Hello!
ⴰⵣⵓⵍ (Azool)! Bună ziua! שָׁלוֹם (Shalom)! Terve! Здравствуйте (Zdrastvuytye) ! Saluti! Γειά σας ( Geiá sas) ! ¿Qué tal? Grüß Gott! Selamlar! چطوری؟ Olá! Bonjour! أهلا و سهلا
As a kid, whenever I was asked about what I wanted to be when I grow up, my reply was not to be a doctor or an attorney or an engineer or a pilot but to be able to understand every language spoken in the world! Well so much for childhood’s innocent fantasies since there was no library in my mountain village or even a decent language book at the time, and more importantly, no Anatole France around for encouragement (Nine tenth of education is encouragement according to him!).
And yet, childhood dreams have a way of never dying and they seem to remain with us lifelong regardless of the hands that life deals us, so long as there is a will combined with motivation and passion. As the prodigious Helen Keller is famously purported to have said: “we can do anything we want to if we stick to it long enough.” Today, I am thrilled and unfailingly blessed to be able to read, write, speak and listen to at least eight languages practically on a daily basis: German (Deutsch), Italian (Italiano), Tamazight or Berber (ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵜ), Portuguese (Português), Arabic (العربية ), Spanish (Español), French (Français) and English, while exploring and learning seven more languages: Russian (Pусский Язык : Ruskiy Yazik), Hebrew (עברית חדשה : Ivrit Hadasha) , Farsi (زبان فارسى: Zabani Farsi), Turkish ( Türkçe Dili ), Greek (Ελληνική Γλώσσα: Ellinikí Glóssa), Finnish (Suomen kieli), Romanian (Limba Romana),
My enthusiastic interest for world cultures along with my infinite passion for foreign languages had driven me to initially study Spanish and get a Graduate degree in Spanish Letters and Arts, then learn the languages of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German polymath widely regarded as the greatest German-language writer), Luís Vaz de Camões (Portugal’s national poet) and Salvatore Quasimodo (Italian translator and poet, Nobel Laureate) totally on my own stream, and not too long ago, started studying the other languages mentioned above.
I had taught Spanish for a few years at college level as well as French, Islamic history and culture in the Iberian peninsula and on Globalization before I started teaching Arabic at the DLI (Defense Language Institute in Monterrey, CA). Then I was lucky enough to make it to the prestigious Wesleyan University where I have been teaching all levels of Arabic in addition to several CLAC courses (Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum), namely on Translation, Islamic Spain en Español (La España Islámica), and Introduction to Tamazight ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵜ (aka Berber).
My academic interests and passions are quite vast and sundry and they comprise: Techniques and strategies in lexical acquisition of foreign languages through word, image, concept, and phrase associations; Translation and interpreting; general linguistics with a focus on analyzing and comparing unique linguistic features of world languages and making cross-linguistic connections; world history and geography; Islamic history particularly in North Africa and Iberia; international affairs; and U.S. law and the American legal system.
I am fascinated by the art of language translation and interpreting (and interpretation). In fact, I find myself generally incorporating the translation approach in my classes, in which I teach my students from the early stages of their language learning, to heed the most sensible and fundamental principle in translation non verbum e verbo sed sensum de sensu (not word from word but sense from sense) by the father of translation St Jerome (c. 340-420 a.d) widely recognized for being the first person in history to have ever translated the Bible into Latin, known as the Vulgate. If creating and producing language in the target language is the evident goal of language learning, nothing is more challenging as well as rewarding as translating a given text in the source language into the target language, as naturally as possible.
Thus, the translation method is an integral part of my classroom teaching philosophy which can be summed up in the self-made acronym Crafti (with an i) : Communicative language approach, Reflective teaching, Application of learned material on a daily basis, Fun learning environment, Translation method, and finally the Integration of the five Cs of Foreign Language Education (Communications, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities ) as outlined by ACTFL (The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages).
My research and projects include: Demystifying the Arabic language: “Tricks and Hacks” for learning and memorizing the Ten-verb Arabic Measure Chart, Pesky unstable and untranslatable little words in Arabic: demystification and common usage, Diaries of a country dweeb يوميات طالب قرويّ نجيب , Word and Image, concept, image and phrase associations as an effective tool in learning and memorizing lexicon in foreign languages, Thirty nine Common errors students of Arabic consistently make and how to avoid them (in writing, reading and pronunciation), and Revisiting the kinship between Arabic and other languages: Hebrew, Turkish, Spanish, Swahili and beyond !
Thank you!
Ευχαριστώ! (EfkharistO) Kiitos! Mulţumesc! Спасибо! Teşekkürler! ⵜⴰⵏⵎⵎⵉⵔⵜ! Danke! Obrigado! Grazie! Merci! ! תודה (Todah) ! متشکرم (Mutshakiram) ¡ Gracias! (Shokran) !شكرا