Arabic

SOURCE: SPECTATOR BY: LOGAN GILBERT Arabic is the official language more than 22 countries in the world, with over 200 million native speakers. It’s no surprise that Seattle University students would want to learn this language, leading to the creation of the new Arabic minor at Seattle U. Seattle U started the program in 2016, … Continued

SOURCE: ALLIGATOR BY: KASAMBA KOKAYI A taste of Arabic culture was found in grape leaves, rice, onions, olive oil and tomatoes last Thursday. About 20 people came to the UF Arabic Student Association’ first Mahshi Night. For more than three hours, students made and ate mahshi, a dish made of vegetables such as grape leaves … Continued

SOURCE: NORTH JERSEY  BY: PHILIP DEVENCENTIS WAYNE — A federal grant will help William Paterson University bolster instruction in two foreign languages that educators say are becoming more widely spoken in the area. Students taking Arabic and Korean courses will benefit from new offerings as a result of the university’s $190,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education. … Continued

SOURCE: BIRD LIFE BY: DIMA OBEIDAT The world’s first Arabic birding app, launched by the Ornithological Society of the Middle East (OSME), has been met with widespread excitement from nature enthusiasts in the region.  Thousands of people around the region have already downloaded the free app, which features pictures, descriptions of behaviour and samples of … Continued

SOURCE: THE NATIONAL BY: ANAM RIZVI Private schools are to roll out a new Arabic digital teaching programme to help pupils use aspects of the language in every day life. Using mobile apps, pupils will be taught common words in a range of topics, including food, sports and exercise. Global education company Pearson will launch … Continued

SOURCE: CBC BY: JOSEE ST-ONGE At Calder School in north Edmonton, the morning rendition of O Canada alternates between English, French, Cree and Arabic. Almost half of the student population is enrolled in the elementary school’s Arabic bilingual program, and embracing other cultures is part of the curriculum. “I like it,” said nine-year-old Teeba Al-Shaikhly. “It makes … Continued

SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST BY: MICHAEL E. RUANE As a slave, he was called “Morro” or “Uncle Moreau.” A dignified man in his 60s, he was small in stature, unfit for hard work and had been enslaved for almost a quarter-century. He spoke limited English. But his real name was Omar ibn Said. He had … Continued

Omar Ibn Said, a wealthy intellectual from West Africa, wrote about his capture and enslavement in America SOURCE: SMITHSONIAN BY: BRIDGIT KATZ Omar Ibn Said was leading a prosperous life in West Africa at the turn of the 19th century, devoting himself to scholarly pursuits and the study of Islam, when he was captured, carted … Continued

SOURCE: THE NATIONAL Invented 5,400 years ago in what today is Iraq, writing was the greatest of the cultural legacies left to the world by the ancient Middle East. When it was launched in Abu Dhabi in 2007, the International Prize for Arabic Fiction had two ambitions: to encourage the writing and recognition of contemporary … Continued