Why learn Arabic?  Especially if you are not contemplating visiting an Arabic-speaking country.

People have joined the group for various reasons. For example, they enjoy learning a language, they want to keep their brain active - or they are just curious! The course lasts about 30 weeks with occasional interruptions for holidays and family visits.

We use a BBC course called Talk Arabic, one of a series of BBC courses which introduce you to the kind of language you would need in common situations. It comes with a couple of CDs that provide good models of pronunciation and clear examples of how the language is used in everyday life. If you don’t possess a CD player I can provide the material as audio files to download onto your laptop. The text uses our own Latin alphabet throughout since it does not aim to teach reading and writing.

I worked in Arabic-speaking countries as a language teacher for 22 years and have a basic knowledge of the varieties of Arabic spoken in several regions including Algeria, Egypt, Syria and the Sultanate of Oman.

Classes take place in my home, but we occasionally meet at a café in the city that has an Arabic-speaking proprietor, who can take your order in Arabic… of course!