BEIRUT: Although Cairo and Damascus are still the two most popular cities for learning Arabic, Beirut, it seems, is gaining fast on their heels.
While many foreigners still choose the two ancient Arab capitals for a more "authentic" (and cheaper) experience, the reputation of Beirut's universities has been steadily improving - to the point where some Arabic students from abroad now prefer the Lebanese capital precisely because it's not "too oriental."
"It's a perfect mix here between Eastern and Western culture," said Dawn Crothers, who is studying Islamic Studies at Indiana University and who took part in the American University of Beirut's (AUB) six- week summer Arabic program.
"The decision was between Cairo, Fez and here. I was told my safety would be more in danger in Cairo and Fez because I am so blonde," she added.
Echoing that sentiment, 29-year-old Hiromi Fuchikami from Japan said "I wanted to study Arabic in an Arab country, but I also didn't want such a big culture shock. With less of a cultural difference, it's also easier to make friends," she said.
For Jared Levy, Beirut is simply the best place to have fun. "Beirut is the most conducive to my lifestyle," the 21-year-old American said, "The summer is my vacation. So, if I had to study, I figured I at least wanted to be in a city where I can have fun, too."
As one indication of Beirut's growing popularity as an Arabic studies destination, AUB's Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies has seen the number of students it serves through its Arabic summer program quadruple since its inception in 2000 - from 18 students four years ago to 76 this summer. Meanwhile, Saint Joseph University (USJ) has also seen a similar increase in demand.
"I wanted to be in a more liberal place," explained USJ program participant Amal Marcos, who was born in Egypt, but grew up in the United States. She has spent many summers in Cairo with her family and learned to speak basic Egyptian, but she never acquired a mastery of standard Arabic. "It feels like a part of myself that has been missing," she said.
It was, in the end, her Lebanese friends in the US who convinced her to come to Beirut. "They tell you all this nonsense about how great Lebanon is, that you can go skiing in the morning and swimming in the afternoon, you know what I mean, so I wanted to see for myself."
Although most agree on the attraction of greater Beirut, opinions among students differ when it comes to judging the different program offerings.
On first glance, AUB, the Lebanese American University (LAU), USJ, and Notre Dame University (NDU) all seem to offer similar programs for learning Arabic. All are four to six weeks long, with some offering a second session that starts later in August. All adhere to an intensive schedule of four to five hours of class work per day.
However, at least as far as prices are concerned, the programs vary immensely. AUB, the most expensive program, charges $3,500, LAU's program costs $2,200, NDU costs $1,400, while USJ only charges $630.
AUB's students say they chose the program because it has a good reputation. "I heard good things and the program is very organized," Levy said. After six weeks, he is now able to talk to taxi drivers and order food in Arabic, he added.
Interestingly though, most students at the AUB program said that they had not heard about other programs or had not bothered to look into them. Part of the reason for this may be that many of them receive grants to attend a summer program - which makes AUB's higher cost less of an issue.
On USJ's campus, on the contrary, many are convinced that they chose the best program. "AUB has a bad reputation and it is unbelievably expensive," said one student, who did not want to be named. One woman added, "I have tried Berlitz (language school) and AUB before, but I never learned how to read and write. I came here because they have a different method."
USJ's method is based on a musical approach. In the first lessons, students listen to intonated Arabic sentences while watching slides. "It's infuriating at first. It seems like nonsense, but now I can read after four weeks," the same woman said.
Upon closer examination, however, USJ's program does not appear to be as intensive as some of the other summer classes. While students at AUB say they get up to five hours of homework, and students at LAU get up to two hours according to the program's director Mimi Jeha, USJ teachers don't assign any homework. For some, this seems like a problem, while, for others, it's an ideal way to balance other responsibilities.
As for the student bodies themselves, a quick comparison of the different programs demonstrates that USJ students are more heterogeneous, coming from different countries and professional backgrounds. Indeed, many already have a professional career.
As such, the reasons for learning Arabic differ widely. Pierre Fedeli, from France, explained that he had been a frequent visitor to Lebanon over the past 30 years because of his job. "I picked up the few words in Lebanese everybody knows, but you can live very well in Lebanon without knowing a word of Arabic if you speak English and French," he said. "Now, I finally wanted to learn it."
In contrast, at AUB and LAU, most students are from the US. "Ninety-five percent of our students come from the US," director Jeha said of LAU's summer program. "Most of them are from an academic background," so the students are able to receive credit for the summer program, she added.
For this reason, both universities use the Kitab fi taalum Al Lugha Al Arabia (Book to learn the Arabic language), which is also known simply as the Kitab (the Book). "It's the most widely used book in the US," Jeha explained. The Kitab's lessons are in Arabic and English, so for French speakers it is not suitable.
"The problem with the Kitab," explained one American Arabic student, who has taken several different programs and learned from various books, "is that it is poorly organized. Teachers need an incredible amount of training to teach from it, to get the missing structure into lessons. ... You could never learn from it on your own."
Nonetheless, the student continued, "At first, (the book) was revolutionary for English speakers because it was the first book that makes you speak. Also politically, it is quite interesting, because it talks about the Palestinian conflict." Most other books, especially those used in Egypt and Syria, don't touch on politics at all, since discussions of the material could get the teachers in these countries into trouble.
"Instead of improving this new method which gets people to talk and coming up with new books that are more structured, the Kitab now has a monopoly," said the same student.
Although NDU's Arabic program, in Zouk Mosbeh north of Beirut, also runs on the American system, it ignores the monopoly. "We use the Atar book, but also many other materials," the Arabic program's director, Doumit Salami, said. "We have to be flexible, because students come here with very different (skill) levels."
This summer, 60 students are enrolled in the program, but the majority are only taking the colloquial Lebanese dialect class and participating in the cultural program which offers trips to different historic sites in Lebanon as well as academic lectures (a popular offering at the other school-based programs as well). Only six students take part in the classical Arabic classes.
For these students, the university plans to design its own book. According to Salami, it will also be suitable for non-native English speakers - a must for his program since it attracts students from Latin America and Europe.
As Salami explained, NDU's program is relatively cheap compared to AUB and LAU because the university is not trying to make money through it.
"We do this as a public relations effort," he admitted though. "We are not as established as AUB and LAU, yet."
While the Lebanese dialect is taught at all universities, only NDU and LAU teach it is an integrated part of the summer program, while USJ and AUB offer it as an option or as a separate intensive dialect class.
Especially in Lebanon, this can turn out to be a problem, because many Lebanese find the classical language occasionally comical.
As Fedeli at USJ put it, "Everybody laughs at me when I speak fusha (classical Arabic). It's really frustrating when a taxi driver laughs at you and then speaks English. But I can speak fusha with my friends. Also in the restaurant I go to, I told them not to speak to me in English."