Spring

This course explores the musical traditions of the peoples of Central Asia, both in terms of historical development and cultural significance. Topics include the music of the epic tradition, the use of music for healing, instrumental genres, and Central Asian folk and classical traditions. Basic field methods for ethnomusicology are also covered. Extensive use is made of recordings of musical performances and of live performances in the area.

Arabic for business is designed to improve your everyday spoken and written Arabic and specially to promote fluency in business communication. This course explores the language of Arabic business as used in readings, correspondence, and documents. It prepares students for successful communication in the Arabic-speaking business world. The course builds upon students' existing knowledge with an emphasis on practical, real-life business applications of Arabic language vocabulary, structure and functionality. Additionally, its aim is to provide students with the basic cross-cultural understanding, and the accuracy in spoken and written communication necessary to effectively participate in the Arabic speaking business world.

Third quarter of Classical High Intermediate Arabic

The beginner’s course is the first of three sequential courses offered to students at the university. The course aims to introduce students to reading, writing and speaking Modern Hebrew. Toward that end all four-language skills are emphasized: comprehension of written and oral materials; reading of non-diacritical text; writing of directed sentences, paragraphs, and compositions; speaking. You will learn the Hebrew root pattern system, and by the end of the year you will have mastered the five (active) basic verb conjugations in both the past and present tenses (as well as simple future). This grammatical knowledge is complemented by an 800+ word vocabulary, which is presented with an eye toward the major syntactic structures, including the proper use of prepositions. At the end of the year, you will conduct short conversations in Hebrew; read materials designed to this level and write short compositions.

The course, which builds upon Introductory Modern Hebrew (first year HEB) focuses on the acquisition of proficiency and communicative skills in Modern Hebrew.

The purpose of this class is to expand and strengthen beginners' Hebrew skills so that they become more self-assured, communicative, and versatile when they listen to, read, speak, and write Hebrew. It emphasizes both communicative and cultural themes and focuses on developing a rich and active vocabulary in several language domains.

Media Arabic is a course designed for the advanced student of Modern Standard Arabic. The course objective is to improve students' listening comprehension and writing skills. Students will advance toward this goal through listening to and reading a variety of authentic materials from Arabic Media (on politics, literature, economics, education, women, youth, etc.).

This sequence concentrates on the acquisition of speaking, reading, and aural skills in modern formal Arabic.

Continue acquisition of basic Biblical Hebrew, emphasis on syntax; Increase familiarity with Biblical Hebrew poetry, emphasis on prophets; Continue acquisition of basic historical morphology; Reading ancient manuscripts.

Arabic Through Extensive Reading. In this course, students will read a whole work, most often, but not exclusively, a novel or play. Nevertheless, the course advances student proficiency in all 4 skills. Naturally, reading is a central activity of this course. Students in the Intermediate High range* can expect to either feel more solidly comfortable in that level, or to go beyond it to the Advanced level. Students will improve their writing through a number of essays/reflections on the novel.The course is taught in Arabic, so, students will be negotiating meaning amongst themselves by discussing the novel. In addition, the presentational mode will be exercised in a series of prepared class presentations. To improve their listening skills, students will work on video materials connected to the novel, testing their abilities through worksheets. While no new grammar will be introduced in a formal manner, as students read the novel and use the writing book, they will be reviewing grammar studied earlier. In addition to the novel, students will benefit from guest speakers in our classroom.

This is the third course in the sequence of "Colloquial Egyptian Arabic Language & Culture". In this course, students will engage in the activation and development of the language taught in the previous 2 courses through engaging with content domains of relevance in 2025. Students will activate their proficiency in colloquial Egyptian across all 4 skills. The materials students will read and listen to will be selected based on their authenticity and relevance. This input will help students achieve a practical proficiency in the productive skills (speaking and writing). The course will have a number of quizzes and mini-presentations, and one final creative project that involves all 4 skills (research, writing, listening, and oral presentation) as well as culture.