arabicindamascus.com > off the plane, get an apartment, get a cell phone, learn the taxis and bus system, enroll in the university, get an Arabic tutor -- all this the first day? Yes!

The most frequently asked question:

Are Americans safe in Damascus?

Go to the US Embassy website,
read what they wrote --

Frequently Asked Questions,
American Citizen Services

Is it safe for Americans to travel
to Syria? ... behavior targeting
Americans should be reported to
the Consular Section of the U.S.
Embassy in Damascus. ...
damascus.usembassy.gov/
faq-acs.htm - Cached - Similar

Information for Travelers

Frequently Asked Questions

(For the most recent information
and further information, please
refer to the current Country Specific
Information and warden messages
which are available at http://travel.
state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/
tw_3036.html
or http://travel.state.gov.)

1. Is it safe for Americans to travel to Syria?

The U.S. government has not barred US citizens from travel to Syria. You will have to make that decision on your own in light of your personal circumstances and the current Country Specific Information for Syria that you will find on the State Department s website.

In terms of crime, Syria is considered a safe country. Both violent and street crimes are rare. However, instances of petty theft and ATM/Credit Card fraud are on the rise.

Truth? Syria is safer than the United States.

Total the number of women and girls murdered, disappeared, beaten, raped during the Bush regime.

Total the number of men and boys killed in the United States.

What nation lives in terror?

Americans are safer in Syria than in the United States.

2. Are Americans subject to harassment or targeted for physical or verbal attacks?

"On September 12, 2006, the U.S. Embassy in Damascus was attacked by assailants using improvised explosives, gunfire, and two vehicles laden with explosives."

Truth? The attackers came from Saudi Arabia. A Syrian died to protect Americans. Other men suffered rifle wounds. A wound from a Kalashnikov is a life-changing injury.

Despite the defense of Americans, the Bush-controlled American media did not end the accusations of Syria as a sponsor of terrorism.

"Two destructive attacks against U.S. Embassy facilities occured in 1998 and 2000."

Truth? The Embassy employee who wrote the lines wants the reader to think the attacks took place in Syria. Actually, the attacks occured in Africa. Syria is not Africa.

Enrollment in the University of Damascus requires a letter of "good character" from the US Consulate. They will waste two days to print a form letter. And make you pay for the wasted days.

A question e-mailed to Arabesk:

I am a student of Arabic and Turkish Language in Sarajevo. Actually I am a beginner. I am very interested in to study Arabic in Damascus because I think that is a center of education when is spoken about Arabic World. So, please could give me informations about what is necessary to be a student at your faculty. Is there a scholarships for foreigners, when is description, and others official informations. I finished Islamic high school "medresetun", I can read and write Arabic. Also I know a Grammar very well but to speak is difficult for me. I think that the best way to learn Arabic is to live where is he spoken. So please give me introductions about descriptions and necessary documents.Thank you very much.

Reply:

Arabesk is not a school.

Arabesk offers services for students attending the universities and Arabic language schools in Damascus.

See the images of this website -- incomplete as it is -- to see some of the services offered.

( Patience with the incomplete website. Assembling all the details takes time.

Also, if you have access to YouTube, you can see videos of students at the Ma'had in Damascus. Type in study arabic in damascus, go to the videos.

You can also access YouTube videos through studyarabicinshaalan.com.

An e-mail in 2008:

Arabesk suggested I e-mail you with my questions.

I am a british Arabic student who would like to come to Damascus for a month to study the language in May.

I e-mailed the other study abroad programs. I want an intensive, immersion Arabic program.

I have been in contact with Arabesk and they wrote that I can ask you about their course and accommodation. I would be really grateful if you could tell me if you would recommend studying at Arabesk, and what the accommodation in the homestays is like. Any information would be very welcome!

Many thanks and best wishes

Reply:

For me, a marvel.  I studied in Damascus in 2006.  I wanted an apartment alone. However, in Muslim countries, most apartments are designed for families, not individuals. 

I could have rented a single room in Babtuma. But I wanted to live within a ten minute taxi to the university. 25 Lira. 50 US cents.

I slept on floors until I found an apartment. 

I paid $400 a month for two rooms on top of other apartments.  I lived and studied alone.  A very isolated existance.

This time (2008), rather than pay for days or weeks at hotels as I searched for an apartment, I signed with Arabesque.  ( With wars in Iraq and Lebanon, the prices of apartments for foreigners continue to rise. )

Arabesk? Fantastic.  For me.  As a man, they put me in an apartment with other men.

The office places women with families.  I do not know if they offer apartments of women for foreign women.

"Intensive, immersion Arabic program" ?

This is an "intense, overwhelming world experience." Arabesk dropped me into expatriate Damascus.  I have two tutor / roommates from Chad.  An academic tutor from Bokena Fasu. They speak Arabic, English, French, Gala. Their associates speak Russian, Chinese, Tajik. 

This experience is much, much different than my cold and isolated months of 2006.

Also, I had guidance when I dealt with difficult government details.  I've stayed since 2 February.  That required an extension of my visa.  A man from the office walked me through the chaos of the government desks and clerks. 

And in February, the zipper of my heavy leather coat failed.  Abdul Kareen from Chad searched kilometers of souk alleys for the exact shop where one man dealt with coat zippers.  $3 US to fix the zipper on the spot -- the next morning, as I went through falling snow to the Arabic institute, I very much appreciated a closed jacket.

Arabic will be difficult.  I don't know if you're a beginning student or a grad with two or three years of university Arabic.  However, the university will hit you with an entrance test you will never forget.  And from there, the classes move fast.

If you consider the cost of coming to Syria and the investment of time to learn Arabic, I don't believe you want the uncertainites of random rooms or apartments.  Some students come to Damascus, rent a room with a family or get an apartment and it all goes fine.  Others slam through disaster after disaster. You will not pass a university course if you cannot study.

The Arabesque office arranges all the details.  All will be well.

An Austrian student came into our apartment last week.  He arrived at two in the afternoon, he had his room at three, he showered, a man from the office took him out to get his cellphone activated and to tour the city -- and the next morning we took the exact bus to the university, the exact place to get off, we got his enrollment forms, and a man from the office took him to the required government offices --

Less than 24 hours after leaving the plane, he's enrolling in the university and working through the endless ( Arabic language ) forms. 

( Detail here.  Bring an international cell phone.  Be absolutely positive the cell phone will accept a foreign SIM card that will FOR SURE allow you to use the phone in a foreign country.  The Austrian company told the new man, "Oh, of course our cell phone will function in another country, of course of course ...."  What they didn't tell him -- the cell phone in Damascus would call Austria, then Austria would bounce the call back to Syria, then to the number he had keyed.  Yes, the cellphone functions, but at a Euro-plus a minute.  So, the fellows from Chad will set him up with a used cell phone good enough for his time here in Damascus. )

Will Arabesque help you?  Yes. 

Feel free to e-mail again.  I owe the fellows at Arabesque.  They work very hard and don't make much. 

And try to fly Turkish Airlines.  If the schedules of the planes mismatch, you get a free day in Istanbul.  Free transport to and from airport, free hotel room, you pay for food and perhaps a tour of the city.  A $1,000 value, cheap.

A question e-mailed to Arabesk:

Did you enjoy studying in Damascus? My main concern is that I will just spend the whole time studying, and not actually enjoy myself. The people from Arabesk Studies made it sound quite intensive. I realize that to learn Arabic (I speak no Arabic now, but have studied languages all my life), I will need to work hard. However, I also want to have a fun time.

And is it possible for me to volunteer somewhere to teach English?

How did you find it? Did you socialize with the other students much? What was a typical day for you.

Reply:

(I worked in Damascus six months this year, from April to October. I studied five months last year.  And before that, other stays in Damascus and Morocco.)

(I revised this July e-mail in December, 2009)

That morning, in Damascus, the call to prayer woke me at 4:30. That morning, I worked an audio program to learn complex Arabic phrases to surprise my afternoon instructor. 

At 5:30, I went running in the alleys of Al Midan, I saw one man I know, a few others walking to work.  Air very cool, I ran for a few klicks, through ancient apartments, back to our 1950's apartment, back inside at 6:30.  More study. 

Other fellows getting up.  Details of washing clothes.  Then it’s the university.

Message on my cell phone of a dinner party tonight at 7 for an English kid going back to London.

After the university, I walk through the souk and buy bananas.  I'll go over to a photo shop and talk with the girls.

And then I'll go back a hit the studies.  Bashiir the live-in tutor, a law school graduate and studying for his Doctorate in Arabic, will work with me -- and when he goes out to the mosque, maybe I'll go to the apartment of a 4th year English Lit student I know.  I talk academic English with him.  In the future, maybe August, after his exams, he'll help me with my Arabic.

In the evenings, I go wandering and talking with Syrians. Sometimes they invite me to their houses for dinner but I try to avoid the dinners – coffee and sweets are okay but dinners go on forever – and weight gain in Damascus is a hazard.

I don't socialize with other Americans or Europeans.  Damascus is the intellectual center of the Arab and Muslim world.  I talk with Africans and Iraqis and Muslims from the Central Asian republics.  I want to practice Arabic, they want to practice their English.  French is another common language.

With conversational Arabic, you'll meet many more people.  And teaching English?  EVERYONE will want to speak English with you.  Trade them English for Arabic.

A big problem in Damascus is weight gain.  So much cheap street food.  And the greasy spicey fast food is sooooooo good. However, I want to maintain a super healthy diet, fruits and nuts, but to buy kilos of dried figs costs the prices of 10 chicken roll-up sandwiches.

You will understand when you get here.  Concentrate on Arabic, measure out the wander and social time.  The details of life will eat time.  And Syrians will eat time -- they enjoy foreigners and learning how to say no is a skill you must learn.

And Arabesk puts on tours of historic sites.  All over Syria.

However, if you go to the Ma'had, they put on the best tours.  Very cheap, with people from everywhere in the Islamic world.  ( It's a government secular school but more than half the people are observant Muslims. ) I went there -- I liked the tours the most.  $7.  All day and night, crowds of strange young women in nikob.  Very interesting.

( I learned later that the Ma'had no longer put on the tours. Maybe they will in future.)

Go to YouTube and type in, American Professor studies Arabic in Damascus.  You’ll see me.  Or go to studyarabicinshaalan.com, then continue to the Ma’had.  You’ll see a line a videos about study at the Ma’had.

Study here in Damascus.  You will remember this experience all your life.  ( Cheaper than Cairo, much cheaper than Beirut.  Safer than Yemen. )

And volunteer to teach English?  You will need to limit that.  Everyone wants English.  Teaching English will take your days and nights.

Learn Arabic.

Arabesk makes it easy

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