In our ongoing series of interviews with teachers and students, TeachStreet talks with foreign language instructor Bill Farhat about his many years as an Arabic teacher.

TeachStreet: Bill, your background is fascinating. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into teaching?

Bill Farat: I grew up in Kafarshima, Lebanon and when I was a young man, I worked as a desk clerk for a hotel in Beirut, which people would come to from all over the Middle East. The better I could communicate with them, the better tips I received. Let’s just say I was well-motivated and got my accents down perfectly for almost every dialect in the Middle East.

I moved to the US more than 30 years ago, but my Arabic is still very good - I keep up with Arabic news and watch Arabic television. Also, after moving to the States, I got my degree in Near Eastern Languages and Literature from UW, so language and teaching have always been of interest to me. I’ve had lots of other careers as well, but somehow, teaching has always been part of my life.

After September 11th, there was a huge need for people to be able to speak Arabic and Farsi, so my language skills came into even higher demand. I’d been doing court and medical translations but after 2001, I began teaching hundreds of GI’s at Fort Lewis, as well as doctors, lawyers and and other people going abroad.

TS: You mentioned that you’ve had lots of other careers. What are they, and how do they relate to teaching?

BF: Most recently, I’ve been in property management (buying, fixing and renting homes). Before that, I owned the Magnolia Village Bakery for 7 years.

As far as how this relates to teaching? Well, at the bakery we did every thing from baguettes to brownies to wedding cakes for people. If they needed something, I’d make it. That’s something that’s very similar to teaching I think. People come to me as a teacher with all sorts of different needs. My jobs is to figure out what they want and how to give it to them in a way that they will be most satisfied. Baking and teaching really aren’t so different. Although with teaching… you certainly don’t have to get up as early!

TS: Learning new languages can seem very daunting. How do you dispel anxieties from new students?

BF: Arabic certainly can be daunting, especially when you realize that Arabic dialects have the same variety you’d find between Scottish brogue, Shakespearean English and American slang.

That said, I try to dispel some anxieties by telling my new students that many English words have their roots in Arabic. For example, “alcohol” come from the Arabic ” alcohool“, “chemistry” comes from the Egyptian “keme”, “algebra” comes from “al-Jabr” which was a treatise written by a Persian mathematician. Also, many English words have transfered seamlessly over to Arabic: “telephone”, “television,” “t-shirt”, “auto-bus,” are all the same in English as they are in Arabic.

TS: What the hardest part about teaching?

BF: The hardest part of teaching Arabic is explaining letters and sounds that don’t exist in the English alphabet. I spend a lot of times repeating words very slowly for my students, so they can see my mouth form the words and understand exactly where the sound is coming from in the mouth and throat. Eventually… they get the hang of it. It’s hard, but we have fun with it as well.

TS: What do you love about teaching?

BF: My wife might tell you that I love teaching because I’m getting older now, and I like not having to work too hard. But truthfully, it is nice to have work that comes so naturally to me.

Even though this job doesn’t pay much, the biggest reason why I keep teaching is because it enables me to meet all kinds of interesting people. I also love seeing students progress. My favorite days are when a student has worked so hard to achieve something and then they finally “get” it; that’s a feeling that that money can’t buy.

I feel most successful as a teacher when I’m able to help others succeed and feel welcomed in the countries they visit. My students tell me stories about being invited into local people’s homes for tea because they’ve shown an effort to use the regional language. This story has been repeated to me from soldiers, CEO’s and travelers alike.

TS: Many people (myself included) have had little mishaps while learning a language. A personal favorite might be saying “Soy embarrasada” in Spanish while attempting to say “I’m embarrassed”. Of course, correctly translated it means “I’m pregnant”. (Yikes!) What’s the funniest language mishap you remember from your years of teaching?

BF: My favorite story is when a student was trying to write “Cairo” (Egypt’s capital city) in Arabic which sounds like “alqahira”. There’s a dot over the letter “q”, which she accidentally left off. Unfortunately, if you don’t include the dot with this letter, the word turns becomes “al’ahira” which means “prostitute”. We had a pretty good laugh over that one.

TS: Any advice for TeachStreet?

BF: I know that a lot of language teachers have “in’s” with language academies and community colleges etc, but I think that TeachStreet would be really useful for new teachers who are just getting started. Also I think it could be an interesting way for students to swap stories and ideas about teachers and classes they’ve enjoyed. I’d also say, keep it simple and as cheap as possible. Teacher’s aren’t always rolling in dough so making a site that’s both easy and cost-effective will win you lots of supporters.

The reason that I like TeachStreet is because it’s about creating community, and that’s what I do as well. That is the purpose of my teaching. I do it for the fun and for the community. I like that TeachStreet and I share that value.

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Bill Farhat is a native Arabic speaker who works as an interpreter, translator and foreign language teacher. He is available for private Arabic lessons (check out his Seattle Craigslist postings under “lessons“) and also teaches formal classes at Seattle Languages International (check out his class schedule here). Contact Bill at boufaris @ hotmail (dot) com.

You can also contact him via his profile page on the TeachStreet site.

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A few follow up items..

• If you’ve taken a class with Bill, leave us a comment and let us know what you loved.
• If you’ve always thought about taking a language class, tell us what’s kept you back? Your schedule? Cost? Location? Not sure if you’d like it? Thought it’d be too hard?
• If you’re a “class taker” or a teacher and want to be featured on our blog, e-mail me!