Best way for a 7 and 5 yr. old to learn Arabic in a 1 year time period?

Question

We'll be in egypt for just a year. I speak only english and dutch, and the father speaks arabic and eng. However, the arabic speaker will only be around for a few days of each wk. limiting their daily, ongoing exposure to arabic. Their father automatically responds in english to them so they haven't learned much arabic at all. We considered placing them in a school w/ some sort of eng/amer. curriculum, but today I started thinking...why not place them directly into the egyptian curriculum for the full immersion way of doing things. It'll get to the main goal of egyptian culture and arabic language immersion much more quickly. Plus they are only in the lower grades of elementary school (entering kindergarten 2nd grade)...I can home school them for what will be missed so that they can be reintigrated when we return to the usa. what do you think will be the fastest way to get them up to speed that isn't horrible?

Answer 1

I wouldn't do that to them--the language, the culture, is just so different.  Why not spend some time each day learning together, and put up pictures of everyday scenes or common nouns and the arabic underneath the picture, and put it on the wall?  I just think the immersion thing will be too much for them and that you are underestimating how much they will miss out on, and will likely have to be held back.  There are too many other options--plus, household staff there is quite inexpensive so you will have to learn some arabic pretty quickly, and they can teach the kids some words.  We have friends who went to Spain for a year, and the schooling messed them up so badly that (1) they were miserable because they are smart kids used to being in the top of their class, and they no longer were, and (2) they were always the outsiders, and (3) when they returned to the US they had to be held back.  Truly an emotional and educational disaster, all done with the best of intentions.  Yikes.  Immersion is one thing if you're going to be there a long time--then it makes more sense--but you guys are just going for a year.  Just being in Cairo and getting to travel around Egypt will be what they remember--not the language.  I think you are expecting WAY too much of them.  

Why not talk to the US Embassy staff?  There's a big ex-pat US/Brit community in Cairo--find out what they do for schooling.  

Please rethink this!!

Answer 2

i don't agree with you .if yr kids will find difficulty in communcating with other people in school , that will have serious effect on them.

best way is to have some freinds around who can communicate both in english and arabic