FROM MALAYSIA TO EGYPT! STUDENTS TRAVEL WITHOUT LEAVING HOME
Centre for Modern Languages had successfully conducted a Global Classroom (GC) session for Arabic for Beginners (UHF1141) course. It was held on 23 March 2022 via MS Teams.
The participants of this event were UMP students enrolled in the Arabic for Beginners course in Semester II 2021/2022. The international guest lecturer, Mr Ahmed Taiseer Farghaly, Egyptian filmmaker, cinematographer and business owner of Abidos Factory in Cairo, Egypt had given his lecture on the topic of ‘Family Members in Arabic’.
The Global Classroom session was organised by Ms Rosjuliana Hidayu Binti Rosly, the instructor of the course with a number of 175 students participating. Mohd Amirul Bin Tahang, one of the participants commented “The global classroom promotes intercultural learning through online collaboration between teachers and students who live in different countries and locations". According to Afdhalisa “It is a good exposure for students to learn about the Arabic language with the native speaker”. Meanwhile, Yusri Sukri said, “Thank you very much for this golden opportunity, we can speak Arabic with the respective speaker and explore its culture. It was very exciting”.
The students were also exposed to Egyptian Arabic (Lughah Ammiyah). Egyptian Arabic is locally known as Colloquial Egyptian and is the most widely spoken vernacular Arabic dialect in Egypt. Egyptian Arabic has many similar features to Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). It was influenced by several languages, including Coptic (the language of pre-Islamic Egypt, which is now mostly used in Coptic Christian religious contexts), Turkish (Egypt was a part of the Ottoman Empire for 500 years), French, and more recently English.
Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is the standard literary Arabic that is written and read in every Arabic speaking country. It is based on and similar to Classical Arabic, which is the Arabic of the Qur'an and early Islamic texts.
Prepared by: Rosjuliana Hidayu Binti Rosli & Hamizah Binti Zahari
