Offered :

Term 1 (Feb -Apr) and Term 3 (Aug-Sep) each year. Our 2023 Term 1 course begins on Tuesday, 14 February. Global Time Zone equivalents are given below.

Date & Time:

Our 2023 Term 1 Arabic 101 course meets on Tuesdays 6:00-7:30 pm beginning on Tuesday, 14 February (NZ Time) and continues for eight weekly sessions. This course will again be offered in 2023 Term 3 beginning the week of August.

Time Zone equivalents:

  • Honolulu, Hawai’i: begins Mon 13 Feb 2023, 7:00-8:30pm

  • US Pacific: begins Mon 13 Feb 2023, 9:00-10:30pm

  • US Eastern: begins Tue 14 Feb 2023, 12:00-1:30am

  • London, UK: begins Tue 14 Feb 2023, 5:00-6:30am

  • Paris, France: begins Tue 14 Feb 2023, 6:00-7:30am

  • New Delhi, India: begins Tue 14 Feb 2023, 10:30am-12:00pm

  • Bangkok, Thailand: begins Tue 14 Feb 2023, 12:00-1:30pm

  • Singapore: begins Tue 14 Feb 2023, 1:00-2:30pm

  • Tokyo, Japan: begins Tue 14 Feb 2023, 2:00-3:30pm

  • Sydney, Australia: begins Tue 14 Feb 2023, 4:00-5:30pm

Description :

Introductory Arabic 101 classes begin with a focus on learning the Arabic language from scratch, with learning how to read and write the Arabic Nasakh (قلم النسخ) script over the eight weekly sessions during the first Term. This course also introduces elementary grammar, basic vocabulary and gets students speaking with some basic conversational skills. Subsequent term courses of Introductory Arabic (i.e. our Arabic 102-104 courses) continue with reading and writing practice, introductory grammar, vocabulary, and conversation. Those who already understand and speak some Arabic, but who do not know how to read and write, may also choose to enrol in the Arabic 101 course.

Meet our Instructor:

Arabic Instructor Alaa Abdalla

My name is Alaa. I was born and raised in Syria, I graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in English Translation. I am married and have 6 children. I moved from Syria to Lebanon in 2012 because of the war. I used to work there teaching kids the English language and math. I moved with my family to New Zealand in 2017 and it was a great start, but couldn't do much because I was busy with my kids all the time. I'm currently involved in different community projects such as volunteering with HMS trust to support refugees from different cultures.

Location:

All in-person classes are held at the EarthDiverse Centre located at 401 Anglesea Street, Hamilton Central, Hamilton (located just north of the Hamilton Central Bus Station) (entrance is located on the side of the building, see map below). Those looking for parking for our evening classes can park just in front of the building in any of the available car parks. Daytime parking can be found in our dedicated car parks, or free 2-hour on-street daytime parking can be found just in front of Anglesea Street.
Location

Distance Learning:

This course has distance-learning options for those unable to attend the live class sessions in Hamilton. Students have three options for attending our courses once they have registered:

  • Attend in-person classes in our Hamilton classrooms at the regularly scheduled day and time.

  • Attend our live on-line classroom sessions via Zoom at the regular scheduled day and time.

  • Watch the live-recorded class sessions at your leisure, at a time, day and place more suited to your schedule.

Distance-Learning options:

  • In addition to our in-person classes in Hamilton, our courses offer distance learning options for those unable to attend classes in-person. Live-streamed Hamilton classes are available via free Zoom software for those living outside the Waikato. Live-streaming allows you to participate fully in your own learning, ask questions of the instructor and participate fully in the same way as if you were in the physical classroom.

  • Those unable to attend the scheduled date and time of the actual class sessions, or those who need to miss a class or two due to previous engagements or unexpected illness, can watch any or all of the live-recorded video sessions on their computers, laptops, tablets or mobile devices and study at their own pace and in their own time.

  • Detailed instructions on how to access our distance learning components will be sent after completing your registration. There are no additional fees for this service. However, distance learners will need access to a desktop or laptop computer with a good quality web-camera (tablet devices and mobile phones can also access our live-streamed classes), a built-in microphone (most modern laptops have built-in microphones) or a headset with a microphone. You will also need to download and install the free Zoom software on your computer or device. Those accessing the video recordings will be able to do so with a simple web browser on any device.

Pricing options:

All prices in NZ Dollars. Prices remain the same regardless of your chosen method for accessing this course.

Course curriculum:

Week by week new material will be posted throughout the duration of the course. Video recordings of each weekly session will be posted here 1-2 days after each class.

    1. EarthDiverse Course Information

    2. EarthDiverse Zoom instructions

    1. 20230214 T1.1 Arabic 101 video

    1. 20230221 T1.2 Arabic 101 video

    2. 20230221 T1.2 Arabic 101 PDF

    1. 20230228 T1.2 Arabic 101 PDF

    2. 20230228 T1.3 Arabic 101 video

    1. 20230314 T1.4 Arabic 101 PDF

    2. 20230314 T1.4 Arabic 101 video

    1. 20230321 T1.5 Arabic 101 video

Additional course info:

  • Video and PDF content of class presentations or whiteboards notes are uploaded weekly after each live session
  • Begins on Tue 14 Feb 2023
  • NZ time: Tuesdays 6:00-7:30pm

Notes:

Those who cannot make the class meeting day and time either in-person or via live Zoom sessions may consider accessing this course through the weekly recorded video sessions. Class videos are posted within 24 hours of each live class session and are available for your own personal learning session on a day and time of your choosing.

Prerequisites :

There are no prerequisites for this course and anyone with an interest in learning Arabic may enrol.

Materials:

Course materials are provided to all registered students in the form of handouts, PDF attachments emailed to students, or digital materials made available to you for download. There is no need to purchase any additional Arabic textbooks for this course, although you may choose to do so to supplement your learning. You will only require a pen or pencil and a notebook for taking your own class notes. Any notes that our instructor writes on the class whiteboard will be emailed to you as a digital PDF file so that you can print these out at home and add them to your own notebook.

Testimonials

Arabic

Arabic 101

Scott Percy, Tauranga, New Zealand, January 2021

“I wanted to learn Arabic, however with work was unable to stick to the classroom schedule. EarthDiverse classes were emailed to me each week with a link to the Zoom video of each class along with a copy of the class notes. This allowed me to complete the lessons in my own time (and to be able to pause and review) and still have the ability to contact tutors if necessary. I would definitely recommend this format, which is informative, easy to follow and understand with the ability to go over previous lessons if needed.