Sharmila Mohan

School principal

Sharmila Mohan attended the Beginners’ Arabic course Taster session by Firas Al Shaer and found Arabic isn’t as difficult to learn as she thought:

More than a decade ago I found myself sitting in a dimly lit room, facing an irritable elderly gentleman trying to learn a dreadfully difficult language, Arabic. A recipe for disaster. I gave up. Demotivated and frustrated.

Two evenings ago, I went to an Arabic Taster Class organised by the Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature. All of us had different reasons for learning Arabic. I was there because I live in the UAE now and I want to learn more about the culture and traditions of my adopted country.

different reasons for learning Arabic. I was there because I live in the UAE now and I want to learn more about the culture and traditions of my adopted country.

As I listened, I learnt some amazing facts about Arabic. The general perception is that it is difficult, highly inflectional and conjugational. Actually, Arabic is the rare language that has one sound for one letter. It has three vowel sounds and has no exceptions. Firas strongly feels that when a language is taught structurally it is not taught at all and he proved this by making all those present actively participate in the evening’s proceedings.

He explained how in the Communicative method of teaching, no two sessions are the same as they are tailored to suit the students requirements. Students are encouraged to interact and role play and plenty of consideration is given to those who are shy or reluctant

There is no doubt that Firas is a great teacher. He has been teaching for more than two decades and definitely enjoys himself. This enjoyment transmits to everyone in the room as it did on Monday evening. By the end of the evening we were able to introduce ourselves in Arabic with details of our own origin, age and profession. Not bad for one evening