The Holiday 2007 Session is upon us, presenting a chance for students to solidify their knowledge in shorter, six-week courses. These Holiday courses are only $150, or $250 for two courses. Check out our class calendar and find the right class for you!

Some of our most popular ten-week courses (Media Arabic, Elementary Readings & Conversation and our history courses, for example) began as shorter, holiday classes. In that tradition, we are proud to unveil the following new offerings for the Holiday 2007 Session. (Of course, these are just our new courses. You'll find all our Holiday offerings on our class calendar).

Standard to Dialect: Bridging the Gap All Arabic dialects share 13 key features with each other that they do not share with Standard Arabic. Understanding and adapting to these characteristics of pronunciation, grammar and word choice gives the student of Standard Arabic a foundation for understanding dialects and more casual spoken "semi-standard" Arabic. Taught by our resident dialectologist, Hashim Saleh.

Tabloid Arabic This is a hands-on, creative course culminating in a class project. Tabloid Arabic delves into the trashiest of Arabic media publications. Students will learn the vocabulary and style of celebrity gossip, front page fiction and overall yellow journalism, practice conversation about relevant topics and complete a final project: writing and publishing their own Arabic tabloid for the greater PAR community.

Introduction to Semitic Linguistics What are the Semitic languages and how do they work? How does Arabic exhibit features common to all such languages and in what ways does it differ? How did these languages evolve, and what are their relationships to other language groups? These are some of the questions that will be addressed in this survey course. Focusing on Amharic, Arabic, Aramaic and Hebrew, this course is a must for students of any Semitic language.

Arab Science and Philosophy: An Intellectual History The Arabs kept the flame of classical learning alive during Europe's "Dark Ages," preserving and enriching a priceless intellectual legacy for the modern world. Inspired by the works of ancient Greece and Rome, Arab scientists and philosophers made lasting contributions to human knowledge. Learn about these great Arab thinkers and their works in this historical survey course. This course is taught in English; no knowledge of Arabic is required.

Arab Arts in Action: Cinema, Song and Craft Join us for a foray into Arab art forms! In one room, a presentation of Arab films; in another, an exploration of Arab popular song. In the third room, a survey of Arab visual art through the centuries. Students may choose to visit any of the rooms each week. The instructors will provide cultural and historical background, lead discussion and help students to understand the words in the original Arabic. Taught in English, this three-ring "cultural circus" is a fun, social time. Open to those who have never studied the Arabic language, it is also an enjoyable supplement for Arabic students. A 50% discount is offered on this course for students who take a language course concurrently.

PAR is proud to unveil a new paradigm: immersion language acquisition. Too often, Modern Standard Arabic is taught as a dead language: students learn to read and write but very little emphasis is placed on conversation. PAR has always striven to teach MSA as the living language it is, imbuing our classes with conversation, games and drills. Now we're taking it to the next level by conducting all of our language classes in full Arabic immersion. Teachers will speak only Arabic for 80% or more of class time, leaving a brief period for English-based discussion of new grammatical concepts. Students will be expected to come to class having studied the vocabulary, dialogues and grammar, ready to listen carefully, employ what they've learned and learn more.

This new classroom methodology was inaugurated during the current Fall 2007 Session and, thus far, reviews have been great. Students quickly get into the spirit of it and find immersion useful and enjoyable.

Our faculty has been trained in the use of gestures, props, charades, cognates, context clues and other non-verbal signals to ensure that students can still follow the flow of the class. In this new paradigm, students cannot expect to understand 100% of the Arabic spoken in the classroom, but they can expect to learn more than they ever have before.

If you have time, please drop Eric (eric [at] pacificarabic [dot] com) a line to let him know how the new teaching method is working in your classroom!

Kirk has been studying Arabic at PAR since February and is finally (and happily) ready to end his relationship with Maha, as he's completing MSA 4 and volume 1 of Al Kitaab. Currently a doctoral candidate in Comparative Philosophy at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Kirk enjoys chatting with his instructors about Arab intellectual history.

On several occasions, Kirk's eagerness to continue discussions have led to group outings to local restaurants. If you choose to join Kirk on one of these outings, be prepared for hours of sparkling conversation over Asian food. Kirk is a delightful man, quick to laugh and learn ... and drum! Kirk is an accomplished player of the Egyptian tabla drum. It's always inspiring to see students like Kirk develop the language skills they need to pursue their careers and interests.

In our Fall 2007 newsletter we offered a $50 tuition discount to the student submitting the best name for our online vocabulary-building flashcard applet. Submissions to date have been few and, frankly, less than sterling. (We're not about to name the software "Arabic Hot Flash." We're looking for a name with a positive connotation.)

We're extending the date for submission of names until October 31. Submit your ideas to info [at] pacificarabic [dot] com. The winner will be announced in our next newsletter.

Our Holiday Session begins the week of November 12. The registration deadline for these classes is October 26 at 3 p.m. Take advantage of our early payment discount to save $10! You can register online, by phone or in person.

Register soon to avoid late fees and to ensure that your class will have full enrollment. Here's how it works for our ten-week courses during the Holiday Session:

• Register and pay in full by October 26 and pay $140 ($10 discount)
• Register October 27-November 2 and pay $150 (full tuition)
• Register November 3-9 (the week before classes begin) and pay $160 ($10 late fee)
• Register after November 9 and pay $170 ($20 late fee)

Remember, tuition for two Holiday courses is only $250!

You'll find our upcoming classes here ...