In early January, while searching for a suitable center for teaching Arabic as a foreign language, I ended up returning to the TAFL Center (within the Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University). The last time I was there, one of the teachers had a problem and insulted me in the class. Thought it best to clear the issue before enrolling. Now I felt forced.
I had spent over a year in Jordan, but was unable to learn the Levantine colloquial. Despite becoming ill the first time, I always thought about returning to Alexandria and I missed the city. So I went to the director of the TAFL center, Dr Lana Habib, to see what was the situation.
Did she receive my written communication or not?
Was she really concerned or not?
What was the policy of the language centre regarding the treatment of students?
Most importantly, could I study in TAFL without being insulted again?
So I asked if I could study at the centre and the director said I was welcome to.
Then I asked about the insult from the teacher (that occurred last time) and the director explained that the teacher was simply angry at the time and it was not intended that I should feel unwelcome. That she would teach me if I were in her class again.
I accepted the director’s argument, apologised and explained that part of my fear was based on the fact that the director had not replied to my letter or email.
To this the director explained that she opened the letter in a way that tore the return address and that her computer was broken at the time.
She started talking about the commonality of ethics in all religions and then recommended I join the Ninja programme (a programme for students from a university in China) or that I could do private one-to-one. I explained that I find private one-to-one boring and what I really needed was to improve my Egyptian colloquial (as I could not understand what people are saying) yet this Ninja programme was 90% Standard Arabic. However, she started talking about diglossia and said that since I am a ‘fus7a man’, the Ninja programme is indeed the ideal thing for me. So I said I would think about it.
Before I left, I asked whether Dr Alaa Nahla was still around and about another teacher, Ryham. Both of them had also taught me previously. She informed me that Dr Alaa had gone abroad (see below) and that Ryham was on sabbatical for Masters study.
Two days later, I agreed to join the Ninja programme, but was told that I would need to wait another day since the coordinator had to take a student to the hospital. After another day I was told by the director that I could not join as the coordinator said I was not from Ninja University (in China). The director then suggested I take the placement test at the end of the month.
So I returned to the centre at the end of the month and completed the placement test. Dr Lana came into the room and explained that she had spoken to the new students and found that they were weak in speaking (and so they were beginners). She suggested that Dr Alaa (see above) could teach me, but we would first see what my test result is and that I would receive an email after one day.
She then informed me that there was an induction that students should attend, but since I’d been in the centre previously it would not be anything new for me. So I returned to my apartment in Sidi Bishr.
Two days later I heard nothing and so I called the centre, but I could not get through to the director.
The following day, I went to the centre in person and was asked by the director to return the next day after being told that my level was too advanced compared to the other students. She also informed me that Dr Alaa was on Umrah (a religious visit to the city of Mecca in the country Saudi Arabia), but that she was trying to get through to him. I suggested that I could in fact benefit from a level 2 Egyptian colloquial class, but the director insisted that since I’d been in Jordan for a year previously, I just would not benefit.
(Classes had started).
As agreed, I returned the next day, but the director was late and asked me to return the following day.
Eventually I was able to meet the director on the Thursday. The appointment was at 10am, but she made me wait an hour.
In the meeting, the director informed me that Dr Alaa was in fact in the country Oman (permanently) and not on Umrah (Mecca). So she had already allocated another teacher to me who would give me one-to-one tuition for Standard Arabic at 20 USD per hour (6 or 8 hours per week).
She very quickly tried to fix up my timetable, but I managed to interrupt her and suggested again that I could benefit from a level 2 colloquial class as I did not understand Egyptian films and TV programmes.
Despite her initial reservations that, in her opinion, my level was too advanced I managed to try out a Level 2 colloquial class (or it could have been level 3). In this class there was a Columbian and French students (who were in their third year of Arabic studies whereas I was in my year two).
I found the colloquial class a little advanced for me, but still useful. Why did the director say the opposite? They were using a textbook for the next level up, one I had never seen before. The teacher said I would be fine, but needed to do some revision of the previous textbook. The French students were friendly, passionate about their studies and semi-fluent in Egyptian colloquial.
I managed to reduce the hours of the one-to-one Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) class down to two hours a week. Wanted to try it out before committing to more.
My private MSA class was given by a trainee teacher who made me watch two videos on his laptop. One with sound, about a film director, and the other a silent love story. I found the class largely pointless.
So at the end of the week I asked Dr Lana if I could try out the Level 3 MSA class, which included students from my colloquial class. The director immediately raised her voice and said No and starting talking about the Ninja programme (that I was too late to join and that another student had joined, but special permission had been obtained from the director in China a month before). So I reminded her I was not interested in Ninja and just wanted to try out the normal (level 3) MSA class. She replied with “What other class..!” that my pronunciation and accent was near perfect and I would receive no benefit in joining that class.
I still insisted that I just wanted to try it out. At this point she said fine and to have a look at the timetable on the door, but not to blame her if the other students are too weak.
By this time Dr Lana made me feel like I was wasting my time in the centre. A month had gone by and I had enrolled nowhere. She had convinced me that I was an advanced student and consequently I made my own enquiries about courses offered in the Faculty of Arts (where native speakers study).
However, since they are not TAFL (whatever that means) I continued searching for another centre until I came across The Alexandria Centre for Languages, but that’s another swindle!
In fact, I just lost more time and more money.
Dr Lana seemed obsessed with the Ninja programme and with me doing private one-to-one tuition with this trainee teacher. Whereas I was becoming obsessed with completing my studies and returning home (to the UK).
I enrolled in the TAFL Center (back in 2014) for the purpose of studying Arabic. I did not go there to judge or to make friends. If they wanted to be friends, I would have been open to that too. I just tried my best to respect them. In return, they taught me some useful things, but also abused me. This experience has really frustrated me and contributed to a negative image of Egyptians and of the education system.
I used to think TAFL is an acronym for Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language.
What a mesaventure!
Arabian Misadventures 