São Paulo – Twins Filipe and Lorenzo Barros started learning Arabic on their own when they were just two. The children have an above-average intelligence, with an IQ assessed at 150 for Lorenzo and 144 for Filipe. Four years later, their interest for the Arab culture, flags, geography and music only increases.
The twins visited on Wednesday (14) the headquarters of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) in São Paulo. They were granted a scholarship for learning the language they fell in love with four years ago. The course will be taught by the Center for Arabic Language with the support of the ABCC. Classes will take place online twice a week. Pictured above, Syria’s Yamam Saad gives the young students their first instructions.
The children were welcomed by ABCC president Osmar Chohfi and Cultural director Silvia Antibas. The twins were accompanied by their mother Aline Barros and grandmother Miriam Barros.
On the occasion, the twins also received items like the comic book Khalil produced by the Federation of Muslim Associations in Brazil (FAMBRAS). It is the first comic book to talk about Islam in Brazil.
Despite not having an Arab ancestry, the twins consume the culture from the region as if it was passed from generation to generation. They have playlists full of Arab artists, watch cartoons in Arabic on YouTube and asked for their mother to buy an art with the Arabic alphabet. “I don’t know where this interest came from, but when they were two, they started learning several languages, particularly English and Arabic, which they loved and caught our attention,” their mother Aline Barros told ANBA. “Even their birthday party this year they asked to be Arab-themed. We served baba ghanoush, sfihas, typical food,” their grandmother said.
Their intellectual giftedness also led them to attend a center focused on gifted children in São Paulo, where each children receives a unique drawing to represent them on the mural of the institution, and the Barros twins got the word “twins” written in Arabic.
Aline now seeks a school specialized in gifted children. “I’m seeking a school that can give them this attention since while other children their age are learning the alphabet, they already know how to write, so it may be hard,” she said.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
