Whether you are tackling your language requirement or maybe pursuing language studies full time at Vassar, you will find yourself in the same boat as the rest of our student body. We all undertake the similar endeavor of learning a new language in some capacity during our time here. I admit that I have begun to enjoy my 9:30 a.m. walk to Chicago Hall for my morning Arabic class. I am greeted every morning by my lecturer in Arabic, Tagreed Al-Haddad, who never fails to make the intimidating task of learning a new language something to look forward to. I have grown to love my mornings spent in our Arabic classroom, and I think many others who take Arabic with Professor Al-Haddad would agree. This week, we drank our morning coffee in Chicago and laughed over the fact that we can both enjoy coffee well into the evening and still sleep soundly. She has spent many nights with a hot cup of coffee by her bedside, and admittedly, so have I—those late-night study sessions will do a number on you.
Professor Al-Haddad grew up in Amman, Jordan and graduated from the University of Jordan in 1990 with a B.A. in Public Administration and a minor in Teaching and Education. After her studies, she spent 12 years working as a school principal before obtaining a High Diploma in Education from the Al-Balqa Applied University in 2005. Shortly after, she moved to the United States to begin her teaching career at Vassar. Professor Al-Haddad has been teaching Arabic language in the Africana Studies Department at Vassar for 15 years now. “The language chose me. I did not choose the language,” she shared with a laugh. “They [Vassar] interviewed me, and they said, okay, we need your Arabic. And then when I came, it was like I found myself. This is my right place. I love teaching at Vassar. Teaching Arabic opened the door for me to discover myself. I felt like I was meant to be a teacher,” she explained.
As we chatted, she highlighted the importance of the Africana Studies Department, Vassar’s oldest multidisciplinary program. Faculty of the department includes professors from an array of fields and students from all majors, ranging from history to film to cognitive science, who find themselves taking Africana Studies classes. To Professor Al-Haddad, the connections and diverse backgrounds of students and faculty alike that steer the department are what make it so special to her. “I love to create this connection with others. Just to put students together, to learn more languages, they feel like there is a community. They have to know each other,” she said. It made me think back to my first day in her classroom last semester. I had finally decided to embark on the bittersweet journey of learning Arabic, training my brain to write from right to left, shedding tears over the massive amounts of grammar rules and realizing I would have to articulate alphabetic sounds I did not even know existed. Our class was small, only 11 students in total. We were strangers at the beginning, as many of us had never even seen each other around campus. In just a few weeks, we had grown to be friends, connecting over learning this beautifully frustrating language together.
I asked Professor Al-Haddad why she thinks language learning is so important for students today. She explained to me how important it is for students to recognize their connection and proximity in the global context. Language learning and cultural studies bring awareness to global inaccuracies often promoted through popular media, news channels and social media. “In my mind, there’s a lot of things, but from my experience, it’s cultural empathy and understanding. Especially nowadays with the world, what’s going on in the world, I feel this is very important.” She notes this empathy developing in real time as students become interested in the language and culture. “I enjoyed seeing them learn the language. I love teaching and learning—they are the best two things in my life. I noticed students interested in the language and in the culture, so I started doing activities and they enjoy doing it. I enjoy seeing them happy,” she said.
Nobody is immune to unconscious biases or predisposed assumptions about another culture whether it is intentional or not. The good news is that the human brain is malleable, and language learning can serve us all well in being more aware of what exists outside our own life bubbles. When you learn to speak with others, you learn to empathize, to understand and to connect. You might even learn a neat little fact about your own native language. Each time I say the words coffee, sugar, orange or algebra, I remember that they, along with hundreds of other words and phrases, were derived from the Arabic language. And, as you sleepily walk with a coffee in your hand to your 9:30 a.m. language class, think about all the cool movies you will be able to watch without subtitles one day.