Description
Offered: Every Term
Our Arabic 300: Conversational Arabic course for continuing students is specifically designed for those who have completed our first and second year Arabic courses, or for those whom our Arabic instructors deem ready for additional conversational practice. This course is also designed for those who wish to continue their language learning through conversational practice, and for those who already understand basic Arabic grammar, can read and write in Arabic, and who wish to practice speaking in a safe and comfortable format with native speakers. This continuing course focuses on teaching conversational fluency, additional Modern Standard Arabic grammar, and reinforces reading through working with some Arabic literary works, such as short stories, poems and listening to Arabic music.
Conversational Arabic 300 meets all year during school Terms (provided there is sufficient enrolment) on Mondays from 7:30 – 9.00pm. Term 3 classes begin on Monday 1 August 2022 and run for eight successive weeks, with the last class of the Term held on Monday 19 September 2022. Our Conversational Arabic course will be held in the same time slot each Term.
Location: EarthDiverse Centre, 401 Anglesea Street, Hamilton Central, Hamilton (see map below under Location tab), on-line via Zoom, or through video recordings of our live-streamed sessions posted 1-2 days after each class. (Update: Please note that this course is offered as an on-line course only via Zoom.)
Note: Those who cannot make the class meeting day and time either in-person or via live Zoom sessions may consider accessing this course through the weekly recorded video sessions. Class videos are posted within 24 hours of each live class session and are available for your own personal learning session on a day and time of your choosing.
Students have three options for attending our courses once they have registered:
- attend our live on-line classroom sessions via Zoom at the regular scheduled day and time,
- watch the live-recorded class sessions at you leisure at a time, day and place more suited to your schedule.
These options can be mixed and matched throughout the course to suit your own availability and location.
Dr Leen Al-Hadban, is originally from Iraq, and her mother tongue is Arabic. She came to New Zealand to do her PhD in English Literature and ended up staying in beautiful Aotearoa. Leen is passionate about women’s rights, education and comparative literature, she enjoys working with learners and assisting them in their learning. She also works with Arab refugees and migrants as an interpreter/translator. She considers language diversity a significant bridge connecting people from different ethnicities and views literature and education as important tools in the fight against racism, and the progression of women’s rights. Leen teaches the Arabic Literature courses and Conversational Arabic for EarthDiverse (beginning in 2021 Term 3). When Leen is not interpreting for the Arab community in Hamilton, there is a good chance that she is hiding somewhere with a book, or getting her hands dirty doing pottery!

DISTANCE-LEARNING OPTIONS:
Please note that this is a live-streamed Zoom on-only class and can be attended by anyone anywhere. Live-streaming allows you to participate fully in your own learning, ask questions of the instructor and participate fully in the same way as if you were in the physical classroom.
Those unable to attend the scheduled date and time of the actual class sessions, or those who need to miss a class or two due to previous engagements or unexpected illness, can watch any or all of the live-recorded video sessions on their computers, laptops, tablets or mobile devices and study at their own pace and in their own time.
Detailed instructions on how to access our distance learning components will be sent after completing your registration. There are no additional fees for this service. However, distance learners will need access to a desktop or laptop computer with a good quality web-camera (tablet devices and mobile phones can also access our live-streamed classes), a built-in microphone (most modern laptops have built-in microphones) or a headset with a microphone. You will also need to download and install the free Zoom software on your computer or device. Those accessing the video recordings will be able to do so with a simple web browser on any device.
Prerequisites for this Arabic 300 course
- Introductory Arabic 101-104 and Intermediate Arabic 201-204, OR
- knowledge of Arabic sufficient to warrant enrolment in this course.
Please contact us via our Contact menu in the above menu bar if you are unsure if you qualify for enrolment in this course and we can have one of our Arabic instructors determine your eligibility.
Cost per person per Term (8 classes):
- Waged: NZ$150 (includes GST + online registration fee)
- Unwaged (unemployed, students, seniors): NZ$125 (includes GST + online registration fee)
Prices for Waged and Unwaged registrants remain the same regardless of your chosen method for accessing our courses. This means that you have the option to mix and match access between attending our regularly-scheduled live class sessions in our Hamilton classrooms, accessing our live class sessions on-line via Zoom at the regularly scheduled class meeting time (no matter where you are located), or watching the video-recorded sessions anywhere at a time and date of your choosing. This allows you to study at your own pace and in your own time.
Once registered, you have three choices for attending your course:
- attend our in-person class sessions in our Hamilton classrooms,
- Zoom in to our live classroom sessions and participate in discussions,
- access the live-recorded class sessions each week. This allows you to register for an entire course, even though the scheduled class session day/time may not be suitable to your schedule. You may also use this option to watch any recorded session for review, or in case you may miss a class session due to prior engagement, being away, or due to illness. This allows you to catch up with any “missed” sessions at a more suitable time.
Once registered, you will receive detailed instructions on how to access our courses via either of the distance-learning options, i.e. live access via Zoom, or watching the video-recorded sessions.
Course materials are provided to all registered students in the form of handouts, PDF attachments emailed to students, or digital materials made available to you for download. There is no need to purchase any additional Arabic textbooks for this course, although you may choose to do so to supplement your learning.
You will only require a pen or pencil and a notebook for taking your own class notes. Any notes that our instructor writes on the class whiteboard will be emailed to you as a digital PDF file so that you can print these out at home and add them to your own notebook.
LOCATION: Please note that this course, due to the current Covid outbreak, is offered as an on-line course only via Zoom.)
DISTANCE-LEARNING: You get to chose your location when you Zoom in to our live classroom sessions, or access our classes at your leisure and at a time and day of your choosing by watching the video recorded sessions from each class. This allows you to study at your own pace.
“I wanted to learn Arabic however with work was unable to stick to the class room schedule. The classes with EarthDiverse were emailed to me each week with a link to the Zoom video of each class along with copy of the class notes. This allowed me to complete the lessons in my own time (and be able to pause and review) and still have the ability to contact tutors if necessary. I would definitely recommend this format which is informative, easy to follow and understand with ability to go over previous lessons if needed”. —Scott Percy, Tauranga, January 2021