May Ahmar

I knew Arabic was going to be hard, but boy was I naive. This course demands effort, passion, and consistent work. By the end, you will be able to read, write, speak basic conversation, and know basic grammar. However, despite me saying "basic", it requires hours of studying vocab, sentence structure, and grammar rules. Professor Ahmar is the best. She is stern and expects a lot, but it pushes you to try your best and truly learn. She gives extra work outside of the book, but it helps you long term and fills in gaps that Al-Kitaab does not touch on. Professor Ahmar is warm and kind. When I was dealing with a family emergency, she was extremely understanding. I was often behind in this course due to personal life things and other workload, but this did not reflect my respect for Professor Ahmar and love for this class. It was hard, but rewarding. If you are interested in Arabic and willing to invest in the class, she is the best professor you could ask for.

Ahmar is not an easy instructor by any means, but you'll come away from her class having learned a ton of useful Arabic. She prepares you very well for more advanced courses.

I didn't write a review about May for almost a year because I did not know how to explain her and did not know to what extent she had influenced my Arabic. She is an extremely capable teacher, and she knows how to teach Arabic to English speakers. I must say that the class is extremely challenging. May's class is probably about 25% harder than all other Elementary Arabic classes because she goes beyond the book in explaining certain grammar points, has us do much longer presentations, grades harder, etc. But because of this, our Arabic improved quickly and with much more precision than many. In Intermediate Arabic, May's alumni already knew most of the grammatical points that were supposed to be new. We also had done longer presentations and so were not afraid of the presentations that we had to give. She makes second year easy by comparison, which, depending on your constitution, can be either a good thing or a bad thing. May is quite demanding, and she expects you to learn on your own before coming to class. If you end up in her class, be sure to know the vocab before class because she will test you, and she will make a note if you can't form sentences with it. However, although she expects you to learn on your own, she is willing to go over difficult points with you (providing you make an appointment) and she has a knack for explaining things in a way that makes them easy d…

Everything previous reviewers have said about May is true- she is a nice person, tries to be fair, and tries (successfully) to make class engaging and useful. My only criticism of May is that she does not seem to know how hard Arabic is, and sometimes equates not doing well and not trying hard. I guess this is not an uncommon problem among language teachers, and May is no different.

I would recommend this class if you don't mind spending a lot of time on Arabic, with almost daily classes and homework you will be spending a lot of time. If you view speaking ability as the primary benchmark of language learning you may feel dissatisfied with the class, if you feel this way and take the class I would recommend practicing speaking both inside and outside of class. 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Spring 2025 Course: MDESUN2201_001_2025_1-SECONDYEARARABICI : MDESUN2201_001_2025_1 - SECOND YEAR ARABIC I Instructor: Ouijdane Absi

Differences between MSA and spoken Levantine Arabic, new vocabulary, new grammatical structures, a variety of historical and cultural topics relating to the Levant.

I took this class because every second- and third-year student in Arabic that I knew told me that they were in love with May's classes and if they had taken her from the start, they would have been 10 times better off in Arabic. As the semester is coming to a close, I can confidently agree 100%. She is an incredibly kind, witty, brilliant, educator and possibly the best teacher that I've had in my life (which is saying something). It's a good deal of work and requires effort--sometimes my brain hurts--but I have never felt lost in her class and have a better foundation in Arabic than three years of learning dialect on-and-off has ever given me. She's firm, which sometimes turns some students off, but it ensures that the class is productive and that we're successful. She's the kind of teacher who won't move on if someone doesn't understand something, even if they don't raise their hand. If you want your language skills to thrive then you want to take this class.

I have long graduated, but this woman still haunts me ever time I think about Arabic at Columbia. For non-native speakers, she's perfect, because she perfers to have those students in her class. As for native arabic speakers or muslims, she will tear your work to shreads. In the beginning, I thought I should just work harder. Nope. No matter how hard I worked, my grades would not move from C's to low B's. She never had any mercy and made us write a 2500 word essay for 2nd year Arabic, AND DID NOT GRADE BASED ON EFFORT WHATSOEVER. This woman has no mercy and has a bizzare personality outside the classroom (acts like she's your best friend.) I advise you not to take May Ahmar if you are Arab or Muslim. You will not do well in her class. You will go home and cry in the fetal position for years after you took this class.

A lot more vocabulary and grammar, including new sentence structures.

N/A 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Spring 2024 Course: MDESUN2201_001_2024_1-SECONDYEARARABICI : MDESUN2201_001_2024_1 - SECOND YEAR ARABIC I Instructor: Ouijdane Absi