Confessions of an Arabic Professor

Finally the weather is beginning to resemble springtime, so I’m going to make the most out of it by blogging under the sun. I have a wonderful Arabic professor, who goes by Usteth AbdelHafid, and he says the most interesting things during class. I would just like to share a bit about him.

Not only is he one of the greatest professors I have ever had, at least in the language department, he is one of the most intelligent men I have met. First I’m going to explain a bit of his teaching method.

I can only imagine how difficult it is to teach classical Arabic – to Middle Eastern students as well as Western students – but he manages to make it seem easy. Never before have I understood the methods to learning to a language as much as I have this past six weeks. My understanding of Arabic has grown tenfold, and my vocabulary is becoming quite extensive.

Of course my success also comes from my drive to do well while overseas, but I cannot deny AbdelHafid has a great deal to do with my success. In fact, he makes me want to do well and has the ability to guide my energies so that I am getting the most out of my studies.

As there are only two of us in the class – Alex and I (we had three but she choose to do the 3 week option instead of the 6) – we can monopolized the class with our interactions with the teacher. We are able to move at the pace we desire, depending on how much we study and work toward understanding the material completely. Thus far Alex and I have moved very fast, and have grasped concepts of grammar that some students far above our levels still cannot.

One of my favorite aspects of our class is the fact that AbdelHafid has an extensive knowledge of the etymology of Arabic words. For Arabic, it is a bit easier than the English language because every word is a form of a three character root. I will give a brief example of this, and maybe you will understand why I love it so much.

The verb z-a-l (zaal, alif, laam) means he went away, or disappeared. This is not exactly the meaning, but that is the best way to explain it in English. The word “mazal” means “he still is”. This is because the “ma” negates the verb “zal” literally meaning he is not not gone from it.

The masdar, another form making the verb a noun (like running), “izzuwaal” has a meaning that I did not expect at all. It is usually used to mean “12 noon”. However, there is a more commonly used expression meaning noon, and that is “ithuher”. So of course I asked why there were two, and the difference between the two expressions.

Unbeknownst to me, the term “ithuher” actually refers to one of the five daily prayers Muslims are obligated to, and this one takes place at noon. Because this is done daily, it was just adopted as the term for noon.

However, “izzuwaal” has a much more interesting history. It is the exact word for “noon”, and it originated from the position of the sun. At noon, when the sun was at its highest, all shadows would disappear. So they used the verb for “to be gone” to describe this time of day. It is just small things like this that make me appreciate the language, and appreciate my professor for sharing them.

Outside of the realm of Arabic grammar and vocabulary, we have had some interesting discussions in class. Usually the discussions originate from a question that Alex or I have about a word, and we somehow get into deep discussions on the difference between Western and Middle Eastern culture.

One of his most interesting views is on the English language. One day I brought up the problem of dualities of the English language, as he was explaining that Arabic has a word for everything, no matter the degree of it. And he broke into a monologue about Arabic language and the English language and their respective cultures.

He said, Western thought has evolved to a higher level of consciousness. That is, we understand the concepts of respect, individuality, privacy, and protecting people’s “rights”. We are brought up acknowledging that life is sacred and we have to treat each other to show that.

Even if a family or individual is not religious, we are conscious of this fact. Even if one chooses to kill they know by doing so they are committing an inexcusable act, thereby proving they are aware of the sacredness of life.

But, he said, the English language is still on an elementary level because we do not have the means to express our rich ideas. Arabic, on the other hand, is a very rich language with a way to express anything you want, and more. Many words and expressions cannot be translated into English because the idea of them does not exist in our language. But the majority of MidEasterns are not able to put their language to use and cannot grasp the intricacies of the language because they themselves are not on that level.

Abdelhafid pointed out that many Middle Eastern people have no concept of individuality, privacy or respect for others. People are advantageous and are fed information and religion by one source.

He mentioned Sufism mantra as the most similar frame of mind to Western mentality. I am not sure if he is Sufi or not, but he seemed to hold it in a high regard. And he said that Sufism requests that Muslims acknowledge that they have a physical body, a mental body, an ego body, and a godly spirit. This godly spirit, or soul, is in every one of us and so we must treat others the way we would treat god – with respect and love.

As a Westerner, I definitely notice a huge difference in my way of living than the Middle Easterners I have lived next to for the past year. I have no judgement on whether it is better or not, but it is interesting to ponder why we are so much different.

Anyway, back to AbdelHafid. Alex and I have decided to hire him for private tutoring for the last three weeks we will be in Morocco. We will be taking a media Arabic class alongside the tutoring, so we will have a lot on our plates. However, AbdelHafid has already pledged to make sure we finish Al Kitab, which means we will have completed 11 chapters in only 9 weeks. Quite the feat, if you ask me.

Last class I encouraged him to write a book on what he has learned from teaching Arabic to western students, because he sheds so much insight into different cultures by sharing his observations during his career as a teacher. He was meant to be a teacher, I am pretty sure. I couldn’t imagine him doing anything better.

And I mentioned that he should move to America and teach there. He could make so much more, doing the same job. America needs more language professors like him. I really hope I inspire another American to spend a bit of time studying at the ALIF center in Morocco, and studying with Usteth AbdelHafid. If only I could import him to America…..