Zai pursued her Arabic learning journey since February 2012. She first travelled to Amman, Jordan, to learn Arabic at the Arab Community College for five months. In Amman, she was taught by a native speaker, Uztaz Mahmood, the ‘Arabic at Your Hands’ series. Five months after her return to Singapore, her interest to further pursue Arabic studies heightened as she recalled how she could communicate
with locals in her first month in Jordan. She believed she had the ability to master Arabic, and then to teach it to others. Her aim is to master the language and to teach it to many others in a simple and effective manner, in a way that students will enjoy the sweetness of Arabic as opposed to being turned off. She then travelled to Morocco to Qalam wa Lawh Centre for Arabic Studies, situated in the heart of the capital city, Rabat. Despite the harsh cold winter, Zai battled the weather and lived independently away from her family and loved ones to strive to achieve her dreams. At Qalam wa Lawh, she was taught by several native speakers, who were supportive and kindly guided her to be able to read, understand and summarize heavy texts and newspapers. At the end of every level, which is every end of the month, she had to brave herself to stand in front of the school teachers and students to deliver a presentation in Arabic based on the new vocabulary and grammar learnt. Though presenting in front of a crowd in a language she was new to was challenging, she was always prepared and did her best to impress the judges and consistently scored well. It is evident that Zai did well during her learning period, based on the recent quote the school mentioned about her on the their page when they learnt she was featured in local Malay newspaper Berita Minggu for her Arabic learning adventure, “In the News: Congratulations to Qalam Alumnus Zaytuna for being featured on a local paper in Singapore. Zaytuna studied at Qalam for six months and was an exceptional student.”
After six months in Morocco, Zai was determined to visit an Arab nation where she could live in and be immersed in the culture, to use the Arabic language she have acquired. She chose to travel to Yemen and live in the City of Tarim, in a school where they had a forty days summer camp for ladies, mostly from the Arab nations, Africa, Europe, UK and South East Asia. She spent most of her time learning about the Science of Islam, The Biography of Prophet Muhammad, The stories of the successful women of Islam and many others subjects. As some of the participants who attended the camp could not speak Arabic, Zai enjoyed helping others in times they needed translation help and also tutored some of the girls while she was there assisting them to read, write & speak Arabic. In what was meant to be a forty days trip, Zai decided to extend her stay in Yemen up to six months. She was dedicated to share her knowledge and to transform the stereotype belief in people that Arabic is difficult and almost impossible to learn. Through her struggles of acquiring Arabic and her enthusiasm to help others acquire it with ease and enjoy the beauty of the language, upon her return to Singapore she crafted a program called, read.write.speak Arabic. She was invited by the President of the Singapore Management University, Islamic Business & Finance Society, Mr. Umar to run an Arabic Conversation program for the students. 80% of the participants were first time exposed to the language. She received a very positive and encouraging feedback from the participants. In fact, even Zai was impressed the learning techniques and skills she imparted to the students enabled them to speak Arabic through role-plays and dialogue exchange in the first 2 hours of the lesson. At the end of the six weeks program, they did a 3-minutes presentation to introduce themselves and use the new vocabularies and grammars they acquired. On 22nd April 2014, she was interviewed by Berita Minggu, a local Malay newspaper publication that highlighted her Arabic learning journey and henceforth, she has been running her program to individuals, groups and offer online lessons to locals and individuals abroad. She envisions leading a Trainer’s Team as a Principal Trainer. She is enthusiastic about developing young leaders and trainers to their best potential through workshops and seminars. At present, she is running a read.write.speak Arabic Intensif Program to cater for companies and individuals who would like to master Arabic in a short duration. Wana learn Arabic professionally or for fun? We will customize a class just for you. Contact us today!!!
