Why I would choose an immersion course over a language degree: Two years after graduating, I knew that what little Arabic I had was quickly disappearing. But rather than let it go, I found my more mature self finally wanting to conquer it. Knowing that traditional classrooms and I will never mix, I opted for the uniquely rigorous American system of short-term immersion. To my knowledge nothing similar exists elsewhere, not even in the Middle East. At least, not for civvies. I saved and borrowed all I could before flying to San Francisco in July 2012, where I would stay on a leafy, Oakland campus and pledge to communicate exclusively in Arabic for two months. ... We spent up to five hours a day, five days per week studying (which mostly meant speaking) modern Arabic. Afternoon clubs were mandatory and included Middle Eastern cookery, a campus newspaper and Qur’an recitation. Each evening, four hours of prep was standard and tutors were on-hand for advice into the small hours. Several nights a week there would also be a talk on art or politics, or a hammy Egyptian movie to watch. Every meal was communal, which meant students, dozens of teachers (all but one a native speaker) and, in several cases, their families. So, unlike at university and in the increasingly English-speaking Middle East, I could not avoid practising Arabic and my self-consciousness melted away. I no longer cared about perfect sentence construction or a slow pace of conversation. All that mattered – literally, since it was the only way I could communicate – was that I was understood.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 01:38:01 +0000