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Syrian children learn standard Arabic in the Fouqué Library
Brandenburg / H.Sausan Alkhatib writes Arabic letters on the blackboard in the small classroom of the Fouqué Library. One by one, the students come up to her and write down the twisted characters with a felt-tip pen.
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“In Arabic, a letter has four variants,” explains the teacher who teaches the Syrian children from Brandenburg an der Havel in their mother tongue. Depending on the letter that follows, the character changes.
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The Syrian children in Brandenburg an der Havel quickly learned German
“Arabic is much harder than German,” says seven-year-old Alaaden. Like him, most of the students on the language course came to Germany shortly after they were born. Learning German was easy for the refugee children at their young age.
On the other hand, they regularly speak Arabic with their parents. But because they left their homeland before they were of school age, they have never really learned to write or read standard Arabic.
There is great interest in the language course at the Fouqué Library
“It is a pity when the children lose touch with their culture and language,” says Karin Warnken from the Fouqué Library, who has launched the project with Sausan Alkhatib. Families of Syrian origin in Brandenburg an der Havel are very interested. All places are occupied within a week, there are waiting lists for the courses for five to eight year olds and eight to ten year old children.
There are many dialects in the Middle East
Standard Arabic is a so-called lingua franca, ie a lingua franca spoken by people with different mother tongues. There are many dialects of Arabic in the Middle East. Often several within the same country. The spoken language in Arabic is also constantly evolving.
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Sausan Alkhatib was a primary school teacher in Syria. She teaches Syrian children at the Fouqué Library.
© Source: Franziska von Werder
“The dialects are sometimes very different from standard Arabic,” says Sausan Alkhatib, who teaches at a primary school in Syria and came to Havelstadt four years ago. Similar to how High German differs from Bavarian or even Swiss German.
Arabic course does not teach any religious content
“Standard Arabic is also the language of the Qur’an,” the teacher adds. Muslim children often attend a Koranic school in addition to a normal school, where they learn standard Arabic. “It was important for us to create a non-religious offer for Arabic here at the library,” says Karin Warnken.
Bilingual children often find it easy to learn a foreign language
The library employee sees a great advantage in children growing up bilaterally. “If you master two very complex languages like German and Arabic, it will help you in life,” she says. Warnke would find it sad if children could visit their homeland as adults and could not read newspapers or street signs.
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“This is often the case with young people whose grandparents came to Germany as guest workers,” Warnke explains. In the third generation of Turkish guest workers, almost no one speaks fluent Turkish. This is profitable: Growing up bilingual not only trains your cognitive abilities, but can sometimes learn another foreign language faster.