Bio Dr Hala Farrag

Arabic:

"I studied several levels of Modern Standard Arabic with Dr. Farrag and a small group of other students online. Dr. Farrag's teaching was of an excellent standard and provided me with a foundation for MSA in order to specialise later in Levantine Arabic, which I'm doing now. Our classes were fun, friendly and informative, and Dr. Farrag was a patient, supportive teacher with a great deal of expertise. I would recommend her and her colleagues to anyone wanting to develop their language skills!" Leila

"I took Arabic classes with Hala and cannot recommend them enough. I went from the elementary to upper intermediate higher level and was constantly impressed with the topics covered, teaching style, and the small nature of the classes. Over time, we were taught more and more complex grammatical and syntactical structures and became able to read texts, discuss different topics together, and write small essays. I would recommend the course to anyone!" Maddy

"Dr Farrag was a great teacher for my Arabic studies and was always happy to stop and explain things where I needed. I was able to progress well through my Beginners Levels 1 and 2 courses whilst learning with Dr Farrag. I enjoyed the group lessons we had together and will be looking forward to joining her next set of classes." Joshua

German:

"Hala is an excellent teacher. Each lesson was very carefully structured to teach us new vocabulary and grammatical skills within the context of an interesting theme. The lessons followed the course books 'Menschen' very closely and provided opportunities to practise speaking, listening, reading and writing German (through homework). Hala was always encouraging and helpful, and answered any queries quickly by E Mail and returned written homework promptly with helpful explanations. I am a mature student and completed A2 and B1 courses with Hala and benefitted enormously from her expertise and kind, patient and thorough teaching style." Meg

"I found my courses, which were German at intermediate level, very useful and enjoyable. My tutor, Hala, was very good and put together varied and well planned out lessons, with homework to help learning in between sessions. My German partner and her family all said that they saw a noticeable improvement in my German over time once I started taking the courses!" Thomas Rigg

Hala was a wonderful teacher. She was very professional and covered the material in-depth. I would highly recommend her if you want to learn German. Marco

Hi, my name is Hala Farrag. I am a former Professor of comparative German-Arabic Linguistics at Cairo University, emigrated to Switzerland where I lived for about 17 years, before relocating to the UK in 2017.

Whether being in Egypt, in Germany, where I was granted a two years scholarship, or in Switzerland, a big part of my life was always dedicated to academic research, starting from my master about the translation of Thomas Manns "Buddenbrooks" into Arabic, my PhD about the stylistic features of the German and Egyptian Short Story, and ending with my German dictionary of Arabic rhetoric.

Alongside the research, I worked as a teacher of German as a foreign language at Goethe-Institute in Cairo that allowed me joining a semester for methods and didactics at it's headquarter in Munich. At the same time, I taught Arabic as a foreign language at the Centre of Orientalism of the Cairo University, and later at the Islamic Centre in Fribourg (Switzerland). From 2020 onwards, I started teaching both languages in the UK via Zoom, beside working as a translator for the Arabic section of swissinfo.ch.

I am teaching Arabic from the literacy course to the advanced level (in both Modern Standard or Egyptian Arabic). For the levels A1 to B1, I use the platform "Mastering Arabic" with its two books. The first six lessons present an admirable method to teach the challenging Arabic alphabet (even online) with prolific pronunciation and writing exercises. Further lessons cover texts and dialogues on daily life topics, including grammar rules and applying them with a wide range of audio and video exercises. The books also enlighten various culture and language nuances of different Arabic countries. From the level B2 to C2, I switch to the series "al-Arabiyya bayna yadayk" (Arabic at your Hand), focusing on more complex grammar structures, understanding and analysing texts on contemporary topics, and practising expressions orally and written.

Regarding German, I teach the levels A1 to C2, using the books and platform "Menschen" (People) of Hueber Verlag that - as the name says - aim to reflect everyday themes in the German-speaking countries. Beside the coursebook which contains the main texts and the grammatical focus, I make use from the various exercises and the audio and video applications in the workbook and online. My goal is not only to enable the students to learn new lexical and grammatical skills in a facilitated and enjoyable way, but also to practice these orally during the lesson, and to apply them written in their homework. Moreover, the interactive exercises on the online-platform enrich the learnt material and reinforce it.

If you are interested in joining a German or Arabic course with me, I will be more than happy to provide you with the outlines in details.