Fall 2025 Course Descriptions
Arabic 111: First-Year Arabic
First-Year Arabic, Arabic 111, is a three-quarter sequence providing a thorough grounding for listening, speaking, reading, and writing Arabic. Using a communicative, proficiency-oriented approach, the course blends the standard Arabic, Fuṣḥā, and the dialect or colloquial language, āmmiyya, in a way that reflects the authentic practice of native Arabic speakers.This is an effective, logical, and economical method of instruction successfully teaching the complexities of the Arabic sociolinguistic and diglossic situation and preparing students fully for the realities of the Arab world. Students will learn: The writing system (alphabet), the number system, and about 200 basic everyday words covering self-identification, family, work, the weather, transportation, clothing, colors, and food.
PREREQUISITE: None
TEXTBOOK: Arabiyyat al-Naas, Part One, Second Edition: An Introductory Course in Arabic. Younes, Weatherspoon, Foster. (2023) Publisher: Routledge. Print ISBN: 9781138492868. (Unit 1)
Arabic 121-1: Second-Year Arabic
Second-year Arabic follows the integrated approach which blends the standard Arabic, Fuṣḥā, and the dialect or colloquial language, āmmiyya, in a way that reflects the authentic practice of native Arabic speakers. To develop reading and writing skills, we will be using Modern Standard Written Arabic called Fuṣḥā, which will be used in reading and writing; an educated spoken version of the āmmiyya of the Levantine dialect will be used to develop speaking and listening skills. The course focuses on culture and an overview of Arabic grammar; this includes the root and pattern system, verbal patterns, and case markings of nouns. Students will be able to speak about themselves, family members and friends, their studies, trips, and wants and desires.
PREREQUISITE: Arabic 111-3
TEXTBOOK: Arabiyyat al-Naas, Part One, Second Edition: An Introductory Course in Arabic. Younes, Weatherspoon, Foster. (2023) Publisher: Routledge. Print ISBN: 9781138492868. (Units 14-19)
Arabic 211-1: Third-year Arabic
This is an intermediate level class in which students will continue to advance their proficiency in Arabic language and learn more about the culture and the people of the Middle East. The course follows the integrated approach which blends the standard Arabic, Fuṣḥā, and the dialect or colloquial language, āmmiyya, in a way that reflects the authentic practice of native Arabic speakers. The course will enhance learners' ability to read, write, understand and discuss challenging authentic Arabic text from different sources. Students will learn enough vocabulary and idioms to hold short conversations with native Arabic speakers on familiar topics and discuss basic cultural ideas. Improved clarity and intonation will be clearly noticeable in students’ pronunciation, reading, short individual and group presentations
PREREQUISITE: Arabic 121-3
TEXTBOOK: Arabiyyat al-Naas (Part Two, Second Edition): An Intermediate Course in Arabic. Munther; Al-Masri., Featherstone, Huntley, Weatherspoon. (2023) Publisher: Routledge. Print: 9781138353114, eBook: 9780429434402 (Units 5,6,7,8)
Hebrew 111-1: First-year Hebrew
This beginning Hebrew course is designed to develop all four language skills (speaking, writing, listening and reading comprehension) as well as provide a cultural foundation. The course is based on Hebrew From Scratch, a comprehensive textbook with grammar and interactive exercise for the beginning adult learner. The instructions for the exercises as well as the translations of the vocabulary lists are in English. Otherwise, the course is all in Hebrew, creating an important immersive environment for the students throughout the year. Students will learn to read and write the Alef-Beit (Hebrew alphabet) in both systems, reading and writing, as well as the vowels. We will also cover the fundamentals of Hebrew grammar, pronunciation, and basic vocabulary.
PREREQUISITE: None
TEXTBOOK: Hebrew From Scratch Part 1 (in Hebrew: Ivrit Min Ha-Hatchala Ha-Chadash Alef) Shlomit Chayat, Sarah Israeli, Hila Kobliner. Akademon Press through Magnes Press, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 2012 ISBN-13: 978-9653501126 ISBN-10: 9653501127
Hebrew 121-1: Second-Year Hebrew
Second-year Hebrew is a three-quarter sequence covering comprehensive grammar explanations and examples as well as cultural themes. The purpose of this course is to broaden the students’ vocabulary, and to reinforce and expand their knowledge of Hebrew grammar, as well as to deepen their knowledge of Israeli culture. Class will consist of interactive exercises for the intermediate learner, readings in a level-appropriate difficulty with more information on Israeli daily life and reality, and listening in the form of songs and clips in Hebrew. Students will be able to speak about themselves, family members and friends, their studies, trips, wants and desires, etc. Students will read and comprehend basic authentic texts and write simple texts with increased accuracy.
PREREQUISITE: Hebrew 111-3
TEXTBOOK: Hebrew From Scratch Part 1 (in Hebrew: Ivrit Min Ha-Hatchala Ha-Chadash Alef) Shlomit Chayat, Sarah Israeli, Hila Kobliner. Akademon Press through Magnes Press, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 2012 ISBN-13: 978-9653501126 ISBN-10: 9653501127
Hebrew 211-0: Third-Year Hebrew:
Jewish Studies 279-0-2: Yiddish, Our Setting Sun: Yiddish Literature and Culture in the 20th Century
Yiddish, which was developed in the Middle Ages as a Judeo-German language, became the language which most Jews had spoken in East and West Europe until the Second World War. We will begin the class with learning about the origins of Yiddish and its development into becoming the most widespread Jewish language in Europe. We will then fast forward to the 18th and 19th centuries and the era of secularization among Jewish communities, where Western European Jews saw Yiddish as degraded language while among Eastern European Jews Yiddish became a language of bursting literary expression and flourishing literature. Persecution, poverty, the dissolution of becoming part of intellectual Europe, and Zionist ideology were all reasons for many young Jewish people to immigrate to the US and Palestine in the first decades of 20th century. While Jewish immigrants in the United States sought connections to Yiddish and clanged to it as a remnant of their old world, Yiddish was rejected in Palestine (and later in Israel) as representing the "old and weak Jew" and threatening the status of Hebrew. We will examine the texts of main Yiddish writers from the beginning of the 20th century in the literary centers of Yiddish at the time; Eastern Europe, United States, and Palestine. An important part in our class will be the geographical move of Yiddish from its "natural" habitat of Eastern Europe to the US and Palestine, and the element of loss and grief which was strongly present in the writing of Yiddish poets and authors, during the upheavals in Europe in the two World Wars, and especially after the Holocaust. Class materials will be comprised of articles and book chapters to provide the historical, cultural, and political context of the eras we will discuss, and of essays, short stories, and poems translated from Yiddish to English. No previous knowledge of Yiddish or of Yiddish culture or history is required. All course materials will be in English, as well as the lectures and class discussions.
Turkish 121-1