[R-G] Students Speak for Merits of Cool Damascus

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

See, also, Jonathan Shannon, "Humanity's Highest Need? The Politics of
Art and Culture in Syria" (a review of miriam cooke, Dissident Syria:
Making Oppositional Arts Official, Durham: Duke University Press,
2007):
<http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/shannon041108.html>.

<http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a6e4f1ea-a9f5-11dd-958b-000077b07658.html>
Students speak for merits of cool Damascus
By Anna Fifield in Damascus
Published: November 4 2008 01:58 | Last updated: November 4 2008 01:58

In the concrete forecourt of Damascus University, blonde Americans in
skinny jeans and retro sunglasses mill around in the sunshine among
Syrian students in white headscarves.

Americans, Czechs, Japanese, Belarusans, Germans, Koreans, Britons,
Malays: these Arabic language students are giving Damascus such a
cosmopolitan air that a visitor could be excused for forgetting
Syria's reputation for isolation.

The Bush administration dubbed the country an outpost of tyranny, a
state sponsor of terrorism. But now, thanks to its widely intelligible
dialect and to the rejuvenation of the old city – Damascus is becoming
the "Prague of the Middle East" – the Syrian capital is now the cool
place to learn Arabic.

"When I told people at home that I was coming to Syria to study, they
were really worried," says Leah Wawro, a 20-year-old New Yorker
studying Arabic in Damascus as part of her international relations
degree at the University of St Andrews, Scotland.

Caroline Guenther, a 21-year-old from Boston who is on the same
course, says: "We had a choice of Cairo or Damascus – and my mom
really wanted me to go to Cairo – but we thought this would be
better."

Since September 11 2001, western interest in the Middle East and
demand for Arabic speakers has increased markedly. The Central
Intelligence Agency in the US and Britain's MI6 are among the
institutions crying out for Arabists.

Alongside the bustling souk and the fabulous Omayad mosque in the old
city, cool bars and cafés with wi-fi have popped up, creating an
enticing mix of the traditional and the trendy.

"In the past Cairo, Tunis and Beirut were the centres for learning
Arabic," says Ahmad Haji Safar, director of the Arabic Teaching
Institute in Damascus, where 450 students from 60 countries study each
term. He says demand is so high that he turns away as many as 700
students each term.

Although classical Arabic – the language of newspapers and government
– is understood across the Middle East, the spoken dialect differs so
much from place to place that an Algerian and a Lebanese are as likely
to converse in French as in Arabic. Colloquial Syrian bears the
closest resemblance to classical Arabic, making it an attractive
dialect for students.

"I decided to come here because the Arabic is supposed to be better,
the most standard," says Sina Thiessen, a 22-year-old student from
Germany.

Tuition fees are only $300 (€236, £189) a term and the cost of living
so low that students can get by on $400 a month. Some students in
Damascus's language schools are Muslim, but as Syria gradually opens
up to outside investment, others are learning Arabic so they can work
for foreign companies in Syria or for academic reasons.

"I'm studying Islamic history in Japan, so a lot of the books I need
to read are in Arabic," says Megumi Okamoto, a 27-year-old graduate
from Kobe University who arrived in Damascus a month ago. "But this
culture is so different from Japan I'm a bit confused," she admits.

Doron Davda, a 24-year-old from London, says it was a "natural step"
to come to Damascus after completing his masters in Middle Eastern
studies in the UK. "There is a general lack of understanding about the
Middle East and this whole 'clash of civilisations'," says Mr Davda,
who will return to London to work in the government service.

In addition to the low price, Mr Davda says, Damascus has the allure
of being "a little bit intrepid".

"Everyone has been to Cairo and up and down the Nile but not many
people have been to the 'axis of evil' of Syria," he says.

Yoshie