You need both for anything in North Africa. The Arabic they speak in that region is always at least 20% French and is even accented by French. We have family from the region and are doing French as an attempted bridge. Also because of the Norman invasion, English has a fair amount of French and it helps on English vocabulary.

Arabic/French makes sense. My brother speaks both for his research work in North Africa.

And an Arabic/Spanish, Arabic/French or Arabic/Mandarin school might also allow for the cultural aspect to be focused on without as much focus on politics as the PP was concerned about, since there would be 2 cultures/languages/groups of countries being explored.

So amazing to have a school doing what Stokes does and offering 2 languages, with all the cultural opportunities that even the students studying the other language could engage in. One of the things I loved about the Haricots Verts conversations were that it would be a school not just looking at European French, but the French-speaking disaspora - ALL French-speaking countries. How cool to do that with Arabic-speaking countries and Arab influences on other countries, plus the same with a whole other language.

From a concept point of view I love it. I hope a group decides to take it on and for selfish reasons, I hope it's in DC!

Anonymous wrote:I would LOVE if Sela amended it's charter to teach both Hebrew and Arabic. That would make for an awesome school that people would flock to. The reason I am considering Sela is because learning Hebrew makes it relatively easy to learn Arabic.

I think from a sustainability and demand point of view, the smartest thing a new school could do would be to pair Arabic with an in-demand language, like Mandarin or Spanish. There are a lot of Spanish bilingual schools already, but there is still more demand than supply for Spanish. And people are waiting in line for hours to apply to Yu Ying, so obviously the demand is there as well and not enough supply.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We take Arabic on the weekends, in addition to the fact that my kids are older and would not be a target for this type of school as they generally start with the earliest grades I am not sure I would apply to the school. Frankly I would worry about the insane gotcha politics that have surrounded Arabic charter schools.

Can you give examples of the gotcha politics? I'm not familiar with that re: Arabic charters.

The Khalil Gibran International Academy received grades of 'F' for Student Performance and Student Progress. The charter school has 35 sixth-graders this year, down from 60 when it opened in 2007.

Since it was created in 2007, the Gibran school has had two locations and four principals. Founding principal Debbie Almonstaser resigned months after it opened, saying she was pressured by the city.

She had drawn controversy for allegedly failing to condemn the Palestinian intifada. Almontaser insisted her words and actions were taken out of context.

http://www.wnyc.org/story/123544-blog-controversial-arabic-language-school-close/

No one is allowed to have an honest dialogue about the Palestinian Israeli situation and it taints everything.

Very interesting. And very unfortunate. What if an Arabic school took the same posture as supposedly Sela is taking, and focus on language and Arabic culture but steering clear of the politics? Although, as with Sela too I imagine, it is VERY hard to "separate" culture from religion or religion from culture.

I can see how that would be challenging for an Arabic school, but from a "language demand" and employability point of view, Arabic has got to be a huge plus as a language to learn. I hope an Arabic school can get started.

I would LOVE if Sela amended it's charter to teach both Hebrew and Arabic. That would make for an awesome school that people would flock to. The reason I am considering Sela is because learning Hebrew makes it relatively easy to learn Arabic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We take Arabic on the weekends, in addition to the fact that my kids are older and would not be a target for this type of school as they generally start with the earliest grades I am not sure I would apply to the school. Frankly I would worry about the insane gotcha politics that have surrounded Arabic charter schools.

Can you give examples of the gotcha politics? I'm not familiar with that re: Arabic charters.

The Khalil Gibran International Academy received grades of 'F' for Student Performance and Student Progress. The charter school has 35 sixth-graders this year, down from 60 when it opened in 2007.

Since it was created in 2007, the Gibran school has had two locations and four principals. Founding principal Debbie Almonstaser resigned months after it opened, saying she was pressured by the city.

She had drawn controversy for allegedly failing to condemn the Palestinian intifada. Almontaser insisted her words and actions were taken out of context.

http://www.wnyc.org/story/123544-blog-controversial-arabic-language-school-close/

No one is allowed to have an honest dialogue about the Palestinian Israeli situation and it taints everything.

Anonymous wrote:??????? ?????
(That is "green beans" in Arabic).

My suggestion was based on the fact that some of the N. African countries where French is also much used language along with Arabic and English.

Anonymous wrote:We take Arabic on the weekends, in addition to the fact that my kids are older and would not be a target for this type of school as they generally start with the earliest grades I am not sure I would apply to the school. Frankly I would worry about the insane gotcha politics that have surrounded Arabic charter schools.

Can you give examples of the gotcha politics? I'm not familiar with that re: Arabic charters.