Yemen is the best destination to study Arabic

[Abduljaleel]

Yemen is the best destination to study Arabic
By: Khaled Al-Hilaly
Published:12-08-2009



Over the past ten years, Yemen has become one of the best countries in which to study Arabic. Although the latest attack on the American embassy in Sana'a prompted many Western universities to ask their students to leave the country, others who come to study at their own cost find Yemen to be a safe and convenient place to study the language. Most students come to Yemen after having heard of the benefits of studying Arabic here by word of mouth from other students or friends.

According to Henkous, “It's easy to talk with people and practice Arabic in the street and elsewhere. I went to Morocco to learn Arabic but almost everyone there speaks French. I knew I would not easily learn the language, so I came here where people don’t speak French.” American national Jason Hitt, 19, is studying Arabic to become a translator. After having lived in Kuwait for five years, he says he learned more Arabic in the three months in Yemen that over there.

Hitt did some research on the internet and found that English is not widely-spoken in Yemen. "Yemen has a lot of native Arabic speakers who don't speak English, so you have to practice Arabic all the time," he explained.

Henkous described the Arabic teaching method in Yemen as very good and efficient. "Here we talk a lot, we use the vocabulary we learn to make sentences, and we study less grammar.” She went on to explain, "In France where I had studied for two years, I used to have a difficult textbook with a lot of vocabulary that I never got a chance to use.”

The reasons behind the increasing trend amid foreign students to study Arabic vary. Some study to deepen their Islamic faith since Arabic is the language of the Quran, some to expand their job opportunities, and others study to enrich their personal lives and improve their intercultural understanding.

According to the latest survey in the United States by the Modern Language Association (MLA), the study of Arabic has continued its impressive expansion: from 1998 to 2002, enrolment in Arabic language courses in the U.S. increased by 92.3 percent and, between 2002 and 2006, by a remarkable 126.5 percent.

"Arabic almost doubled its enrolments in 2002 and more than doubled its figures again in 2006, bringing its latest enrolments to 23,974. Not only have enrolments in Arabic expanded two-fold, but the number of institutions of higher learning offering Arabic has also nearly doubled," the MLA survey noted.

In Yemen, there are a handful of places to learn Arabic. Tailor-made courses are available for Muslim students and those who prefer to study one-to-one, and some institutes offer media courses based on transcripts from the Yemeni radio and Arabic satellite news channels such as Al-Jazeera or Al-Arabiya. A student who is studying Arabic to become a teacher said that, after research, he found that Yemen and Syria were the best destinations to learn the language, but chose Yemen because the Yemeni dialect is closer to Modern Standard Arabic than other dialects like Egyptian or Moroccan.

He said, "The vibrant relationship between language and culture distinguishes the process of studying Arabic in Yemen. They teach us standard Arabic, however I can speak both dialect and standard Arabic."

Laura Turnbull, 23, a Political Anthropology student specializing in Middle Eastern Studies from Canada has been studying Arabic for a month and half in Yemen. She said, “It's wonderful. It's great and it's so easy to go out and practice. Everyone keeps saying that Yemen is the best place to learn Arabic and I think it's really true," she added. She says that although Arabic is a hard language to learn, being in Sana'a makes it a lot easier.

People ask Turnbull about her homework and converse with her on the street, and it provides her with a positive and encouraging atmosphere to learn the language. Charlotte Kaufman, an American from New York, has spent two months studying in Yemen. A student in Anthropology with a focus on the Middle East, she had studied Arabic at her university for six weeks and in Morocco for another six weeks before coming here. Comparing the method of teaching Arabic in the U.S. and in Yemen, Kaufman said, "Here there is a lot emphasis on speaking and listening, but in the U.S. the emphasis is on grammar and writing."

According to Kaufman, it's much better to study in Yemen because in Morocco there is more tourism so people treat foreigners as tourists rather than students. “In Morocco, English is spoken widely so I can’t practice Arabic. The local dialect is extremely different from standard Arabic and it's not easy. Here it's way easier to learn,” she added.

Kaufman also thinks that New York is very dangerous so she feels safer in Yemen.

"Most of our students come to us on summer break from university," said Ahmed Nagi, the executive manager of the Yemen College of Middle Eastern Studies (YMES). “That’s why in the summer, we have more students." According to Nagi, when students arrive in Yemen and discover the land and the hospitable people, all past misconceptions and negative preconceptions vanish.

According to Abduljalel Al-Bazeli, director of the Yemen Institute for Arabic Language (YIAL) in Sana'a, one of the main reasons why Yemen is a preferable destination for foreigners to study Arabic is the nature of the citizens, their simplicity and their encouragement towards foreigners studying Arabic.

If a Yemeni meets a student who pronounces an Arabic word or phrase incorrectly, he understands and encourages him or her instead of speaking to him in English or French.

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