It had been some years since I first heard about some entity by the name of Ibn Jabal Institute. As I did not actually sign-up for their mailing list, I originally thought it was some kind of scam.
However, over the years I heard some recommendations, including from volunteers of the Utrujj foundation and two students of the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), one who seemed to eternally fail his first year of a degree including the Arabic 1 module and the other who already knew Arabic and was just looking for an easy first.
I was already put off by the SOAS (quasi) Language Centre. I also did not want to return to full-time education, which is what a BA programme at SOAS (proper) would require. Nor did I want to go abroad again.
So I decided to give Ibn Jabal a go.
Despite the positives I had heard, I was not convinced by their strange claims of being able to deliver the SOAS (proper) programme in even less time. However, going against my better judgement, I went ahead anyway with the new plan for Arabic studies in the UK.
As the below letter of complaint illustrates (for which I never received a reply), it is an understatement to say that Ibn Jabal fell well below my expectations.
Ibn Jabal had been around for a long time, but it seemed that all of the teachers had either studied elsewhere or failed in their Arabic studies at SOAS. Either way, they were the ones that seemed to benefit the most (in terms of learning) from the Ibn Jabal programme.
Dear Sir/Madam,
This is a letter of complaint regarding a Level 1 course I attended. The name of the teacher was *****-***** *******.
Admittedly I learnt something from the course (mostly relying on the course notes), but was shocked to find that the course was continually interrupted by the teacher preaching spirituality and his own understanding of Islam, sometimes randomly quoting passages from scripture but not being able to relate them to the course content.
Furthermore, I noticed the teacher did not understand all of what he was suppose to teach us and relied heavily on the course notes.
Before enrolling I heard positives about ibn Jabal from a few people and for approximately £500 I expected a reasonable standard of teaching and professionalism. Instead I’ve been put off from enrolling on Level 2.
I hope you will take this matter seriously and make amends immediately.
Faithfully.
Arabian Misadventures 