Volunteer Explorer

A new student appeared in our class this week. She is unlike all the other students in our class, for reasons beyond the bizarre fact that she has joined us halfway through the semester. Her name is Anne, she is in her early sixties, and she is also taking a Chinese class at the university. She never specified her reasons for taking Arabic, specifically, but she alluded to the idea that both these languages come from countries high on the US list of terrorist nations. We only had a couple of minutes to chat before class started, so I really don't know if she is planning to visit any Chinese- or Arabic-speaking countries, or if she wants to better understand what people from these countries are saying in news reports. Perhaps she firmly believes there is a real threat of one of these countries invading the US, making these language skills particularly valuable. I'm trying not to assume she's that kind of crazy. I do know she was very impressed with Eihab's s...

I see a lot of Arab men for tutoring at my job. Whenever I see an Arabic name on my schedule, I am careful to comport myself in a culturally sensitive manner: I consciously avoid any kind of physical contact, even a bumped elbow on the desk, as we work through grammar problems. I don't want any misunderstandings about my availability. Consequently, when a student named Saleh appeared on my schedule for Tuesday, I prepared for that kind of reserve. I am usually something of a toucher. Without even realizing it sometimes, I will reach out and lightly touch my interlocutor's arm during a conversation. It's mostly unconscious, but it might have to do with trying to make certain the other person is engaged in the conversation. Maybe it's a holdover from my singing telegram days, when flirtatiousness was de riguer . I don't know. Whatever the reason, I am aware of my behavior and make every effort to curb this habit with Saudi men. So I was completely surprised w...

It just came out of my mouth without any thought. "Et voila! Tres bien!" I was sitting in Arabic class practicing a little scene with my two conversation partners, and the French phrase just popped out. The three of us had finished greeting each other, asking how each other was doing, telling where we were from and what our occupations were, and introducing each other in turn. We had effectively exhausted all of our Arabic vocabulary. The French phrases then leapt from my mouth, confusing my conversation partners and embarrassing myself. We all laughed, then went back to practicing our boring little scene. These last couple of weeks, my brain has been working overtime to memorize not only the sounds of Arabic words and phrases, but also the alien-looking script for those words and phrases. I have mastered the look and sound of the numbers one through ten, and I can greet my Arabic-speaking students in their native tongue without much stumbling. Bu...