I've just written this term's final exam for Arabic and I realize I haven't written much about my classes. I actually had a great time this whole semester and I enjoyed a lot going to classes. I'm looking forward to starting level 2 in September. In the meantime I'll have to try and practise a bit so I don't forget everything over the summer.
I've been taking classes in a women's "guidance" centre which offers language classes (English for Saudi women and Arabic for expats) as well as Qur'an and Tajweed (to learn how to recite the Qur'an). I was only taking Arabic, two days a week. We were about 12 women in the class, mostly from Malaysia, and also from India, Pakistan, and I was lucky to find another French student in the class! I was the only non-Muslim in the class, but it didn't really matter, since I was never treated any different, neither by my teacher nor by my fellow students. Well, except for the day my teacher asked me what religion I was, to which her reaction was: "At least you're not Jewish!".
Of course the classes revolve around Islam, since it's an integral part of Saudi culture and way of life. I thought I'd show you a couple of excerpts from our book, so you get a better idea:
 |
| Talking about nationalities - adapting to our geographical location |
 |
| Women's faces are never shown on the pictures, you can only see the back of their covered head |
 |
| Talking about travelling to Mecca and going to the mosque for the Friday prayer |
No comments:
Post a Comment