This month, Arab Academy is featuring Lizzy Budden from the UK. Lizzy joined our classroom program in Cairo for 8 weeks. Read on to hear about her experience learning Arabic.
Why did you choose to learn Arabic?
I wanted to learn a language with a new alphabet spoken by people who live fundamentally differently from me.
Why did you choose to learn at Arab Academy?
I could see that ArabAcademy took teaching Ammya seriously and had creative a course with materials that acknowledge its complexity and grammar rules, as well as its important rule in Egyptian wider Arab society other Arabic schools treat ammya as slang conversation class that is an optional addition to fusha but not necessary.
How has learning Arabic impacted you? Your life?
It has been extremely challenging specifically to navigate cultural concepts and grammatical contractures that don’t exist in one culture/ language but are considered elementary in the other.
Has Arab Academy changed or impacted your life in any other way? If so, how?
Arab Academy was my first point of contact with Egyptian people when I first came to Cairo and I was immediately struck by the ease of interaction between teachers and students and the general vibe of laughter/ light heartiness
How Arab Academy is unique compared to other language centers/ online courses you have tried?
The course for Egyptian colloquial is extremely thorough and doesn’t rely on previous exposure to fusha
What would you tell someone who is interested in learning Arabic, but hasn’t yet tried it out?
It is not a language you can “try out” and it will take years before you can truly communicate with Arabs.
