User Archives: Araboh

ARABOH.com's brand new website is set to launch early July!

We wanted to give our customers the first sneak peek at the new site as we approach the last couple of development weeks...

Our new website offers so much more to ARABOH.com users: free resources and reading programs for educators, step by step guides for parents who teach Arabic at home, a large selection of educational activities to download, and a dedicated kids corner that promises to keep Arabic fun!

Stay tuned......

DOHA // Abbas al Tonsi sees something wrong in a future where citizens of Gulf countries wear dishdashas and abayas but are unable to speak Arabic.

“How can you say ‘I am an Arab’ if you don’t know the language?” said the professor of Arabic at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar.

For Mr al Tonsi, who has written several Arabic textbooks and has been teaching the language for almost 40 years, the crisis is personal. “I am afraid that after 20 years,” he said, “Arabic will just be a language of religious ritual.”
The native tongue for more than 300 million people and used regularly by 1.6 billion Muslims, Arabic is in no danger of extinction. But because of the dominance of English, its usage in everyday life is under threat in several of the Gulf’s smaller states.

A senior official at Qatar’s ministry of culture, arts and heritage recently acknowledged Arabic’s decline and underscored the seriousness of the problem. “Language is the key issue for the identity of a society,” Marzook Basher Binmarzook said last month.

Mr al Tonsi’s forthcoming study of Arabic instruction reveals how Qatari schools are helping to erode that identity. Standards are vague and not communicated well to the teachers, he said. “It’s easy to say, ‘Meet this level of efficiency’. But how do you guide the teachers to get the students there?” said Mr al Tonsi. “What exactly are the main ideas? In these standards, there are no indicators of intent, no uniform lesson plans or content.”
Secondly, he said, most of the Arabic teachers were inadequately trained and relied on outdated methods.

“The teachers mainly teach grammar, and it’s mainly teacher-centred,” Mr al Tonsi said. “They lecture rather than engage the students.”

Finally, schools use a wide variety of textbooks, which complicates proficiency testing. They also lean too heavily on grammar, according to Mr al Tonsi, and use simplistic drills that fail to develop critical thinking. Further, most books are overly proud and authoritarian, he said.

“‘We are the best, we are the bravest’ – you feel this is nonsense if you’re a young person,” said Mr al Tonsi, who co-authored Al Khitaab, an Arabic textbook used in about 700 universities worldwide.

In addition, fewer Gulf nationals are opting for teaching careers because of low pay and a lack of cultural respect. And a major reform programme in Qatar has instituted a more westernised curriculum.

Gulf culture has in recent decades shifted towards the West. Arabs represent a minority population in Qatar, as in the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain. English dominates business, and is more common in many public places, such as malls.

Many schools now favour English as the primary medium of instruction. And Education City in Doha, American University in Dubai and Sharjah and New York University in Abu Dhabi point to a higher educational system that is embracing English. Many students and their parents see it as the best route to success.

“Many Arab families now want their children to learn English before they learn Arabic,” said Jinanne Tabra, the founder of Araboh, a producer of contemporary Arabic learning materials. “There is this ridiculous impression that English is somehow superior to Arabic.”

But instead of becoming bilingual, most students in Qatar lack fluency in any language. In the past four years, only five to seven per cent of primary and junior high school students in Qatar achieved acceptable standards in national tests for Arabic and English.

He urged schools to improve teacher training and create extra curricular activities in which students could converse in Arabic – book clubs, speech groups, drama clubs and poetry readings. He also thinks schools should use audio and video as the main texts, and teach an Arabic that is challenging, enjoyable, respectful of young minds and develops critical thinking.

Maybe learning Arabic could even be fun. “You will never learn a language unless you are willing to learn it,” he said. “No one learns a language by force.”

Read the whole article here .

David Lepeska, foreign correspondent for The National.

مهرجان اللغة العربية في أكاديمية قطر ٢٠١٠

Highlights from this year's Arabic Language Festival at Qatar Academy

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قامت مجلة الواحة السعودية في الآونة الأخيرة بأجراء مقابلة مع مؤسس عربو دوت كوم جنان طبرة

ARABOH.com founder Jinanne Tabra was recently interviewed by Saudi Arabia's Oasis Magazine

READ THE ARTICLE HERE

الواحة هي مجلة سعودية باللغة الانكليزية عن نمط الحياة وتشمل مقالات تركز على الفنون والثقافة ، ومراجعات الكتب ، والأزياء ، والمنتجات ، والسفر. زوروا موقع المجلة على الانترنت من خلال الموقع التالي

(www.oasis-mag.com)

Oasis is a Saudi lifestyle magazine in English which includes arts & culture, in focus articles, book reviews, fashion, products, and travel.

اختيار جنان طبرة من أفضل ٣٠ شابا وشابة تحت سن الثلاثين في الشرق الأوسط

Jinanne Tabra joins Middle East's 30 Under 30

Read the English article here إنقر هنا لقراءة المقالة باللغة العربية

التمساح الأناني هو أول كتاب عربي / انكليزي للأطفال يتم نشره من قبل دار بلومزبري -مؤسسة قطر للنشر وهو الآن متوفر على موقع عربو. دار بلومزبري - مؤسسة قطر للنشر هي كيان جديد لشراكة بين بلومزبري للنشر ومؤسسة قطر للتربية والعلوم وتنمية المجتمع.

بناء على دعوة من مؤسسة قطر أفتتحت بلومزبري مؤخرا مكتبها في المدينة التعليمية في الدوحة ، قطر. تهدف الشركة للبدء في نشر كتب عربية / انكليزية للوصول الىنشر حوالي ١٠٠ كتاب سنويا،والمساهمةالفعَالة في مشاريع لتطوير القراءة والكتابة بين الأطفال على حد سواء لأغراض التعليم والمتعة الأدبية.

يسعدنا في عربو أن نوفر لعملائنا الأعزاء في كافة أنحاء العالم أول كتاب عربي / انكليزي لدار  بلومزبري - مؤسسة قطر للنشر والذي يحمل عنوان "التمساح الأناني". قصة جميلة من كتابة فوستن تشارلس ومايكل تيري والكتاب ذات طبعة محدودة.

ويسر عربو أن يقدم لكم هذا الكتاب الرائع الذي يحتوي على قصة معبرة ومرحة. اطلب نسختك اليوم وأستمتع بهذا الكتاب المميَز.

The Selfish Crocodile, the very first Arabic-English children’s book to be published by Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing (BQFP) is now available at ARABOH.com.

Upon invitation from Qatar Foundation this past year, Bloomsbury Publishing recently set up offices in Education City in Doha, Qatar. The company’s aim is to start up an English and Arabic publishing program that will build up to approx 100 books every year and initiating projects to develop reading and writing amongst children both for education and pleasure.

ARABOH.com is excited to provide customers all over the world with the very first release of BQFP’s children’s books, The Selfish Crocodile. This popular story, originally written by Faustin Charles and Michael Terry, is now available in a special dual language edition.

ARABOH.com gives The Selfish Crocodile two thumbs up for its fun story and engaging illustrations. Check out the book and buy your copy today.

صور من مهرجان اللغة العربية في أكادمية قطر، ١٠-١٢ مارس ٢٠٠٩

Photos from our Arabic Language Festival at Qatar Academy, 10-12 March 2009

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حظور كبير لمهرجان اللغة العربية في أكاديمية قطر

الدوحة: أستضافت أكاديمية قطر مهرجانها الأول للغة العربية الذي أقامته شركة عربو دوت كوم في المدرسة من الفترة ۱۰-۱۲ آذار ۲۰۰۹ وتوافدت الجموع من الطلاب والمدرسين والعوائل للحظور والمشاركة في هذا الحدث الرائع

ولقد تم التخطيط لهذا المهرجان من خلال التنسيق بين فريق عربو دوت كوم ومجلس أولياء الأمور لأكاديمية قطر

حرصت مؤسست شركة عربو دوت كوم الآنسة جنان طبرة على التواجد والتفاعل مع الطلاب والأمهات والآباء والمعلمين في المهرجان وتحدثت عن أهمية تزويد أطفال اليوم بأسس عربية قوية مبنية على آصالة لغتنا العربية والثقافة الواعية لمجتمعنا العربي العريق. وأضافت أنها سعيدة بنجاح المهرجان وخصوصاً تفاعل الطلاب مع الأنشطة التعليمية والترفيهية التي تواجدت خلال أيام المهرجان

وتعزيزاً للمبادئ التي تم تأسيس عربو دوت كوم من أجلها فقد قامت الشركة بالتبرع بمجموعة قيَمة من كتبها العربية بقيمة ثلاثة آالاف ريال قطري الى مكتبة أكاديمية قطر وقسم اللغة العربية في المدرسة نحو تشجيع تعلَم اللغة العربية للطلاب وتوفير وسائل تعليمية حديثة في المدرسة

وسوف تستمرشركة عربو دوت كوم في تنظيم مهرجانات اللغة العربية طوال عام ٢٠٠٩ في عدد من المدارس في دولة قطر. كما أن جميع الكتب والوسائل التعليمية متوفرة على موقع الشركة ويتم شحن الطلبية للزبائن في معظم بلدان العالم. وتقوم الشركة بالتبرعات السنوية للجمعيات الخيرية التي تدعم الأطفال في العالم العربي

تعتبرعربو دوت كوم حركة رائدة لتشجيع وتعليم أطفالنا على أعتناق عروبتهم بفخر

Arabic Language Festival Proves A Big Draw

DOHA: Arabic Language Festival by ARABOH.com recently hosted at the Qatar Academy received large number of visitors including students, teachers and parents.

The event was organised by the school’s Arabic department with the assistance of the Parent Teacher Association.

ARABOH.com’s 22-year old founder, Jinanne Tabra, was on hand to chat with parents and teachers about the importance of equipping today’s youngsters with a strong foundation of Arabic language and culture.

“Spending time at Qatar Academy has been a wonderful opportunity for us to interact with a diverse group of students. The activities we provide have been a huge success, and we are learning what gets kids excited about reading,” said Tabra.

As a result of the festival, ARABOH.com will donate more than 3,000 Qatari Riyals worth of Arabic books to the classrooms and libraries of Qatar Academy.

ARABOH.com will be continuing its 2009 Arabic Reading Festival in a number of Qatar’s international and Independent Schools. Products can be purchased and delivered almost anywhere in the world online at www.araboh.com.

With a percentage of all proceeds donated to charities that aid needy children in the Arab world, it is a timely movement to educate and revive younger Arab generations.

Read this story in Qatar's Peninsula Newspaper.