Homeschooling in Egypt--Part 3

AMMAN—BAD START

We moved to Amman and spent about 1 week there before our trip back to the States. On one day I took the kids to a water park. It just happened to be on the same day that the ISC Amman summer program brought their participants to the same water park. What struck me is that the conversation between the students as well as between students and teachers was that it was all in Arabic. I definitely noticed it but decided not to be too concerned because I recognized this was their summer break and they weren't technically in school.

Once we started though that fall, we soon realized the make-up of the school was 90+ % Jordanian and we were definitely in the minority. Most of the kids spoke Arabic fluently and only my 3 oldest kids had had any experience in Arabic--not even a full year since we came in the fall. Even though it's advertised as an "English speaking" school, it's not.

I learned that lesson quickly when I went to a parent orientation on the first days of school. The school director was a British woman and while she talked she had another woman translating in Arabic for her. I wasn't put off by that because I realized there must be parents there that didn't speak English and good for them for wanting to have their kids attend a school where they learn another language than what's spoken at home (I was thinking of the Spanish immersion schools they have in UT.) A couple of others spoke--principals of the high school and middle school and the activities director. They translated for themselves. Very good. They knew both languages.

But then the principal for the Elementary kids got up. Her entire presentation was done in Arabic. I came to find out later that she actually does speak English. But I guess she didn't see a need to translate into English because I'm guessing she assumed all the parents were Arabic speakers since basically all the kids were. I was definitely put off by this attitude when again, they advertised themselves as an "English-speaking" school. The director herself came up to me afterwords and apologized to me. I'm sure she recognized my look of "I have no idea what this lady is saying."