Mohammed

I’ve been taking lessons with Mohammed for many years and I owe much of my progress in Arabic to him. He tailors the class to me and focuses on conversational skills in Syrian dialect, using different conversational topics to structure sessions around vocabulary building whilst maintaining the flow of conversation - some more formal (culture, history, traditions etc) and others informal (idioms, travel, social occasions). We work with google docs to capture new vocabulary and phrases and he often gives me the etymology and nuances rather than just a translation (eg when the same word might be appropriate or less appropriate depending on the scenario / context). I have tried many Arabic tutors over the years and Mohammed is by far the most skilled and patient.

As usual, today's lesson with Mohammed was great. We mainly just had a conversation, pausing sometimes for Mohammed to explain a new word I hadn't know before. I appreciate Mohammed's patience, depth of knowledge, and attention to detail when addressing grammatical mistakes or explaining a pattern in the language.

Today was another great lesson with Mohammed, consisting mainly of conversation and continued reading of a new short story we've been reading, set in a small village in Lebanon. I learned new words including عَفويِّة (spontaneous), ضريبِة (tax), and صَبّار (cactus).

Es war die erste Stunde nach sehr langer Pause, und sie war wie immer wunderbar: Sehr angenehme, ruhige und entspannte Lernatmosphäre, ausgesprochen kompetente Lehrkraft, die sich auf die Bedürfnisse und das Niveau des Lerners einstellt. Sehr zu empfehlen!

Mohammed is an amazing teacher! He teaches from books that he provides, and he always adds extra context that makes the lessons more interesting and clear. Every lesson leaves me feeling more confident and looking forward to the next one.

Today was another great lesson with Mohammed, consisting mainly of conversation and starting to read a new short story (written in Lebanese Arabic). Mohammed is great at explaining unfamiliar words and concepts, and his fluency in English helps clear up confusions I sometimes have coming from an English-speaking background. Some new words I learned today included صَحَفي (journalist) and تَفاؤُل (optimism).