally, I think summer in Cairo is a time to chill like the locals do- if you can find A/C! So as far as budget goes, if you followed my advice (arriving in the early fall), you would take three months of colloquial, then six months of FusHa, and then maybe some light classes in the summer. This would total around $2,500, and would bring your yearly total to $7,600. Finally, let’s just say that other fees (like your visa stamp, tips, etc.) came to $100 for the year, for a total of $7,700. So, financially speaking, an entire year in Cairo would equal the nine-week immersion session at Middlebury! (By the way, several of my "thriftier" friends here have informed me that the above figures are actually quite high...).

If you bring some extra money, Kalimat also organizes and leads some great outings (to places like the White Desert or Bahariyya Oasis) at reasonable prices. And in Egypt, whenever you can get someone else to arrange a trip for you at a fair price, you should do it! Finally, I want to put in a final plug for Kalimat. The teachers there are really excellent and several are of the same caliber as those at Middlebury. Some have even been offered positions at Middlebury or other schools in the states and in Canada. A couple teachers have around 30 years of experience and they all really love what they’re doing. If you do go there, try to get into Rif’at’s class or Mohamad Bakry’s. After taking about twelve months of their FusHa program, I ended up close to the same level as some students who had studied FusHa at Cambridge and Oxford for several years. And when I arrived at Kalimat, I knew nothing as far as FusHa is concerned, except some things that overlapped from colloquial.