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Southern New Hampshire University just began its second foray into teaching Arabic through its continuing education department. SNHU graduate and Morocco native Imane Naji Amrani teaches the 16-week course that lasts until March 3. She will introduce students to modern standard Arabic and will focus on basic language skills, along with simple conversations and awareness of the Arabic culture and traditions.

Some of Naji Amrani’s students took a previous 8-week course offered a year ago with a different instructor, but SNHU hopes the longer format will offer more in-depth study. One student has business associates in Morocco; another just got back from Iraq and still has friends there. Naji Amrani held the first class on Oct. 31, also her first day teaching English as a Second Language. She has the help of Said Alabri, a graduate assistant from Oman.

Spoken Arabic, Naji Amrani explained to her students, is somewhat different from the written language. The language varies slightly from country to country — her own native Moroccan Arabic is recognizable to a Jordanian, for example, but there will be subtle differences in vocabulary and pronunciation. For practicing Arabic language skills, she recommended visiting Arab restaurants, reading Arabic newspapers, finding Arab chat rooms online and listening to Arabic songs. That’s how she learned English.

“I started just by listening to music and I found that I loved the language,” she said.

A conversational Arabic course is planned for January and will cost less (about $350), but will not include college credit.

Q: Have you taught Arabic classes before?
Actually, no, this is my first experience.

Are you a teacher by trade?
I’m from Morocco. I came here last year; I did my Master’s degree in a year and a half in teaching English as a Second Language. I’ve heard about Arabic being taught here, and I was like, I’ve been taught to teach, so I have the theory and I have the knowledge ... so I went to my professor, Denis Hall — he is the head of the department ESL program — and he was more than happy. I really thank him so much because without him I would never be here. I told him, “I’m really interested,” and when [the previous Arabic professor] said that he’s leaving, professor Denis thought about me. He was like, Imane would be the perfect person to do that.

It sounds like it was sort of your idea to teach the class.
Well, I presented myself and professor Denis gave me the opportunity.

How many students do you have enrolled?
So far, six students. I’m impressed, because the program should start at the beginning of September, but because of the lack of students, we didn’t start.

So you’re sort of off schedule a bit? It runs through March?
Yes, it’s 16 weeks. It’s two terms, from now until the end of February and then from February until March.

Is it a full-credit course?
Yes, it’s a three-credit course. We have no prerequisites; anyone can join the class. As a teacher, I will try to make it as interesting as possible for American people to learn the language.

How have you tried to get people interested in it?
Actually, with all that’s going on in the world, I think — fortunately or unfortunately I don’t know — the light is being shed on Arabic and the Arab world and Arab culture. I think it’s a good thing for Americans to know about Arabic.

With the conflict now between the West and a lot of Arabic-speaking countries, do you think a lot of that might be misunderstanding, just language issues?
Definitely, yes. Frankly speaking, whenever they say “Arab,” it connotes the word “terrorism” in your heads. And I think this is a good opportunity to make Americans understand that, no, to be an Arab person doesn’t mean to be a terrorist, or to be a Muslim does not mean to be a terrorist. If they know about the culture, they will know that we are just human — human people with our culture and our traditions. Like everybody else.

— John "jaQ" Andrews

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