Berkeley City College is offering Portuguese and Arabic classes for students who have an interest in the languages, or who want to fulfill their language requirement.
“Portuguese classes will be offered for Portuguese-American and Brazilian-American students who want to acquire better language skills,” said Deolinda M. Adao, Portuguese and Spanish instructor. She explained that “BCC will offer Portuguese 1A every semester, and 1B every spring, and with those classes, students will be able to read, speak and write.”
Gaye D. Walton-Price, professor of Arabic classes, explains that “the public target of Arabic classes is two-fold: the community members who wish to learn Modern Standard Arabic for academic reasons, and plan to transfer to a four-year institution.
It is also for students of Arab heritage, but who grew up in the U.S. and did not learn the language as a child growing up, and those who are Muslim, either by birth or have converted, and desire to learn the language of Islam, which is Arabic.”
Walton-Price said that “there are also people in the community who desire to learn Arabic because it is one of the most important languages in the world today, and these people have an interest in and ambition for international business and /or policy that involves having a command of the Arabic language.”
1A and 1B will be offered at BCC, in the spring semester. Walton-Price also said that “eventually the modern language department wants to offer 4 steps to have a full two years of preparation with 1A, 1B and 2A and 2B.” The goal, he said, was “for those students who complete one full year of Modern Standard Arabic, the goal is that they are able to communicate at a basic level with information about themselves, education level, family circumstances, some personal goals and aspirations, academic objectives, and some ability with world events and information about Arabic—speaking countries.”
Students will be instructed in oral communication with listening and speaking, reading, and writing basic sentences.
