Adult Courses

At first glance, Arabic looks an impossible language to learn. The tutor and her husband, who have spent many years in Arab countries, will help you unravel the mysteries and start you off towards speaking and understanding simple conversations in Arabic. This course for beginners will be conducted orally and with transliterated texts, but will offer an option for those who wish to learn the first steps of reading and writing.

Arabic, the language of Islam and the official language of 26 states, spoken by over 400 million people, remains a mystery to many - the apparently strange script, writing from right to left, and some sounds that a European voice finds hard to reproduce!

This course aims to remove that cloak of mystery, and to start beginners on the journey of discovery of this interesting and beautiful language. The focus will be on basic conversational skills, enabling participants to handle greetings (very important to Arabs) and a few basic situations: shopping, ordering a meal or coffee, getting help, etc.

Written materials for the course will be in transcription, although there will be opportunities to look at Arabic script and learn how letters are formed.

Sibella Laing

About Sibella

Sibella Laing, a qualified (Dip TEFLA) English Language teacher and teacher trainer, studied Arabic in Lebanon, and worked in universities and institutes abroad while accompanying her husband Stuart in his diplomatic career. Together they lived in several Arab countries, most recently when Stuart was Ambassador in Muscat, Oman, and later in Kuwait. On leaving the Foreign Office, Stuart was Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 2008-2018. He researches and writes on Arab and East African history. Stuart and Sibella, who have taught courses on elementary Arabic as lecturers on cruise ships, as well as at the Summer School in 2019, will deliver this course together.