'File No. 1/8 CENTRE OF ARAB STUDIES - JERUSALEM' [‎23r] (45/70)

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NOT-il ON THE N EWI\£AN SCHOOL OF MISSIONS. THARQR. J£RUSiiLEM .
I attended the Arabic classes held during the summer term
at the Newman School of Missions^ Jerusalem. The term was a
short one, commencing on the 21st of July and terminating on
the 31st of August# In all there were 30 working days (Saturdays
and Sundays being holidays)# Attendance was in the mornings
only, from 8-15 to 11-45 - divided into four periods of 45
minutes each with a 30 minute break for prayers and refreshments#
Lectures on such subjects as "The Life of the Prophet", "Islam",
"Phonetics", etc#, were also included in the syllabus and on
most Saturdays visits to places of religious and historical
interest in and around Jerusalem were arranged by the Mission#
2. The Arabic teachers were all Christian Arabs (male and
female). There were six teachers for the syllabus to which I
was working. I was unable to ascertain their actual teaching
qualifications but most of them were elderly and had been
teaching Arabic for many years. Three of my teachers were
particularly good. There were about 20 students (of both sexes)
attending regularly for Arabic study (others attended for Hebrew
which was also taught). With the exception of myself and one
other, they were all Missionaries and the majority of them were
Americans#
3# The students were divided into classes according to their
degree of scholarship in the language. Some of them had 1 been
studying Arabic at the Mission and elsewhere for some time and
others were complete beginners like myself. They were all
however there to learn Arabic with the intention of attending
the Mission classes for at least a year. The syllabus was
therefore arranged accordingly i#e#, for students who proposed
to attend regularly for at least a year. My brief attendance of
30 days raised rather a problem because, had I followed the
regular syLlabus and started with the beginners, I should have
covered very little ground in that short period. The principal
of the Mission (Hev.Bishop) took a considerable personal interest
in my case and arranged my lessons in such a manner as to
concentrate the regular syllabus and enable me to cram as much
as was possible in the short time available. Of my six teachers
I attended two regularly each day - one for grammar and one for 7
reading and pron^unciation. These two teachers were excellent
and I found my lessons with them were by far the most beneficial.
Except for the grammar lessons, which were attended by two
other students, I had all my lessons alone, as sitting in
class would have entailed my following the regular syllabus. /
The remaining two periods of the day were divided among four /and
teachers and my lessons with them were of a general/conversational
nature. It was with these four.teachers that I experienced some
difficulty. It was not possible for me to have them according to
a regular roster because of other classes and I found the • .
resulting lack of continuity rather a drawback to regular study
with them. It frequently resulted in m$i having one teacher one
day and then not seeing him or her again for two or three days.
Furthermore, the scope of these lessons was not definitely
defined but were, as I have previously stated, of a general
conversational nature. I do not mean this to be an adverse
criticism of the teaching arrangements or of the teachers.
It was up to me to take full advantage of the facilities offer/ed
and I endeavoured to do so. I found however that the Palestinian
colloquial Arabic was so different to that of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
that I eventually abandoned my efforts at conversation and used
my teachers for furthering my study of the classical. I also