Abderrahman Aissa
Adj. Assistant Professor of Arabic
Hello !
مرحبا و ألف سلام
As a kid, whenever people asked me what I wanted to be when I grow up, my reply was not to be a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer but to be able to understand every language spoken in the world! Well so much for childhood dreams since there was no library or even a language book available to me and more importantly, no Anatole France around for encouragement (Nine tenth of education is encouragement !). Today, I’m a hyper polyglot. I’m highly proficient/fluent in six languages, which I use and maintain on a daily basis, and in the process of acquiring ten other ones which I speak at different levels.
My enthusiastic interest for languages drove me to study Spanish letters and Arts formally and get a Masters’ degree in Spanish. My academic interests are Interpreting and Translation, linguistics, History, particularly Islamic History and Islamic History in Spain.
I have taught Spanish, French and Arabic as well as culture courses at several other institutions such as the Defense language Institute in Monterey, CA and the University of Colorado at Boulder, and served as an editor for the English-Arabic Zarah Magazine for years.
I am a firm believer of applying a combination of teaching methods in the classroom but I’m fascinated by the art of language interpretation and translation, which I tend to always incorporate in my classes.
I have translated Mutter Zunge (“Mother language” by German Turkish-born renowned author Emine Sevgi Özdamar) from German into Arabic (to be published). My future academic projects include a book on 101 Common Errors Students of Arabic Make, and a semi-autobiography titled يومياتي مع بني هرقن My diaries with Bani Hergen , just to name a couple.