Class at ALIF

     Class started at ALIF on Wednesday, and it is just about everything I didn't have in the U.S.  There are four people in my class.  My professors are native Arabic speakers, but are also fluent in French and English.  We attend two two-hour classes five days per week, and don't have the bother of other classes, jobs, etc.  Plus, when we leave the ALIF grounds, people are speaking Arabic everywhere we go. 

     Oh, and I'm pretty sure we're using Al-Kitaab (the book used both at OSU and here) the way it was designed to be, because we're intensely focusing on the listening and comprehension sections.  That's part of the benefit you get from being in class 20 hours each week instead of 4. 

     The professors are sweet (not to say those back home weren't).  Our first teacher is this guy who is quite direct in his statements about what you're doing wrong, but equally emphatic with his praise when you do something well.  He and I are kind of on different wavelengths when it comes to explaining things to each other in any language, but I hope we can work that out.

     My second prof is a lady named Tourya who told us on the first day of class that we're her kids first and her students second.  She follows the book less closely but holds conversations with us for about half the class, which is very useful in terms of learning vocab we can use right now. 

     At this point, at least from what I've seen so far, if I don't get as much out of this as I wanted to, it will be either because I didn't work enough in class, or because I didn't try to speak enough Arabic outside of class.  

     Now, a word about ALIF.  There are classes that teach Arabic for those who have never seen the alphabet, all the way up to pretty advanced levels.  Despite the range, the school itself has pretty small enrollment, so the staff is very much able and willing to accomodate concerns about the level of courses its students are in.  So far they haven't mentioned how grades work, and there is a rumor they might be pass/fail.  Our teachers carry with them a quiet determination that we actually learn, so it would not be outside the realm of possibility that grades are in fact pass/fail.