Marina Sarruf*
São Paulo – The Language Institute at Damascus University, in Syria, is getting ready to start a Portuguese course for Arab students. The classes are scheduled to begin after Ramadan, in the first week of November, and will be taught by Brazilian professor Paula Caffaro, licensed in Portuguese and Arabic at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and specialized in Arabic at the same university. The course is the result of a visit by the Brazilian minister of Education, Fernando Haddad, to the Arab country at the beginning of this year.
"Brazil has kept its word. We have taken the first step,” said retired UFRJ Arabic professor João Baptista Vargens, who developed the Método Português para Falantes Árabes (Portuguese Method for Arabic Speakers), to be used in the course. According to him, Paula was granted two scholarships, one from Damascus University for a post-graduate course in Arabic and another from the Ministry of Education of Brazil to teach Portuguese to the students.
The course will be divided into three modules: from November to December, from January to February and from March to May. The month of June will be reserved for final tests. The classes will be taught three times a week and will last two hours. The teaching method will be the book developed by Vargens and his post-graduate students at UFRJ, and will include a CD, to be used in laboratory classes. "This will be our first foreign language course to be taught at Damascus University using material prepared specially for Arabic speakers,” stated Vargens.
In the last week of September the professor was in Damascus, where he met with the director of the Language Institute at the Syrian university, Wael Barakat, who told him he was anxious for the beginning of the new course. “The Brazilian government is amply promoting the course in Syria. There are many Brazilians who live in Syria and do not speak Portuguese correctly,” stated Vargens.
According to him, the idea is to send a new Brazilian professor licensed in Portuguese and Arabic to teach the Portuguese course in Damascus each year. "The intention is also to expand the course to universities in Lebanon," explained Vargens. He also said that implementation of the course in Damascus is of great importance for the promotion of Brazilian culture in Syria. "The Arab country is so close to Brazil due to the large number of Arab immigrants who came here,” he said.
Brazilian language and culture
The book Método Português para Falantes Árabes, by publishing house Almádena, includes 26 classes on different subjects, like Carnaval, Football, Indian Day, Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, June Parties, the Proclamation of the Republic, among others. At the start of each lesson there is a song in Portuguese related to the subject to be covered during the lesson. After that there are dialogues that explain the theme of the lesson and the third part of the lessons is grammar.
*Translated by Mark Ament
