Why learn Arabic? Find a use for it....

My students ask me often , why should we learn Arabic?  It is a complicated language that we will never master!

At the beginning I used to tell them : Arabic is the language of the Quran and if you want to understand your religion and read about it first hand , you must learn the language. Arabic is a special versatile language that Allah has chosen from all languages to reveal the Quran in. and ....  but then they are kids. yes I can tell them that, but the majority wont understand the genuine meaning and importance until they are much older. ( Except for few indeed -God bless them) , only when they get older, they understand why their parents  dragged them in their weekends ignoring their morning wining, and forcing them to go to the boring Arabic school.  

How can I make learning Arabic meaningful, useful, personal, fun, indulging, integrated and in  the same time work within my limited time frame of only 2-hour class once every week.

I found the answer through a serious of actions that would lead to one big meaningful ending:

   The theater  المسرح

Starting at level 2, I always end the year with a play written by me and the kids are free to change and adapt it to their liking to make it better. In the play, the kids get to practice the Arabic skills that they have been working hard to acquire during the class time and in the same time find a purpose and a meaning to learning the language.

Theater is life and the Arabic language comes to life in our class.



courtesy of daminblake