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Lincoln Park High, Lindblom Students Head to Qatar To Master Arabic

By Paul Biasco | March 11, 2015 5:44am
 Lincoln Park High School students, from left to right, Maria Tkachuk, Emina Hajro, Samir Hadzic, teacher Ibtissam Attie, and David Isaacs.
Lincoln Park High School students, from left to right, Maria Tkachuk, Emina Hajro, Samir Hadzic, teacher Ibtissam Attie, and David Isaacs.
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DNAinfo/Paul Biasco

LINCOLN PARK — When David Isaacs was a boy, his grandfather taught him how to count in Arabic.

David, 16, never lost his interest in the language and is taking a leap into connecting his family history this week in the Middle East.

The junior at Lincoln Park High School is one of a handful of Chicago students representing the U.S. at a debate competition in Doha, Qatar.

"It's all about the family history, trying to find out more about that," David said. "I want to discover more. Maybe discover a long-lost family member."

David's great-grandfather emigrated from Syria, and he's now the only member of his family who speaks a bit of Arabic.

When he learned Lincoln Park offered the language, he said he immediately thought, "I have to. I have to take it."

David now frequents a local souq, or market, near Harlem Irving Plaza to practice different dialects and has been teaching his family how to cook and eat Arabic food.

"Sometimes I can go there and not even speak a word of English," he said.

He is one of four students in the school's International Baccalaureate Arabic III class now in Qatar for the debate and cultural exchange. Seven more students will head to the country next week for a purely cultural exchange.

The trip, which is completely funded by the the Center for Arabic Language & Culture and QatarDebate, pits four students from Lincoln Park High School as well as a team from Lindblom Math and Science Academy in West Englewood against Qatari teams.

"We are representing the States, so it's a nice opportunity, and they are competing against the Arabic world," said Ibtissam Attie, an Arabic teacher at Lincoln Park High School who is from Lebanon.

The students will compete in a series of debates with Arabic speakers on three topics: the significance of Qatar hosting the World Cup in 2022; gas prices and their link to the Arab world; and role of extracurricular activities in the lives of teenagers.

This is the third year the Qatari government has hosted the QatarDebate program.

Lindblom represented the U.S. last year in a larger competition against 22 Arab-speaking countries.

Lincoln Park and Lindblom are two of the six Chicago public high schools that offer Arabic as a foreign language.

Lincoln Park has about 140 students who are enrolled in the language class, according to Attie.

The Lincoln Park students come from a variety of backgrounds, but for most of them, Arabic is their third language.

For some students, it's an opportunity to connect to family roots. For others, it's a chance to set a foundation for international business or to gain skills to better study the Quran.

Samir Hadzic, 16, speaks Bosnian, as both his parents are from that country, and after studying Spanish for eight years in grade school, decided to enroll in Arabic at Lincoln Park High School.

Samir, who is on the trip, said he hopes to get involved in foreign policy or economics in the future and sees the Arab world as an emerging market.

"Chinese and Arabic, they are both on the rise, but it's kind of weird that two of the most spoken languages in the world aren't as taught in U.S. high schools," he said. 

Also, the beauty of the language drew him in.

"It's like an art at times," said Samir. "It's really beautiful the way it's spelled and the way it's spoken."

Arabic is a third language for the remaining two students on the trip, 17-year-old Emina Hajro and 16-year-old Maria Tkachuk, who both live in Lakeview.

Maria studied Hebrew for eight years before high school and said she was drawn to Arabic calligraphy.

Emina studied Islam in her youth and speaks Bosnian, as both her parents are from Bosnia. She is the only member of her family who speaks Arabic.

The four students practiced their Arabic skills and debate prep for weeks leading up to the trip.

The only problem may be while the students are taught modern standard Arabic, the formalized and universal version of the language, at the conference students from around the world will be speaking 22 or more dialects.

That's going to lead to some laughs from cab drivers in Qatar, according to Attie.

"It's really a nice opportunity for our students to prove themselves and to learn from others," she said.

  • An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the trip was funded by the Qatar government.

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