AUB draws in international crowd with language lessons

BEIRUT: Dozens of foreigners and Lebanese expatriates flooded the campus this summer to soak up Lebanon’s culture and to study Arabic. Two American University of Beirut-developed programs brought more than 100 students on campus from North America, Europe, and the region, allowing them to spend up to two months on campus, exploring the Arabic language and the country. 

“This program allows many people to discover that a world exists across the Atlantic,” said Bilal Orfali, the coordinator of the CAMES Arabic Summer Program, which offers intensive Arabic language and culture courses to college students, over six and a half weeks every summer. 

The course is equivalent to studying one year of Arabic or nine credits. It involves intensive Arabic language classes of spoken and written Arabic as well as active exposure to the Arabic and Lebanese cultures through field trips, concerts, and poetry and Lebanese cuisine classes, because “no language exists without culture and context,” as Orfali put it. 

“This is a very academic, very intensive, very selective program,” he added. “I would not be exaggerating if I say that we are currently the best program available in the Middle East.” 

For this year, a select 81 students out of 250 applicants made the cut, their high GPAs securing them a spot in the program, noted Orfali. This constitutes a 30 percent increase in the number of students, compared to last year. 

In parallel, the Summer Program for AUB Alumni Children (SPAAC} resumed its activities after a forced interruption since 2006. SPAAC, which is organized by the Continuing education Center, the Office of Development, and the Worldwide Alumni Association of AUB, was first launched in 1998. For the first time this year, the four-week program was not confined to alumni from North America, welcoming participants from all over the world. 

“This program gives children the opportunity to experience campus life while learning about Lebanon’s rich history and culture. It also helps strength alumni ties to the University through their children’s experience,” said Arabia Mohammed Ali, director of alumni relations, of the SPAAC program. 

More than 20 children, ranging between 16 and 21 years old, participated in the program which included Arabic courses, excursions, and social activities. 

The young participants were paired with senior students at AUB who acted as guides. 

Participants in both programs were enthusiastic about their experiences. Many said they were eager to recommend the programs to their friends back home. 

“I’ve had fun wherever we went,” said Samir Deeb, 17, who came from Texas to join the SPAAC program. “I am now even considering studying at AUB.” 

New Yorkers Lana and Andrew Hashem, both 16, said that although they have participated in several summer programs in different countries, including one at the Sorbonne in Paris, the AUB program “topped them all.” 

George Kadifa, 18, from Palo Alto, California, was impressed by the multicultural feel of Lebanon. “Everyone is Lebanese, but they are all something else too. “It’s such a welcoming culture. The hospitality is amazing,” he said. 

Michael Day, 25, who followed the intensive CAMES Summer Arabic program, is a graduate student of international affairs and Mideast studies at George Washington University in Washington DC. 

Despite the abundance of language programs in the US capital, Day preferred to go to the source and immerse himself in Arab culture. 

Living in Lebanon, the biggest “epiphany” for him was “the ease with which the sects cohabitate. It’s so much more harmonious than the media likes to paint for us,” he said. 

Day was also impressed with the program, noting: “The teachers here have all been fantastic!” 

Harrison Mann, 20, from William and Mary College in Virginia insisted on conducting the interview in Arabic, so eager he was to show off what he had learned in the weeks he was here. – The Daily Star