Fremont charter hopes to start nation's first Arabic immersion program - San Jose Mercury News:
"It's 8:30 a.m. at FAME charter school in Fremont, and teacher Nahil Ireiqat is explaining to her Arabic I students like-sounding words, just one of many ways the language can ambush learners. Maktab (teacher's desk), she reminds them, is not the same as maktaba (library).
Even as the high school students learn the flourishes of Arabic script and unaccustomed sounds of the spoken language, they face the sobering prospect that after this year, they've still got about 2,100 hours of class left to master what the U.S. State Department considers an 'exceptionally difficult' language for native English speakers. Its written language is a challenge even for native Arabic speakers."
"It's 8:30 a.m. at FAME charter school in Fremont, and teacher Nahil Ireiqat is explaining to her Arabic I students like-sounding words, just one of many ways the language can ambush learners. Maktab (teacher's desk), she reminds them, is not the same as maktaba (library).
Even as the high school students learn the flourishes of Arabic script and unaccustomed sounds of the spoken language, they face the sobering prospect that after this year, they've still got about 2,100 hours of class left to master what the U.S. State Department considers an 'exceptionally difficult' language for native English speakers. Its written language is a challenge even for native Arabic speakers."
