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…..

Damascus

Before I break out with a recount of our trip to Damascus, I have a few announcements. They may be surprising, so sit down. After a week of frustration with the AUB staff and a following week of exhausting studying and emotional breakdowns, Alex has decided to drop out of the Economics graduate program and be a full-time language student. He is also looking into an internship.

Consequently my plans have changed as well. I will not be beginning coursework at AUB, or any other school in the Middle East. Instead I am going to continue my Arabic courses at the American Language Center of Beirut, and continue with my job at The Middle East Reporter.

We are going to remain in Beirut until March of next year, when we will move to Damascus. The rest of our time here will be split between studying in Damascus and Yemen. We are not sure of the exact details, but we are pretty sure that we will spend the rest of our time here studying Arabic and making contacts.

Since we are now full-time students of the Arabic language, for the next year, we are planning on cutting our trip short. Instead of two years, we are going to spend one year in the Middle East and return before the fall semester begins in America. Instead of finishing up my undergraduate degree in the Middle East, I am going to wait until we return in August and begin a school, probably around the DC area.

Like I said, we are not sure of the exact dates and plans, but we are pretty sure that we would rather study in America and just spend our time studying the language and the culture here.

Now to Damascus:

As I mentioned earlier, after coming home from work on a Friday afternoon I found Alex in a really bad state. He had a semi-nervous breakdown after a week of studying economics for 12 hours a day. I tried my best to calm him and we both decided that he needed a break. Surprisingly he immediately suggested that we take a trip to Damascus for the weekend. An hour later we each had packed a backpack and were on our way to the bus station.

The cost of the bus to Somalia Station in Damascus was $6 a person. It was about three hours travel time, from Beirut to the border of Syria. The terrain was beautiful, and it was a nice surprise to get out of the bus on top of a mountain and feel a cool breeze.

Leaving Lebanon was no problem, but when we got to the Syrian border crossing it was another story. The officials told us that they would have to send a fax of our passports to the government and get our visas approved – so we waited. We went to the Syrian Duty-free shop and played with Legos – I made the coolest military base and Alex built Israel on one side and Lebanon on the other and we did a little war-gaming.

Three hours later we were eating Iftar at an “Italian restaurant”. Finally we went to go wait at the border building and were told they STILL didn’t have our approval. Alex wanted to go back to the café but I decided I was just going to wait there until they let us pass. Not more than five minutes passed before they called me over, by referring to me as “America”, and told us that we were ok to go. I’m pretty sure the whole spectacle was for show, but oh well.

Since it was ten at night there were no empty cabs passing by, but we finally caught a ride with a government official who was making a night run from Beirut to Damascus. As sketchy as the ride seemed, we made it to Damascus around eleven at night. We also managed to check in a chic hotel, a little bit on the expensive side, but better than nothing.

Instead of hitting the sack, we went to the Hammidiyah souks in the Old City. It was the most happening thing I’ve seen since being in the Middle East. It is a whole city of shops revolving around the famous Umayyad Mosque. It doesn’t close until midnight or one in the morning and is packed with women, children and men all day. The prices were dirt cheap and they had everything you could imagine.

The next day we stopped by the military museum which was really nice. It was very unlike museums in America, where you can’t touch anything and everything is encased in glass. The displays inside the Museum were behind glass, but they had artifacts outside the museum that you could walk around and touch. In the artisans’ square we came across a painter who did magnificent work! I picked out a black and white scenery painting and bought it for $16.

We also went to the New City which was more miles of shops. These, however, more closely resembled shops in Beirut - in quality and price. That night we hit the Old City again and had dinner with an American we met at a different hostel.

After roaming around the Old City for an hour or so, we wanted to sit down and smoke argilah and have some tea. We stopped by a couple of places, but it was so unlike Beirut – there were no women sitting with the men and definitely no women smoking! We kept walking around until we remembered a restaurant we read about, where Syrian President Assad occasionally goes to have big parties. We found it on the outskirts of the souks and it was beautiful! We sat there for a couple hours just smoking and sipping on chai.

Sunday, our last day in Damascus, we stopped by Hamaams. They are like Turkish baths, where you sit in a steam room, get an exfoliation, soap bath, and massage. It was a liberating experience. I am definitely not used to being completely unclothed around other people, but it had the opposite effect on me that I thought it would. I was completely comfortable and it was extremely relaxing. I went to one in the early morning, when they had hours for women, and Alex went to one for men a little later. Alex learned the hard way that the male souks were a little more reserved!

We walked inside the Umayyad mosque, including Saladin’s courtyard and the prayer room. I had to cover up in a hooded full-length robe, and everyone had to take off their shoes to walk around the Mosque. The mosque was very extravagant, from the intricate deep red carpet to the walls designs outside and inside the Mosque.

Our remaining time was spent picking up some souvenirs at the souks in the Old City. My most memorable buy – a black and red beaded robe for a woman with a matching headscarf! Now I can convert if I am ever so inclined!

Highlights of Damascus:
~Pictures of President Assad everywhere – his face had a place at the border-crossing, hundreds of billboards throughout the country, and on a wall in almost every shop and restaurant.
~Almost no Westerners, but of course some of the first people we saw in Syria were Asians
~Arabic speakers – most everyone spoke Arabic, and a few English. It was nice to practice!
~Night-life – women, men and children were up until all hours of the night.
~Traffic – most drivers actually paid attention to traffic lights.
~Dinners – we ate at some of the most popular and famous restaurants for nothing!
~The terrain – view after view of cities built into the side of mountains.
~Syrians – they were very hospitable and helpful, well except the taxi drivers.