The Arabic Learners' Society

Wow. I met someone that drop out from SOAS for Anthropology, and a girl in my Russian course also drop out from the same course last year. I'm sort of happy not to be there . How is it, though? I heard some stuff like you're doing 2 Al-Kitaab a year, which indeed sounds absolutely awful. How is the course in general? I'm having second thoughts about Arabic as well and was wondering if it were just my course at my uni or Arabic in general.

I don't know what you mean by two Al-Kitaab a year, but if you mean SOAS coursebooks, then we are now almost half way through the second one. SOAS is a great place, don't get me wrong, and if you want to have fun, then live in Dinwiddy. But the intense nature of the SOAS course leaves you exhausted and wanting the weekend or holiday so badly. The course structure left me kind of disappointed. They teach you grammar grammar grammar from the onset of the course, and then they pile vocab (and by vocab I mean literally hundreds of words in a week) and just expect non-natives to pick it up and understand everything as soon as we cover it. There really is little room for understanding or empathy on the part of the lecturers or tutors at SOAS; but apparantly the non-native tutors are much nicer and more sympathetic.

I honestly think Arabic is a great choice for a degree, and the problems I'm having with it are SOAS-related, nothing to do with the Arabic language at all. Where have you applied to? I will probably stick it out, I was just panicking again last night when I wrote that, and it is the holidays soon to consolidate what we have learnt.

That said, I truly feel SOAS is the best place for learning Arabic if you want to be respected by native speakers. I have heard that on the year abroad, even Oxbridge students try to stay clear of SOAS students because we are so much more proficient and fluent in Arabic than them. At Oxbridge, culture and history is featured more prominently on their course if I recall, but SOAS does train you to become an excellent linguist. I am currently taking Arabic and History, so whilst we are beevering away at grammar and vocab, I have one unit a week where I am given history readings (on middle eastern history) and the two overlap very nicely.

I am currently doing Arabic (and Russian) at Manchester, and have the same problem about my course, we learn grammar messily and then they pile-up tons of vocabulary. Unfortunately I couldn't apply to SOAS because they don't offer Russian and there's no way I would drop it.

Tbh, I really love the Middle Eastern Studies part about History, culture, religion and all, but the language side is just so bloody messy it makes me want to drop it. And our year abroad is in the 3rd year, mine being split (the participe passe of 'to split' is simply: split) 6 months in Egypt and 6 months in Russia, and I was wondering about sticking with Arabic, because I will obviously have a worse level than people doing sole Arabic, but also than those doing sole Russian, and well, it scares me a bit, since neither language is exactly easy to learn.

I can cope with the course, but I'm not 100% sure I want to put that much effort in to it, partly because at the end of my degree, I feel like I'll be miles away from mastering Arabic whereas I know I can reach a good level of Russian. That has put me off a bit (ok, a lot), and I'm now waiting for my Arabic exams, and I think that depending on the results, I may drop it.

I don't know what grounding you have for that. it's so much harder to get into oxbridge than SOAS so oxrbidge students are much more able linguists and will learn a lot more quickly, plus the fact that we get an hour a week alone in supervisions gives much more scope for practise/gaining fluency. i dont about SOAS but here all my classes/lectures only have 10 people in them, so we advance very quickly. and abroad nobody will have heard of SOAS compared to oxbridge so i dont see how SOAS is more respectable?!
dont get me wrong though, i do think SOAS is an amazing place and seems fantastic for learning arabic.
and yes our course does have a fair bit on culture and history but this isnt at the expense of the language learning - they just make you work even harder.

and abroad nobody will have heard of SOAS compared to oxbridge so i dont see how SOAS is more respectable?!

Whoa, I wasn't disrespecting Cambridge at all, it's obvious it's an amazing university, you'd have to be insecure to defend it in such a vehement way. Yes, it's harder to get into Oxbridge, but actually SOAS is known more internationally than nationally. Most of the people on my course are white Europeans that came to SOAS because of its amazing reputation abroad. People have barely heard of the place in the UK, admittedly. Your classes have 10 people in them? Most of my tutorials at SOAS have the same number, and often less because tutorial groups switch around. I didn't say Cambridge was a less respectable place than SOAS, but our linguistic proficiency at the end of our four year degree is superior to yours. The degree is just so intense, most of the people on the course are beyond capable of getting into Cambridge, but see London and SOAS are way more exciting, less homogenous and stuffy etc.

I don't know what evidence you have that Oxbridge students learn quicker than SOAS students learning Arabic; remember, Arabic is one of SOAS' most prestigious courses, the most hours of study a week, and a high drop out rate leaving those that do continue with the degree to benefit from even smaller class sizes and more one to one attention. I didn't even apply to Oxbridge for Arabic or Oriental Studies, so I wouldn't know if I would have got into Oxford or Cambridge, but I am very happy at SOAS actually and I'm constantly on the go, working. I'm sure the life for Arabic students at SOAS is extremely similar to those at Cambridge or Oxford, even though you will be reluctant to admit it.

I don't think its easier to get into SOAS, iirc, the requirements for Arabic are now AAA.

i hardly gave much of a defense of Cambridge, only 4 lines, after which i said SOAS did seem like a great place... i for one love your library!!!

to be honest i dont think you can say with any degree of certainty that SOAS graduates have a higher linguistic profiency. i think anybody who uses their year abroad properly will come out as completely fluent, or at least this is what i plan to do... if anything the cambridge degree allows more focus on not only becoming fluent in Arabic but also in understanding the history/culture/politics of the region. maybe you dont feel thats necessary, but personally i dont like learning a language without understanding the region it comes from, for me it makes the learning more complete.

ok and what i meant by cambridge students learn more quickly is that because its so hard to get into cambridge, all the students on my course are necessarily very intelligent which allows the course to move at an alarmingly fast rate. on the other hand its relatively much easier to get into SOAS, so theres a large chance that there will be less able students on the course, which i always feared would slow down learning and just be a general hindrance and annoyance in class.

whether or not the people on your course could possibly get into cambridge is irrelevant considering you wouldnt actually know if they could or not, but im glad you like SOAS, im quite familiar with it and it seems great there, but i like my university and how academically orientated it is. cambridge isnt 'stuffy' or 'homogenous' though, those are just misconceptions. but i concede that living in london is amazing (but expensive )

hmmm but out of interest what grammar have you covered in your 1st term? i presume you're a fresher... so far the hardest thing for me is using the Hans Wehr dictionary, i guess in theory its straight forward but i always get confused, lol!!

but for soas the offer is something life 35 which i could have gotten with my eyes closed.

Anyone can do the alphabet in an afternoon if you sit down and concentrate hard enough.

Having said that, we did spend at least 8 class hours on it. Most of it trying to pronounce the eternally irritating ayn and ghayn.