<p>I want to take arabic in college and JHU only has it as part of its Language Teaching Center. Is the teaching there as high of quality as if it had its own department?</p>
<p>There are two Arabic faculty members at Hopkins through the Language Teaching Center. Both are experts in the language and therefore you can assume a very high quality of education. It is still Hopkins afterall.</p>
<p>Lecturer Fadel Abdallah started at Hopkins this past fall. He was hired because of the growing demand of Hopkins students to learn Arabic. He has over 35 years of teaching in all levels of Arabic. Scroll to page 2 of this newsletter for a further bio: <a href="http://www.ltc.jhu.edu/newsletters/LTCNewsletter_Aug07.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.ltc.jhu.edu/newsletters/LTCNewsletter_Aug07.pdf</a>. (Scroll to page 3 for even further details about learning Arabic at Hopkins.)</p>
<p>As a current JHU student, I have high praise for most of Hopkins' academic departments, but the Arabic department is not one that I hold in high regard. I have several close friends who began their Arabic training here and are now in the "advanced" courses in the department. They constantly complain that final grades are inflated, and that they simply aren't at the level they should be at after studying the language for four years. </p>
<p>Granted, it is a difficult subject to grasp, but my understanding is that the proficiency achieved by a Hopkins Arabic student after four years would be lower than you would expect. It would not be enough preparation for something like a career such as translating or analyzing Arabic documents and communications for the FBI. For that, you would likely have to supplement your Hopkins training with something like the language programs at Middlebury College.</p>
<p>Don't get me wrong; this campus is home to some of the best academic programs in the world. It's just that I don't believe our Arabic program is one of those programs.</p>
<p>it feels so good not having to think about taking another arabic class after 14 years of arabic classes! i come from kuwait, so it's required that arabic should be incorporated as a requirement class.</p>
<p>My thoughts differ from those of redcrosseknight. I think the Arabic department has grown very well and satisfies almost all the demands of the Hopkins population. As the department as seen some expansion due to increased interest, I think Hopkins has done a phenomenal job of recruiting top faculty and not just mediocre teachers. </p>
<p>I think in general, proficiency for languages first taught and learned at the college level, there is a lower level of proficiency. One cannot expect to have 110% fluency without being immersed in the language for an extended period of time and JHU does offer study abroad programs involving Arabic which I think is quite a strong asset.</p>
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They constantly complain that final grades are inflated
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Sorry, but I don't believe you on that one. I have never met a student who complained that his or her grade was too high.</p>
<p>I suppose I shouldn't have called it complaining. Essentially they point to their test scores and missed assignments and wonder "how the hell did I get an A after such an abysmal semester?"</p>
<p>I could introduce you, but they'd probably be weirded out.</p>
<p>lol "hey, talk to these random people from this crazy college admissions message board"</p>
<p>Does it help my chances to any appreciable extent if I've been privately tutored for Arabic for a bit more than two years, twice a week now?</p>