61 international students arrive at AUB for Summer Arabic Program 2014

Established in 2000 with about 20 students, the summer program has, on average attracted about 60 students per year, with peaks of over 90 students. It targets those who want to learn Arabic, whether they are focusing their studies on Arabic or the Middle East in general.

“None of the participants were deterred by the recent security developments,” said Aliya Saidi, program coordinator. “We had no cancellations because of the security concerns.”

This year’s participants come from the United States as well as several European and Asian countries. Most of them are university students, although a few are professionals.

More than half are Americans, many of whom are of Arab descent, while the rest come from Australia, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Norway, Sweden, Italy, Korea, and Malaysia.

The program offers courses in Modern Standard Arabic and in Colloquial Lebanese Arabic.

The MSA program runs for seven weeks (June 23 to August 8) offering highly intensive course work in Arabic, the equivalent of one year of Arabic at a regular program. Each day, students receive six hours of classroom instruction in MSA, in which Colloquial Lebanese Arabic is integrated. Classes run daily from Monday to Friday, offering 30 hours of classroom instruction each week. The total of 186 hours of MSA and Colloquial instruction is the equivalent of 9 credit hours at AUB, which may be transferred to other universities. Textbooks are complemented with movies, discussions, games, and field trips to enrich students' knowledge in the Arabic language and culture.