São Paulo – Brazil’s National Commercial Apprenticeship Service (Senac) is accepting enrolments for online language courses, including Arabic. Students are overseen by native teachers. The open course is intended for professional use of languages and open to beginners, intermediate and advanced students.
Offered in partnership with software development company Rosetta Stone, Senac’s online Arabic course has been available since 2011. Anderson Malgueiro, who manages Senac’s distance learning courses, told ANBA that unlike other translation-based methods, this course is all about immersion. “You learn the language the same way that a child does: through image association and by emulating sounds,” he explained.
That is why the course is recommended for anyone from absolute beginners to those familiar with the language to some degree. As students make progress, they schedule lessons with native professionals in chat rooms with at most four people from all over the world.
“You get to join students who are exactly at the same stage as you. That is why I say that in this course, you don’t follow the teacher or the other students; you just follow your own rhythm,” said Malgueiro. Senac advises students to set aside 30 to 40 minutes a day to do the exercises, and estimates that the whole course takes 100 hours to complete.
“But it’s ultimately up to you. We provide access for 12 months, but you can finish up the exercises in six months and use the other six to work on your conversation skills, for instance,” he said.
‘Classmates’ are added to a kind of social network. As they progress, games and chatrooms are made available so that they can interact.
Students can enroll anytime, according to Malgueiro. The Arabic course lasts 12 months as of the date of enrolment – i.e. the username and password enable 12 months’ access – at a cost of BRL 900, payable in up to 12 instalments. Students can use a computer, a tablet or a smartphone; Senac advises them to use the former two.
A headset is mailed free-of-charge to students who do not own earphones with an inbuilt microphone – which is a requirement of Rosetta Stone software.
Besides Arabic, courses are available in German, Chinese/Mandarin, Korea, Spanish, Latin Spanish, Filipino, French, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Dutch, American English, British English, Italian, Irish, Japanese, Brazilian sign language, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Turkish and Vietnamese.
Quick facts
Distance learning course in Arabic
Duration: 12 months (100 class hours)
Price: BRL 900, payable in 12 instalments
Find out more: http://www.ead.senac.br/cursos-livres/arabe-foundation/ (in Portuguese)
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
