The marks on the blackboard are an unfamiliar jumble of slashes, dots and curves; the sounds tumbling out of teacher Radouane Nasry's mouth barely recognizable as words.
But even at 8:16 a.m. on a Tuesday morning, this class of Guilford High School students is paying rapt attention, their eyes riveted on Nasry as he beats at the blackboard with a piece of chalk and expounds on the prophet Mohammed in Guilford's first-ever Arabic language class.
Hired as a French teacher, Moroccan-born Nasry is teaching his native language this year at the request of administrators, making Guilford the only public school system in the state to offer Arabic.
Wildly popular, the class has more than 30 students. More than 40 signed up, Nasry said.
The students are only in their first few weeks of school, but already they're able to respond to Nasry's prompts with relative ease.
"Say-ya-ra-touin," they echo, as Nasry points at a picture of a car.
Right now, he's focused on getting the students to listen to and pronounce the basic sounds of the Arabic language. Reading and writing will come later.
Errors in pronunciation tend to "fossilize," he said. "It's hard to get rid of them later."
Most importantly, he wants to expose students to a language and culture understood by very few Americans.
"I want to make these kids aware of who are the Arabs, and what is Islam," he said.
When asked if the portion of the class that deals with Islam might be considered a violation of the separation of church and state, Board of Education member Keith Bishop said understanding the basic principles of Islam is part of learning the language.
"There are lots of ways to teach about religion — it doesn't mean you're converting, or practicing anything," he said. "(Islam) is tied closely to the culture. We're doing the same general thing in Spanish and French classes — an understanding of (how) the culture of the country ties into the language."
He said he's received very positive comments from parents about the course, who are excited "that we're trying to be more culturally diverse."
Arabic is one of five languages officially designated as critical to national security and economic development, according to Mary Ann Hansen, a world language consultant to the state Department of Education. But very few Americans know how to speak it.
"The sad thing about 9/11, is the U.S. had the technology," Nasry said. "We had tapes and tapes full of recordings of the hijackers. But did we have qualified people to translate? No."
Language is key to resolving the gaps in understanding between the Muslim and Christian worlds, he said, particularly because the two are so different.
"We see the world differently," Nasry added. "Islam is not only a religion, it's a way of life. It's how you greet people, it's what you wear, the way you act towards other people. It shapes your life."
He also hopes teaching the class will help counteract stereotypes about Arabs that have proliferated since 9/11.
"The Arab/Muslim world does not define itself according to 19 hijackers," he said.
A practicing Muslim, Nasry started learning French in second grade, and began picking up English by listening to reggae singer Bob Marley. In college he specialized in linguistics, then earned a master's degree in linguistics, literature and education. He moved to the United States in 1998 with his future wife, an American he met in Paris.
He worked at Guilford High School for several years, then taught in the New Haven public schools for two years before returning to Guilford.
He said he's wanted to teach Arabic in Guilford ever since 9/11, which he said came as "a shock."
"I thought it was a Hollywood movie," he remembers. "People were saying, ‘Who are the Arabs? Why do they hate us?'"
His first step was to start an Arabic Club at the school. Then, last year, administrators asked Nasry if he'd be interested in offering Arabic as an elective.
Senior Marnix Weber, 17, decided to enroll in the Arabic course after having Nasry as a French teacher. "He's very eccentric and funny," Weber said. "He's a good teacher."
Weber believes that it's important to learn Arabic "in this day and age." He's found the language difficult, but refreshingly new. "I like it because it's really different," he said.
In his spare time, Weber helps tutor young children as they learn to read, and can't help notice the parallels between their study of English and his own of Arabic.
"We're learning the alphabet," he said. "We're at the same level as little kids."
For a lot of students, the chance to start fresh is appealing, Nasry says.
"It's the first thing they've had that's 100 percent different," he said. "There's no prerequisite at all."
Like all electives, the class is an opportunity for students "to pick up on something they haven't failed at in the past," Nasry said. "It's a new beginning."
School officials have been surprised that the students are doing better than expected at learning the difficult language. Only a few weeks into the school year, Nasry estimates that 95 percent of his students — most of whom didn't excel in French or Spanish — know and can pronounce the 28 characters in the Arabic alphabet.
Sharon Jakubson, head of the world languages department at the high school, said they expected more students to drop out when they saw how difficult the language is, but so far, "they're hanging in there."
Depending on enrollment in French and Spanish, the school may be able to offer a more advanced section of Arabic next year. But if not, Jakubson said, "we're thrilled to offer it just like this, to introduce as many students as possible to the Arabic language and culture."
Jimmy Jones of New Haven, associate professor of world religions and African studies at Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y., said the teaching of Arabic is very rare in American high schools.
For one thing, "it's a very difficult language," said Jones, a Muslim who knows only enough Arabic to pray. "I know from personal experience."
But increased exposure to foreign languages is critical to the nation's economic and political future, he said.
"It's obvious that in order to have a greater understanding of the world, (teaching Arabic) is a good idea," he said. "The reality is, we're going to need more people who know this language."
The world has grown much smaller in the past 50 years, thanks to advances in technology, Jones said, yet Americans haven't kept pace with the rest of the world in becoming fluent in other languages.
If this trend isn't reversed, he predicts it ultimately will be detrimental to the United States' status as a world leader.
"We have to be more culturally literate if we're going to live in this small world," he said. "Taking foreign languages, whether it be Arabic or Spanish, helps us become more culturally literate."
For Connecticut high schools, the lack of foreign languages isn't for lack of interest, according to Hansen.
"It's a budgetary thing," she said.
"If Arabic were available, I think many schools would be interested in offering it." But in recent years, new language programs have been difficult to squeeze into already-tight budgets, she said.
Hansen said she knows of no other public high school in the state that offers Arabic.
The Metropolitan Learning Center Interdistrict Magnet School for Global and International Studies in Bloomfield once included an Arabic language component as part of its mandatory Middle East studies program, but can no longer afford to do so, school spokesmen said.
The state legislature has slashed funding to magnet schools, "so we've had to make drastic budget cuts," said Caryn Stedman, curriculum director and special studies department chair at the school.
Jakubson said Guilford is fortunate to be able to offer the class at no additional cost to the district.
"We need a much stronger understanding of the Arab world, and language reflects culture," she said. "Even if we keep this course just as it is, we're starting to spread a little of that understanding. It's really important to us to do that."