Berlitz Arabic Classes

Damascus Summer Encounter participants will take Arabic classes at the Syrian Berlitz Center four times a week, Monday through Thursday, in the mornings. The course will culminate in a final exam and result in a certificate from the center.

Berlitz is a language method created by a German linguist in America in the late 1800's. There are now 600 Berlitz language centers throughout the world. The Berlitz headquarters is located in Princeton, New Jersey.

The Berlitz method focuses on imitation and repitition, allowing students to learn a new language the same way they learned their first language as a child.

In the classroom, we will focus on colloquial Arabic (rather than classical), and no English or translation will be used.

Instead, students will put Arabic into immediate practice and communicate in the terms that they learn. Through this method, Berlitz has earned a reputation as one of the most effective language aquistion programs in the world.

Dozens of foreign ministries and large corporations, such as Coca-Cola, have used Berlitz as a preferred method to train their international staff.

In order to ensure small class sizes and maximum student-teacher interaction, no more than ten students will be enrolled in each class, so we may have several classes run similtaneously.

Berlitz defines language knowledge according to a 10-level scale.

Beginner speakers who complete one month of the Damascus Summer Encounter program can expect to obtain level 1. The fluency range of level 1 through level 5 students is described below.

Because there are Berlitz language centers all over the world, it will be very easy for participants to pick up their studies where they left of once they return to their own countries.

Level 1:
Knowledge of language is sufficient to communicate in a very limited way, with the simplest oral and listening tasks and situations.

Level 2:
At the functional level, users have a basic command of the language needed in a limited range of simple and familar tasks and situations.

Level 3:
Users can handle most uncomplicated communicative tasks and routine social and work situations. They can follow the general meaning of a conversation about familiar subjects.

Level 4:
At the intermediate level, users are able to refashion and combine learned material to meet their immediate communication and learning needs. They are able to comprehend information on familar topics in contextualized settings and produce sustained conversation with others on an expanding variety of general topics.

Level 5:
Users can, to a certain extent, initiate, sustain and conclude most routine communicative tasks for personal and work needs.