The ProJile
FEATURES
Friday,Sept. 12, 2008 Page6
Liliane bringsArabic Spentd to Agnes Bv Crnl H,qMMAMT
Eonon Oprr.rroNs Liliane Spen16seemsalreadycomfortably installedin hcr new environment in the Office of International Education. Having been the study abroad advisor at Agnes Scott College for less than a year, she not only has things in her office up and running smoothly, but she is also the mastermind behind the Arabic Table which also seemseffortlessly installed Spenl6, a recent graduate from $/ashington University who majored in Arabic, was disappointed to learn that Asnes Scott does not offer Arabic in its curriculum. Tallng mattersinto her own hands,lcarning Arabrc is now possible for the ASC community thanks to Spenl6. Spenldhas been teaching the foundationsof Arabic since nrid-March up until thc cnd of the semesterlast spring. l-ast scmcstcr thc magic happcned once a week in the EvansDining Hall at table designatedthe "Arabic Table". This years time and place will be announcedshortly. Spcnli originally intcnded for the Arabic Table to be a place where sfudents could converse in Arabic, but she sr.ronrealizedthat most of the srudentsin attendance were more interestedin le'arnrnsthe basicsof the languagc.Spcnli dccided to teach the alphabet,fundamental vocabulary and grammar to students of various levels, from beginncrs lcarning fron.rscratch to almost fluent nativcs. Spenl6 is happy to report that her students have already begun constructing small sentences. In addition to linguistics, cultural issuesare discussed during the latter portion of thc hour. Topics vary on a weekly basis. \lZhile Spcnld is largcly to account for the successof the Arabic Tablc last semestel Spenldi teaching efforts were. not done single-handedlyEsther Kaplan '09 andJenna Pollack '08, two students who studied abroad in Jordan
and Oman respectively,often helped her teach. As for student ftirnout,.the size of the group fluctuates but the core of interested students remains solid. Last semesterabout half a dozen students were considered regulars and this year Spenl6 hopes to expand. Spenl6 hopes to work closely with the Muslim Srudent Association in order to expand not only the number of studentsin the class,but also the number of classesby offering alternativeclasses. Amongst other collegesand universities,the popularity of Arabic courseshas grown as emerging markets in Middle Easterneconomiesbegin to boom and more attention is paid to thc politcal climate in the Arab world Agnes Scott'sneighbor, Enrory Universiry,has responded by offering five Arabic classcsto undcrgraduatcslrnging from beginner to intermcdiatc.A ncu, Advanccd Plus coursehas r-ecentlybeen installedto accommodatestudents who have advancedto a hicher level of the lang u a g e .V h i l e E m o r y d o c . n o t u t l t r a n A r a h r c n t a ; o r i t offcrs Middlc EastcrnStudicsas nrajor instead Emory sfu dents who wish ro pursuit the Arabic languagemore rigorously can hou,evcr-tackon an Arabic minor. Similarly,Ceorgia Statc Univcrsiry offcrs four coursc levelsat sevendiftcrcrrtclasstirres this f all-for-rr of r,r,hichare ElementaryArabic. l3ackin thc fall of 2002, . only rwo different coursc levclswcrc oifcrcd-bcginn.r and intermediate-at three different times. The expansion of the Arabic dcpartn-rentat Ccorgia State reflects the popularity of a languagcthat is spoken by an estimated225 million people on the planet. Iti easy to understandwhy at least 10 Scottieshavc run off the ASC leash in order to cross registerat Emory and Georgia State.Ceorgia Institute of Technology and Perimeteralso offer Arabic courrcr. "There appcarsto be a fair amount of interestin.Arabic at Agnes and I hope that interestcontrnuesto grow and
possibly inspires thc college to begin offcring Arabic as a course,"said Kaplan. Kaplan is a model student of thosâ‚Ź who are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Arabic courses at Agnes Scott. Kaplan has had to retreat to CSU for rwo semestersin order to get her Arabic fix. In addition, she studied abroad in Amman, Jordan where she took Arabic courses at the University of Jordan to compliment the language immersion she cxperienced.This semester,Kaplan plans to continue pursuing Arabic for the third time at Ceorgia State, proving that with careful planning it is possible to learn Arabic while maintaining a Scottie status. But when will Agnes Scott learn to incorporate into its agenda a language that can prove useful to a worldly Scottie? It secn-rsnatural that a womeni college would tcach the language used in the region where many lr,omen' s rights issuesare so heavily debated. Politicsaside,Spenl6 hopes that Agnes Scott College rvill soon offer an Arabic nrajor or if not at leasta minor Though the re n.raybe some hoops to jump through, the recent installationof Mandarin Chincsc allows Spcnl6 tcr spcculateon the possibilify that Arabic could be lust around the corner . Perhapsthe popularity of Spcnlâ‚Źi Arabic Table will turn the tat.rles here at Agnes Scott College. Or maybe it alreadyhas. NlcCain l-ibrary has purchasedthe Rosetta Stonc languagclearning softrvarcand will be availablefor srudent use in the near future. "What excited me about Agnes Scott was thc small srzc,which gives more spaceand time for personalinteraction with both studentsand staff.A small school means bcing able to put ideasinto action fairly easily,thanks to closer communication and fewer administrativcobstaclcs than some bigger schools,"said Spcnld.