São Paulo – What was first meant to be just a place for learning has become a work and teaching environment for Shatha Jarrar, an Arabic teacher at the Institute of Language Studies of the University of Brasília (UnB). Five and a half years ago, she was a student in Portuguese classes at the institution, and then she had hoped to become a teacher there. “It was a dream that finally became a reality,” says Jarrar, who works at the university as a volunteer professor and is the wife of Ambassador Qais Shqair, head of the Arab League Mission in Brazil.
“Almost five years and a half ago, as I was entering the University of Brasilia to study Portuguese, I asked my husband, ‘Would the day come that I teach Arabic at this prestigious, reputable university?’” she recounts. “The answer with confidence was: ‘for sure.’” In fact, last March she joined the institution’s language teaching staff.
Jarrar is Jordanian. She studied at Yarmouk University, where she earned her PhD in Arabic Language, Syntax and Morphology. Syntax is the branch of grammar that studies the function of words and their relationships within sentences. Morphology studies the classification of words according to their characteristics.
Jarrar went through a selection process at UnB after submitting her resumé and expressing her “sincere desire to teach.” After the evaluation procedures by the college members, she was approved as a volunteer professor at the Institute of Language Studies and Unb Idiomas. Regarding the students and the classes, she says she has been “very pleased” to teachi the undergraduates.
Cultural exchange through Arabic and Portuguese
“They were greatly active, loving learning Arabic, and eager to learn. I was overwhelmed by their quick adaptation with the differences in pronouncing certain unfamiliar sounds for them,” she says. She explains that there are phonemes that produce sounds and pronunciations that are unusual for non-natives, but even with this challenge, her students have shown themselves to be eager and passionate about learning.
Jarrar has already taught students at level 1. Starting in September, new level 1 Arabic classes will begin, and in October, level 2 classes will start. She says she intends to implement the European standard for language teaching and reveals that, in addition to being a teacher, she is responsible for publishing a book on teaching Arabic exclusively for Brazilians, with three basic levels.
In her studies in Brazil, Jarrar identified over four thousand Portuguese words that have their roots in Arabic. “That is indeed an extra motive for me to teach Arabic to further spread the diverse Arabic culture, for an ultimate goal of a genuine cultural exchange with the rich derivative Portugues language with its vast linguistic lexicon,” she says, referring to the variety of words in the Portuguese language.
Read more:
Arabic, Portuguese: Similarities beyond language
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
